The Cliffs of Moher

For a small island country, Ireland has such a variety of landscapes. We visited the cliffs of Moher on the west coast and the views were spectacular. There are tall cliffs jutting straight out of the Atlantic ocean and you can see the layers of rock that have been ravaged by the tide and the wind over centuries. On top of these very rough-looking cliffs are grassy meadows where cows graze! There was someone playing an Irish tune on his flute as we walked up to the cliffs, so that made it even more enjoyable.

The cliffs rise over 200 metres out of the water. We could see birds circling the waters below us, and at one point we even saw a small tourist plane flying at about the same height as us!

The Burren was only a short drive away, but the landscape looked more like something from the Moon.

Cracked limestone boulders stretched to the mountains on one side and the ocean on the other. We walked around for a while and the rocks were jagged and sharp in some spots and smooth in others.

You could see how life has a way of forcing its way through the hardest rock. We saw clumps of wild flowers and grass growing in isolated spots all around. It deserves the nickname of “The world’s largest rock garden”.

Later in the evening we went out for a Baha’i meeting and had what seemed like straightforward directions to get to the person’s home. Well, after driving around for an hour, we found ourselves back to almost the same place where we had started! We had been going around in circles. I blame the Irish roundabouts! We also did not have a good map or a cell phone, which may have contributed to this. After stopping several times for directions and getting more disoriented, we finally found the address. By the time we arrived the meeting was pretty much over, but we had time to socialize with everyone and had a good laugh about it.

When we got back we saw that Elizabeth and Luke were still up. A call from one of the Baha’is, asking if we were on our way, had them wondering about us so they were relieved to see us back. We had a midnight snack together and had a good laugh before going to bed.

NM