After the full-on day we had yesterday we decided to have a really easy one today. The weather agreed that we shouldn't aim too high, too; it's been grey, cold, windy and showery all day long.
Even though we've only moved about 110km around Galway Bay the planned easy day was somewhat counterpunched by the nature of the drive. The N roads around the Burren area in particular are very narrow and were today very busy. The incessant parade of oncoming huge coaches in particular - presumably Cliffs of Moher bound - made for countless stops and bury-it-in-the-hedge style pull overs. The area around Galway city too was absolutely rammed and it's fair to say full concentration has been the order of the day's drive. I was personally barely even able to glance at the huge and always-impressive limestone slabs of the Burren for fear of catching the edge of the road and being dragged into a ditch.
As a point of interest, it does seem to be a feature of many Irish cars that the nearside is in palpably worse condition scrapes-and-dings wise than the offside. Buffering along hedgerows appears to be perfectly normal.
After about three hours of hgv-driving-test levels of concentration, we arrived at a place we've used a couple of times before in the heart of the Connemara. I really like this region, it's barren and mountainous but punctuated with some really delightful rocky bays and countless jewel-like peaty pools.
The place we're planning to sleep has a commanding view over a lovely tidal bay and has previously been good for seals and otter. It's been underwhelming natural-history wise today, though, with a couple of common seals, one common gull, wheatear and the more expected gulls and waders being about as good as it's got.
Though the natural-history interest has been slow we have been kept on our toes by flaming motorcaravan and stealth-van types.
Several have slowed right down as they've gone by and obviously been weighing the possibility of squeezing by us or parking right next to / behind us. One pair of Austrian vans stopped fully and the occupants had a tromp about for more than five minutes clearly deliberating whether they could squeeze in front of us. Fortunately, having seen the chaos of crammed-in vans at places like this over the past few days, I'd positioned the truck defensively and - ultimately - we did manage to remain alone.
This caper really isn't what it used to be. It would appear that it's now something of a norm to actively seek out spots in which to cram together sardine-like to presumably discuss with fellow travellers how good the spot would have been if it hadn't been turned into a noisy eyesore*.
Watch the backlash follow ...
Post composed at 22:05 on Sunday 26th July from our intended overnighting spot N 53.33706°, W 09.55984° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:53.33706%2C-09.55984
*As a matter of interest I later checked and - sure enough - the spot we're currently at now features on the 'Park4Night' website; and probably many other such TurnPlacesToShite-type platforms. I can't see how it's described on the particular clownshoes platform named as subscription is required before it's possible to see exactly what tripe appears in the summary and reviews.
I guess that's the last time we'll ever stop here: or most other places around the coast of Ireland. What a crapfest.
