Last day

I give up. I didn't see a wee old Irishman in a flat cap drinking Guinness today, nor yet did I see peat diggers, but we did see some Irish dancing in the pub!

We saw peat diggers the first few days, and I should have stopped and got a shot then, as they then disappeared. Peat digging is a big controversy, we hear from the locals. The EU have passed a directive that nobody is allowed to dig it, peatbogs are an environmental resource. This is like a red rag to a bull!! The people here have been digging peat on the common land for centuries, and will continue to do so despite some directive from a far off bureaucrat. There were lots of f words from our man in the pub, Paraic, when he spoke about this.

We had lunch in a wee place round the coast. A few houses and a pub. Funnily enough. JR has just read a random book on the Kindle, and the first line was 'I was born in Connemara'. The author's parents are buried in the very same, tiny cemetery that we could see from the pub. Spooky or what...

We were the only people in the pub for ages, then suddenly it was crowded. Several groups of ladies, who seemed to know each other, came in, and all spoke Irish. One lady had on a rather fetching outfit including very short shorts and a pair of nice red leather shoes with fancy laces and pink socks. As they were paying at the bar on the way out, she began doing a wee jig, and I realised they were proper dancing shoes. They had all been at the dancing class. So we did see a bit of Irish dancing after all!

We drove on to find the beach we'd missed last time. It was down a long track, but we eventually found it, and it was just wonderful. White sand, big flat easily climb-able rocks, clear blue sea. I clambered up on some rocks to get a view of the mountains as well.

There was the obligatory donkey, who hee-hawed loudly, then did a few rollovers when he saw us stopping. I gave him a bit of apple. I could have blipped a cute donkey every day! Now that would have been a fine thing.