Inis Oirr International

Just returned from a truly fabulous six days in the Aran Islands. I have sunburn (peeling nose), sore feet (blisters), mad hair (no hairdryer) and itchy legs (tick bites), the signs of an exceptional holiday. The weather was unbelievable - wall to wall sunshine - as we sailed into Inis Oirr on the Happy Hooker (really) it looked Caribbean - the sea was an amazing variety of blues, it was hot and a woman was swimming with a dolphin. We have walked our socks off - visited every inch of the three very different Islands, clambered over walls, sought out remote holy wells, marvelled at huge rusty shipwrecks, conversed with little white bulls in teeny fields, admired the famous drystone walls, gasped at the sheer variety of wild flowers (alpine and mediterranean) eaten incredibly well, marvelled at the impossibility of understanding any Irish ( a Gaeltacht area) and have survived two flights, two ferry journeys and a day on bikes.
This was our jet this morning. First we walked along the beach to have breakfast, then we walked back along the beach towards the airport, stopping to watch the children in the primary school have an outdoor tin whistle lesson. We arrived at Inis Oirr aiport (see back building!) only to find it was closed. Being English we had allowed 45 minutes check in time.! With about 10 minutes to spare a woman arrived, unlocked the aiport, weighed our bags, weighed us and assured us all was grand. It was. Here she is escorting us onto the plane. 8 people plus pilot squeezed in and we soared at 200 ft over a startling blue sky, a pod of dolphins below us. The flight to Inis Maan was about 3 minutes, a quick stop to collect two more passengers, a tremendous rattle along a very short runway ending in the sea and then another 6 minutes over to Connemara. A long drive home and now exhausted, back blips and catch up tomorrow.
PS just look at that sky!