On to Sligo

I wish I had booked longer in Connemara but hindsight is a wonderful thing. After fond farewells to the family we drove up to Killary Harbour which is Ireland's 'only true fjord'. It was beautiful and calm.

We then drove through the Doolough valley and stopped to read the famine memorial. In 1849 local people, already starving were forced to walk 20 miles to attend an inspection and get famine relief. Many died on the journey. A walk takes place annually to commemorate this event and to reflect on those who live with starvation around the world in the present time. It was a beautiful drive but marred for me in the passenger seat thinking how far it was for those people to walk.

We continued along the Wild Atlantic Way and passed through a small hamlet called Lahardane which had some signs about it's association with the Titanic. We whizzed past a statue of several people with suitcases waving. Later I googled it and discovered that there was a population of 200 and 14 left on the Titanic. Only 3 survived. After many years of the traumatised villagers refusing to speak about the tragedy the village is now trading on it's history and hss become a tourist attraction.

Downpatrick Head was our final stop. This is famous for a stack which became separated and a large blowhole.

We checked in to our airbnb in Strandhill which is a hip and happening seaside village near the town of Sligo. The house we are staying in is owned by a lady who works as a nurse on carribean cruises and is rarely home. Our hosts are her daughter, Kelsey (part time student, part time health care assistant) and her fiance Bob (part time student, part time restaurant worker), their housemate Josh and their cat Luna and dog Marlow. (I mention the pets as they were underfoot whenever we used the kitchen and last night Luna ate some of our dinner, (except the mushrooms which she obviously doesn't like) from a saucepan with the lid on. Needless to say that meal had to go into the bin.)

View of the ocean from the house;

We walked down to the beach pausing to listen to two young boys playing drums and saxaphone.

We followed a loop walk alongside the sand dunes and ended up walking over 6km but it was good after our long drive.

The village is dominated by Knocknarea which we planned to climb during our stay;