I used to measure the pockets of my life by the regrets I've made: often times I wish I was suspended in time, pausing and rewinding and crying while ultimately undoing cobbled street nights in Oxford, phone calls to post-earthquake Japan, the pretend high in my mind at 3am talking about the saddest song (note: Let It Die by Feist) I knew.
But now I do the unimaginable - walk on craters and live in the sky.
(You can read my previous Wild Atlantic Way travels here!)
Poetic metaphors aside, welcome back to the third part of the great Wild Atlantic Way trip! We made our way to The Burren, an area in County Clare where huge slabs of limestones with slits called clints can be found.
It was previously submerged underwater, but over time fissures formed from the tectonic shifts (I'm giving a great Geography lesson aren't I) and sediments fell away and now the modern day terrain guards a network of underground caves (how cool, but we didn't go to any).
I know the pictures don't look it, but it truly felt like walking on the moon - minus the space and oxygen and all that stuff. Also it overlooks the beautiful, wild, untamed, unruly sea that roars without a care. How different they are - rocks and water and yet so together in a single space that they touch to eventually dissolve into nothingness.
It's hard to think of anything else when you stand in nature's tumultuous force.
Our next stop was Clifden and this was along Clifden's Sky Road, hence 'Sky'. Ha ha, you may now laugh at my cleverness. It's a winding 16km loop overlooking Clifen Bay and of course, the Atlantic Ocean. I imagine in summer, the verdant hillside becomes even more alive. Nonetheless, you begin to appreciate the moodiness of winter...
Again, it's hard for me to write w o r d s about this because a lot of the drive was annoyingly made up of Clean Bandit's Rockabye Baby on the radio which played it a million times and the remainder spent reading road signs and trying to live a little.
We descended and made our way through beautiful Connemara, with sunlight reflecting off the window panes and Clean Bandit playing once more... (x1000 annoyed)
Like I keep saying, if you're thinking of a road trip closer to home, make it this one. I love the Wild Atlantic Way and all its breathtaking views, and it's one of the places that built a very special place in my heart.
I hope you enjoyed this slightly different take on the trip (as I've done with all the previous posts, too)! What would you like to see next?
