Today, we grabbed a
quick breakfast at the hotel restaurant and then hit the road for the long
drive to the Cliffs of Mohr. It was
raining at the hotel, but we were hoping for sunshine at the cliffs. And we got it…got it and Mohr. The sun was popping in and out of the gray
clouds as they rolled across a beautiful blue sky. The cliffs were dark; brown, gray, and tan
bands running along their surface with tufts of tangled green on the tops. When the sun would pop out from behind the
clouds it would illuminate the colors, casting the bands of the cliffs in
sparkling contrast to the dazzling greens.
And then it would be gone again, and the world would slide back into a
dull moroseness. From this perspective,
it was a photographer’s dream. What we
were not expecting was the wind.
To quote A Walk
in the Woods, “The wind was whooshing along noisily and steadily at a brisk
25 miles an hour, but gusting to at least double that, and from ever shifting
directions. At times when the wind was
head-on, we would take two steps forward and one back. When it came from an angle, it gave us a
stiff shove towards the edge of the ridge.”
It was strangely ironic to read those very words the same day you
experienced that exact phenomenon. But
words are not enough to describe what that kind of wind feels like to walk in,
or to try to stand steady and take a photograph, or how cold and biting it
feels on your exposed skin. We were
actually shocked to find out that the wind was blowing at so low a speed, as it
felt like trying to stand upright in a hurricane.
But imagine the
landscape for a moment. You are on a
cliff, approximately 700 feet above the Atlantic Ocean. The landscape is barren…no trees and only
short, scrubby grasses…for miles in any direction. There is no shelter, nothing to hunker down
behind. It’s just you and the relentless
wind. And imagine that wind is blowing
so hard that you have to stand at an angle in it just to keep upright…when
suddenly it stops blowing from that direction and starts blowing from a
different direction, causing your angled form to lose balance and then suddenly
be pushed into a staggering run to deny gravity its victory.
It felt like one of
those movies where the hero is trapped in a ring of enemies and each enemy is
taking a punch or kick at him, so he continuously flies across the ring, only
to be punched or kicked by a different enemy and sent flying in a different
direction. Except you can’t see this
enemy and you can’t anticipate where the next punch is coming from. I imagine it’s much like the Shawn Mendes
video for “Stitches.”
To give you one more
visual at how hard the wind was blowing, close your eyes (not literally or you
won’t be able to read what I write next) and picture a small, gentle,
picturesque waterfall, trickling down the side of the cliffs in a wavy
hap-hazard fashion. Envision it’s
swollen with the onslaught of rain that has been blowing through the last
week. See it cascading down off the
cliff face hundreds of feet to splash into the blue-green ocean below. And now imagine that the wind is blowing so
hard that it is literally pulling the water off the face of the cliff and
shooting it straight up into the air a hundred feet, so that to walk underneath
it it feels like it’s raining. And when
you look up into it, all you see is blue skies and rain pouring out of nothing.
We had planned to
try to take the Cliff Walk with Pat Sweeney, as we’d heard that was a great way
to experience the cliffs. But with the
wind the way it was, we didn’t feel up to it.
So, we just toured around the area near O’Brien’s Tower and the
Visitor’s Center before heading to Doolin to eat at Gus O’Connor’s Pub.
This was a little
gem that my wife had found when researching the area. It was a traditional Irish pub with a small
town feel. The staff was friendly, the
food was good, and the fireplace was warm.
It was late in the afternoon, so there were only a few locals in there
having a beer and discussing which movie George Clooney looked more handsome in
(my wife would say none of them). We
had fish and chips, which was delicious until my wife ate all of my tartar
sauce. I swear…you leave your food
unattended for three minutes and someone eats your tartar sauce. Of course she claims that I had eaten it
before I left, and that I must be losing my mind, but there was something
untrustworthy in the gleam in her eye as she said it. But I digress…
One particular feature
about this pub that surprised us was the number of American dollar bills taped
to the walls. Each one with George
Washington’s stern face looking out and a hand-written message from the
traveler that had left it. It was
surprising to realize the number of Americans that must have visited this pub
and sat where we were currently sitting.
So, of course, we had to keep with tradition and leave our mark as
well. So, if you’re ever in Gus
O’Connor’s Pub look at the wall across from the fireplace for a dollar bill
saying, “We left our heart in Ireland” with our names on the bottom.
We made a quick stop
at the Rockshop; which sells all sorts of rocks, fossils, and precious stones;
before heading back to the hotel. For
dinner, we left the hotel too late and most of the best places were
closed. My wife had a desire for
pizza, so we wandered around until we found Just Eat Pizza, Burgers, and
Kebabs. It was run by a couple of Indian
guys…this is important because there were Indian spices lacing everything. My wife asked for chicken on her pizza and
got Tandoori chicken. The sauce also had
an unmistakable curry taste to it. It
wasn’t bad, just an interesting twist to a rather ordinary meal.
