Day 6 - Inishere & Aillwee Cave

Today we woke up bright and early. We have a packed day. First breakfast at the B&B. I still can get myself to order an Irish breakfast. It is just too much food! Mike went for it again. While having breakfast we met a very nice Irish couple. They have been leaving in Kitchener, Ontario for the last 30 years but still have their strong Irish accent. The little old man was very nice and loved to talked which was great. We told them our plans for the day: take the ferry to Inishere (one of the Aran island) and spend a few hours bike the island.

On the drive to Doolin we picked up an hitchhiker. A guy from germany with a bag pack looking for a ride to the ferry. I thought that this will be me in a couple of week... although I won't (definitely not mom) hitchhike!!! But I will be traveling around with my backpack. Right now it is a bit easy with the car and Mike around.

The 30 minute boat ride to the island was really rocky... We were at the font of the boat and felt every single wave. I was totally fine at the beginning but after 20 minutes I just wanted to have my feet on the ground... my stomach was getting a bit upset. I manage to reach the smallest of the Aran Islands without puking.

Mike and I rented bikes and off we went. The island is pretty small: 2km x 2km (if even). We had our little map and started looking at everything. This place is amazing!!! Mike had never been (like mot Irish) and he was as surprised as me at the beauty.

The whole place has only a few roads. People do live on the island but most of them don't have a car. It is so small that you can just walk or bike every where. All day I kept wondering why there was so many stone walls. You should see them. Most of the island look like a giant maze of stone walls (maybe 4 feet tall). Small enclosures every where. You just bike in some small road in between all of it. In the middle of Inishere, on a steep hill, there is a 15th century castle. It is falling apart a little bit but still in good enough condition to go in. Touch it. Feel it. Imagine what like was like back then. It is just amazing how solid they were building those castle for them to still stand tall after all these years. Mike and I had a little snack just by the castle on top on the island. It was great. Plus the weather was on our side: no rain!

The rest of the journey on the island was very nice. I got to feed an apple to a horse (hopefuly I didn't make him sick). I kept wondering though I long it took to build all of the stone walls... I also wondered where all the rocks were coming from.

We ended up on the south west shore of the island where you can see the Great Rocks of Aran. This is pretty amazing. Huge rocks, I mean HUGE rocks all piled up few hundred feet from the shore. The rocks are being moved by some powerful storm that happens every 100 years or so... I found a little piece of rock and put it in my pocket. I getting good at stealing rocks on this trip. On that side of the island you can see how much rock there is still available to build more stone walls.... although these isn't room left on Inishere to build more.

We made it back to the boat at 2:15pm. What an amazing day I thought but then realized that only half the day was done. There was still so much more to see and do.

Mike brought me to the Aillwee Cave. After listening to the tour guide I should be able to write about it a little but I don't keep information that well. I do remember some fun facts.

- it is always 10 celsius in the case

- it was found in 1940 but was kept a secret until 1973

- some bear bones from 900 years ago were found inside

- the cave started before the ice age (you can see the shape of the original 'tunnel' but got way bigger once the ice started to melt.

- the cave is made of limestone, the water just makes its way through

- we got 350 feet under the ground during the tour

- we experienced total darkness (pretty scary), apparently after 6 hours in total darkness you start seeing color, after 12 you totally hallucinate

- stalactites grow 1cm every 100 years, very fragile, saw a very old 30 cm one...

The whole tour was very interesting I had only been in a cave in the Ottawa region a few years ago. I am amazed to learn that those cave are so old! We only did a small part of this one but when you think that this was around during the ice age... and there are more km of cave down there...

The Aillwee Cave also have an aviary of birds of prey. We got to see some bird in action. Chasing doves and crows and coming back to the trainer. Again I should know the type of birds I got to see but my brain sometime just refuse to remember things.

We couldn't stay to long at the Aillwee Cave because Vincent (Mike's friend) was waiting for us in Galway for dinner. We made it to Vincent and Maxine's place just before 7pm. We were received like a kings. Dinner and dessert was so tasty. It was good to meet Mike's friend. They are a very nice couple. Mike was Vincent's best man 5 years ago. We got to there home too late to really meet there kids. We should see 2 year old Meave and 5 month old Eleanor early tomorrow morning.