Conemara day 1

We slept well in our youth hostel.

And early morning, we found this man painting his house...

We took the road to reach the National Conemara park:

it was raining...

First lake and pine island!!!

Connemara was heavily glaciated during the Ice Age:

the glaciers carved out lot of bassins, valleys...

When the glaciers melted these hollows 

filled with water, created a multitude of lakes.

Again: wild ladnscapes, huge sky, wind,

incredible colors...

Mountains playing with clouds, stones, greens...

Because it was a special day Amané could meet a fox:

he stopped and looked at her...

and then go back...

Connemara soil is mainly composed of quartzite and gneiss:

very hard and not permeable, this is why water doesn't infiltrate easily.

It's so beautiful to see the little rivers going to the lakes

drawing their way in the landscape...

We have some bogs also: they act as sponges;

they retain water and slowly redistribute it.

This encourages the wetlands, ponds, lakes

through out the landscape.

I thought Connemara was flat...!!!!

Lakes are closely linked to bogs: 

they receive excess water, regulate flooding, 

maintain hydrological balance.

They are houses for water birds and fishes as salmons, trouts, eels.

The soils around lakes are often poor and waterlogged 

but irish people cultivated potatoes.

During the Great Famine (1845-52) 

many of these areas were abandonned.

Look at those colours:

this red on white and strong grey with green...!

We stopped in A Spideal to have a delicious lunch

and we visited the church...

They are so modern and so decorative...

Catholicism remains in the majority and Irish people 

are more pratiquants than french.

Until the 2000 the catholoic church exerted a strong influence

on politics, education,  and family life.

Social changes (same sex marriage, legal abortion) show

a decline in this influence but we could see that

catholicism remains stronger in Ireland than in France.

Where does this road goes:

ocean or lake?

Sometimes we just didn't know...!!!

Is it the Ocean or a lake?

The river is meeting the Ocean?

Colors are incredible...

And sometimes in this wildness,

a cottage... (I thought to buy this one;..!!!)

This one had as a view...

This:

!!!!!

Ocean, river, lake, mountains, rocks, marine breeze,

winds, grass and flowers: so wild and beautiful.

And some little kilometers after:

a new kind of landscape...

Tiny lake, mountains, dryer, sheep...

In the Middle Age sheep are already an important

source of wool, to export to England...

Today the country count around 4 millions sheep.

What do you think about this cottage?

I'd rather like the precedent one...!!!

The beaches are as wild as the other landscapes...

Here was one made with corals...

Windy happy !

A little break here..

Aurele found her treasures.

Amané learned how to fly

With Yuta they had speed races here:

Yuta won  each time !

So wild and invigorating.

Yuta hesitated for a long time

but finaly we didn't swim...too windy !

But a few people did: ederly and youngs...

We could easily understood that they were people from here.

Can you see the licornes?

After this long day we found our youth hostel

just in front of a lough....!

Having diner with this sunset panorama.........!!!!!

But inside, all people (tourists and worker) were.....french........

 

BURREN NATIONAL PARK and GALWAY

After a short night we needed a huge full

irish breakfast !

And then we reach the Burren National Park.

Its namecomes from the Irish Boireann meaning

stony place. The park covers 1500 ha of karst landscape.

The terrain is composed of limestone slabs split fissures called grikes.

There, alpine, mediterranean and arctic species coexist.

The western orchid grows alongside the blue gentian.

The park is also home to diverse wildlife, such as badgers and kestrels.

The park is also rich in archeological remains.

It contains cairns, passage tombs and dry stone forts.

Human occupation dates back to the Neolithic period,

over 5000 years ago.

The Poulnabrone Dolmen is one of them.

The "millstone hole" is a portal tomb made

between 3800 and 3200 BC which contains a burial chamber

where we found 33 skeletons. Various grave goods were found:

axe, beads, pottery, crystals.

The site served as a ritual, burial site...?

Grikes are deep fissures that form in limestone slabs.

They appear as a result of the dissolution of limestone by slighlty 

acidic (carbonic) rainwater.

This slow process called karstification erodes 

the rock over thousand years; 

The flat areas are called clints and the alternance is beautiful .

Grikes can reach several tens of centimeters

in depth and sometimes more than a meter.

They create a sheltered humid and sahaded microclimate.

During the english conquest and colonization, 

this site served as a refuge for Gelic populations driven 

from the fertile lands.

There are traces of abandonned villages linked to the great Famine.

Winter pastures, small fields demarcated by stone walls remained the norm.

So many different flowers there, from 3 very different climatic origins !

For example:

Alpine: the spring gentian small and blue (mountains Central Europe)

Mediteranean: the sanguineum geranium, pinky south Europe

Arctic: the avens, short white flower.

A treasure of flowers !!!

There were lot of trails that we could do there

we chosed one...

a view on Mullaghmore mountain.

Amané said she loves landscapes with rocks.

But it was so short that we chosed an other one...

and this time we had some explanations in different points.

The doline: a natural landform found in karst landscapes 

(areas underlain by soluble rocks such as limestone)

Many blocky stones of chert:

an impurity found in limeston, coming from

sea sponges and diatones.

Here that was one a coral reef: so many many

beautiful fossilised corals...

Amané wanted to read every explanations in english...!!

Wildflower Meadow on slighlty deeper and richer soil.

After all those walks a quick lunch in the village nearby.

On the road to Gallway we saw a monastery and decided to visit it.

It was the Kilmacduagh monastery from the 7th century.

There is. a legend about the creation of this site. 

Saint Colman MacDuagh was walking in the woods 

when his stole fell off. 

He interpreted it as a sign and decided

to build his monastery on the same spot.

As all monaseries sites

there are a cemetery full of irish cross

                                                and a huge tower (same as Glendalough)

And we reached the city : Galway.

We found a wall with figures of irish feminist revolutionnaries !

and an other nice funny one...

As usual the city is full of colors, there were some musicians...

Pubs and people enjoying in the streets

We dined at the mac donnagh...

which offers many different fresh fishes.

The colored city on the ocean.