Ireland Day 8 - Ennis to Ballybunion

 Our Air B and B hostess Louise left enough food to feed an army and insisted we use it, so had a nice relaxed breakfast in her house. And so we went back to the Cliffs of Mohar for another go and found that they were indeed fog free, if not fully cloud free. Although quite impressive we are rather spoilt for cliffs from visits to Orkney thus we’ve were somewhat underwhelmed! However we enjoyed the walks along the cliffs and the views. 

Finally a clear view of the Aran Islands from the Cliffs

And finally the most useless viewing tower for which we queued. Nothing to be seen between the too high parapet. Don’t bother anyone! 

We then headed south looking for a bite of lunch before getting the ferry and onwards to Ballybunion. On the way we stumbled across Trump’s golf course in Ireland at Doonbeg. We spoke to the concierge at the gate who invited us to go in for a bit to eat. However it didn’t appeal so after a quick look round we left

We stopped at Kilkeee for a possible lunch spot but we decided instead to get some takeaway salad and quiche so that we could make the 2:30 ferry from Killimer to Tarbert. We arrived at the ferry and simple just queued up and waited for the ferry to arrive. We had our picnic lunch quickly at the harbour and drove on the ferry when told. It was €23 for a single 20 minute crossing - there’s clearly no road equivalent tariff here! 

The other identical ferry

See from the ferry, Moneypoint is Erie’s largest electricity generation station, is coal-fired,  is one of the largest capital projects at £700 million and is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases. The plan is to replace coal-fired generation with low carbon and renewable technologies by 2025. Hence the 3 large turbines?

It was really lovely to see Mags and Tony in Ballybunion. After a cup of tea and a catch up they took us on an explore of their beautiful cliffs, only 1 minutes walk from their door. Tony was keen for a swim so we all went for a dip in the sea at Ladies Beach! The weather was gorgeous, the water was bearable and lovely when you finally got in! 

There was golf to be watched on the TV - the Irish Open from Dublin appropriately - a gin and tonic and then a lovely stroll into town to McMunns Bar for some lovely food and great live music.