Crough Patrick Tour

My classmate Ryan hit the nail on the head today when he was describing the Irish countryside. “There is not a single place in this entire country that is not beautiful.” And after taking a cross country bus tour today, I have to agree.

We got on the bus, and were greeted by a most wonderful tour guide. He was in his late 60’s or 70’s, was extraordinarily knowledgeable, and was dressed like a right Irish gentleman. I think we’ll try to request him on all our future excursions.

Today, he took us on a tour of the villages along the peninsula we were on, on the north shore of Galway Bay. First, we went to the village Cong to visit an old abbey on the banks of a slow, shallow river. The trees seemed as ancient as the rock, and a lot of the architecture was still intact.

This stone bridge crosses the river behind an ancient monastery.

From the monastery, we went to Westport. Here, we ate lunch. We set out to find the cheapest place get food, because we were tired of paying exorbitant prices at touristy type places (We didn’t do very well at avoiding the tourist traps in the Aran Islands for lunch). We found a place called Italia Roma, which serves as a good example of what food prices are like in Ireland.

I paid 4.80 Euro a burger and chips (fries, for you in the states). 4.80 Euro is the equivalent of $6.78 USD. And the burger was the cheapest thing on the menu. When it arrived (very quickly, the place was basically a McDonald’s in disguise), the burger was wafer thin, had clearly been frozen 10 minutes ago, and covered in soggy onions. It came with a generous side of chips (fries). Despite the crappy food, I was reasonable pleased with my meal. It was a great example of “you get what you pay for.” What did I expect, for a measly $6.78?

Anyway, we toured the city, which had a very cool statue of St. Patrick, then got back on the bus. Then we went to the Delphi Valley.

The Delphi Valley was unbelievably cool. It was just a random valley that the highway cut through, but it was absolutely breathtaking. A fog had fallen in the valley, covering the mountains in mist.

No picture can really capture how amazing that valley was, but this one makes the best effort.

Next, we loaded back onto the bus, and our tour guide took us to Mt. Crough Patrick. Mt. Crough Patrick (I think that means St. Patrick’s Mountain in Gaelic) is a large, beautiful mountain upon which the patron saint of Ireland sat for 40 days, after climbing it barefoot. Today, people climb it as part of a pilgrammidge. We didn’t have nearly enough time to reach the summit today (It’s a long haul) but several of us plan to go back there and make the climb in the future. We went up the path a few hundred yards, where there was a white statue of St. Patrick himself. Even from that height, the view was incredible.

Apparently, this sign means that people can only climb the mountain on those days that are neither wet nor foggy. All three of them. You can see just a bit of the mountain there in the background, obscured by the fog.

Unfortunatly, the internet situation here is a little sketchy, and is preventing me from uploading my pictures of the view from the trailhead. Suffice it to say, they are very cool. Hopefully, we can find time to make the full climb.

After Crough Patrick, the tour was winding down. We stopped in a couple more little towns, just for a few minutes, and took a few more pictures, but after seven hours we were getting tired. We returned to the Park Lodge, listening to a CD by Enya that the tour guide put on. Apparently, she’s Irish. Who knew?