Day 117, 29 October 2012, Drive through Connemara to Roundstone, back to Galway, on to Athlone (smack in the middle between Galway and Dublin). Tails - the sun shone and we were honour bound to take a scenic drive through the Connemara.
This morning some fellow guests recommended a drive to Roundstone to see the stunning scenery. Due to an ever so slightly missed turn the one hour drive took two or more and we went around the coast through stunning light, shade, reds, browns and golds. We saw the trademark placed stone walls of the region. We suspect that over hundreds of years it was merely a field clearing exercise that got carried away but the fences are amazing - undulating over the fields in higgledy-piggledy fashion and all without an ounce of mortar or cement to hold them together. The trip may well have taken longer because we periodically had to stop and loop back for a must have shot of light and shade, water and stone. We made it to the village of Roundstone and were lucky enough to meet Irish Artist Rosie McGurran in her studio - complete with crackling open fire and stunning art on the walls. Getting to the pointy end of the trip and about to travel to the land of pounds sterling (a very expensive currency to buy with Aussie dollars) we resisted the urge to buy some more art - just. We eventually had to stop talking about art and light and the time she visited Australia with a fresh stock of paint in her bag only to discover the Irish painter's palette needs to be rejigged completely for the much brighter light and colours of the southern hemisphere. We dragged ourselves away and let the artist return to her work. The drive back was beautiful but not nearly as scenic as the wrong turn coastal loop had been - so it obviously was a right turn after all. With daylight saving over it's getting dark by 5 pm so we headed to The Arch B&B in Athlone for the night. One of our previous hosts was kind enough to say there's not much round there but we found more than enough to keep us amused and plan to visit the oldest bar in Ireland tomorrow, prior to heading to Dublin for our final few days in Ireland. Sleep tight