FOREWARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS LOADS OF PICTURES. ENJOY!

FOREWARNING 2: THIS POST IS WAY WAY OVERDUE.

It was raining that early morning on the first day of our tour (July 9). The weather forecast did not miss. However, we still looked forward to an enjoyable getaway. (Rain, rain go away. Come again another day.)

We rode a taxi to get to GoBus stop at Burgh Quay, City Center. The bus came on time (7:02am). The driver checked our booking/transaction number before we hopped on and settled in the bus. And at 7:16am, as scheduled, we departed from Dublin.

Kro..kro..kro… Somebody did not miss to nap and eat while on the way. 🙂

The drive was 2.5 hours. We were dropped at Galway coach station from where the Healy tour guides and fellow trippers awaited. And the tour began.

This was our “rough” itinerary. I grabbed this picture from the Healy Bus website from where I also booked this trip. Check them at www.galwaybustours.ie to save you from any confusion. When I was then doing my search for this trip, there were loads of websites saying about “Healy” tours. There’s bus.ie, healybus.com, healytour.ie.

Our first destination: County Clare. That is the famous The Burren. In the simplest explanation, it is a landscape of cracked bedrock (limestone). It’s nice to see and be amazed of this formation.

Our first stop: Aillwee Cave. This cave is in the Burren mountain. We paid the discounted fee of €5 for the cave tour which was a 30-40 minutes walk. They said we got that special price because we’re with a tour agency. The regular fee is €12.

The Bear Den. Bear skulls and bones were discovered inside when the cave was first explored. Our guide said the cave could have invited bears to settle here as shed because of its stable temperature.

After the short cave experience, we further head onto the Burren region.

We passed by this stone arrangement, a megalithic tomb. Our next sight was the bigger version of this.

The Poulnabrone dolmen- said to be a site of ceremonies and rituals thousands of years ago. This tomb dates back to the New Stone Age. A rope barrier is in place to prevent tourists from getting too close to the stone for its preservation.

We only stayed there for 15 minutes enough to get to see the stone and take a couple of selfies. Then, we drove to the highlight spot of the day, the Cliffs of Moher.

The first thing that greeted us when we reached the place was the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Centre. It is like a mini museum of everything about the cliffs.

This is the Ledge- a virtual reality experience. The audience here is seeing the cliff from a bird’s eye view. It’s like following a bird as it flies over the cliffs and glides down over the waters.

Part two of our adventure to come shortly.