Gurteen Bay, Connemara

Last stop on this Connemara trip is Gurteen Bay, the sun comes out, the sky and water so bright and blue, everywhere looks gorgeous. 

 

 

On the way, pass by Roundstone town, a small well maintained town along the coast with a harbour, a lot of quality eating places, with good food and view. 

Gurteen Bay has an enormous, uninterrupted pure white sand beach, a number of big stones resting on the hill at the back. On the rocky end is where fisherman landed a few mackerels.

Moyrus loop walk, Connemara

Drove to another corner further on in Connemara, with a white sandy beach very common in this area, and a cemetery right next to the water established at 6th century. There is a loop walk along the coast then inland back by the road, only possible to walk on low tide.
The walk is over rocky shore, views of smoothed rocks, stone walls of yesteryear farm land, ruins of unknown era, ancient small stones wall harbour, clear water and an angry grey cloudy sky, beautiful scenery.

Connemara lobster fisherman encounter

During the last 2 years we made a tour of Irish coast in our camping car , but only to the main sights recommended by tourist office. This year onwards, we will tour the coast again, just drive to different corners to check out the area. We like the vastness of the landscape here, the coast, mountain and bog areas. We don’t need to go to big famous locations only, small areas are also very charming.

This is the first group of islands linked by causeways an hour’s drive from Galway, beautiful pristine scenery, but surprisingly lots of holiday houses along the bigger roads. 

Saw a fisherman landed at the small harbour, on enquiring, he sells lobsters, Euro 10 each, around 700gm, asked to have 2. He insisted on giving us 3 lobsters and a big tray of wild mussels, ended up having a big feast, or 2 feasts.

To cook lobsters in the camper, cut them up, heads, tails and claws. Steam separately, 6 minutes for tails and claws, 12 minutes for heads. For those we couldn’t finish, remove meat from shells to cook the next day.

Upstair at Connolly’s, Kinvara

 

 

The first night reached Kinvara on our camper trip to the west coast, staying here to check out a restaurant, Upstair at Connolly’s. Opened roughly 2 years ago by a chef from Dublin, modern design with a open kitchen on the upper floor.
On Sunday night there is traditional music performance, nice for the atmosphere and being not overwhelmingly loud, like in a lot other pubs.
The downstair pub has a small menu with easy to please dishes, tried prawn in chilli sauce and panko fried hake, good cooking.