I woke up with a some GI issues, but unsure if it was the heat, sun, socializing at the college, the tuna/hamburger, general overexertion... Otherwise I felt great! Good energy goes a long way!
We got out pretty late after a nice home-cooked breakfast of bacon, potatoes, brown bread, and tea. We went straight to the Burren National Park. The drive was pretty but narrow, windy roads, and at one point we got stuck behind a herd of cows and calves. By the time we got there it was peak sun and very hot. There are no real trees (clear cut a thousand years ago), just a few small patches of hazel thickets, so we were stuck in the sun with no shade for three hours. There weren't even any typical heavy Irish clouds, just bright harsh blue sky.
So, I wilted. And not just me -- we'd been in the Burren for days now, and the water crisis still continued, so we could see as the region went from mostly green to an almost desert-like landscape. It's pretty eerie to see so many dead ferns and mosses. It made me even more worried about climate change to witness Ireland, of all places, in a drought.
Anyway, we were bummed yet again to not see the famous Burren summer flora, and the views that were typically an incredible green, were becoming brown.
Compared to the Killarney National Park, there were very few people and the trails were well marked. We did the blue trail loop around Mullach Mor ("big summit"), what Mary called "the mountain that looks like a squashed wedding cake" or what we at BCA fondly called "cow plop mountain." We also passed Robert driving the BCA van full of students on a field trip!
I did well on the way up the mountain but the heat, dehydration, sun, and loose rocks (not great for my ankles/knees/hips) did a number on me. Dan got pretty dizzy as well. I took some moments to crouch under the hazel, which helped, but was only a temporary respite.
We saw a lot of cool dragonflies and caterpillars and butterflies along the way. There was a cool body of water, but it was pretty dried up. I felt so bad for the egret and heron that had landed there looking for water!
Then we drove to Gort! Other than having a great name, Gort was the town we'd drive 45 minutes to when we needed a grocery store in college. We ate at a pub. I got traditional meat, cabbage, and mash, and Dan got seafood chowder and beef roast. I felt pretty stuffed, fatigued, woozy, and queasy by the end of it.
We then drove to Coole Park, which was even nicer than I remembered! We saw some deer, the autograph tree with signatures of
artists and writers of the time (including George Bernard Shaw!), the beautiful walled garden, and the magical woods that seem to go forever. I wished we'd had more time in the woods and/or brought a picnic and books for the garden. The woods are so wild; unlike the forest at home, every tree is covered in vines, moss, and ivy. We saw a European robin (the first one of the trip!) but unfortunately it didn't sing. I loved hearing their songs as I walked home at night in Ballyvaughan as a student. There's also a lovely lake at the park, with black swans and other wildlife, but we were too dehydrated and woozy to make it, so we went home and crashed.
I took a Benedryl, a cold shower, and ate some porridge for dinner while watching soccer. I determined that the weather may have had a large part in why I felt so well in my semester abroad. We finished the night with champagne and a movie.