Celtic Camino – walking the Cliffs of Moher

Jen walking.1 Today was our second last day in Ireland, and our last day on the west coast.

Tomorrow we drive through to Dublin, where we overnight before hopping a flight back to Australia.

Ireland has been amazing. Apart from the countryside and landscapes being beautiful beyond words, and the pure inherent magic of the place, the Irish people have been so incredibly friendly.

I’ve not met one person who didn’t go out of their way to help or share a laugh.

Today once again was perfect weather. I know I harp on about this, but everyone is amazed there’s been such a long stretch of sunny days without rain. Highly unusual for this time of the year, they say.

I believe you can conjure up parking spaces, and you can conjure up the weather.

It’s a simple application of the Spiritual Laws of Attraction.

You might think I’m a total whacko, but that’s what I believe. And before I started this trip, when I thought of my time in Ireland, I thought of the weather being good. Same as I thought of our Camino Portuguese.

I never imagined rain.

Here’s something for you – before I left Australia, I did a small film for the Stockman’s Hall of Fame out of Longreach. Dick Smith asked me to do it.

Dick has been a supporter of mine ever since he financed my first two independent documentaries back in the early ’80s. We’ve stayed in touch ever since, we’ve remained friends, and when he asked me to do this film, I agreed. I owed him.

The film was to be shot out at Longreach, in the far west of Central Queensland. Longreach had been suffering from a devastating drought for the past 18 months. It had sent several cockies to the wall, with the banks moving in and taking over properties that had been in the family for generations.

Many more graziers were hand feeding their stock at considerable expense, knowing that this was unsustainable.

They desperately needed rain.

I arrived before the film crew and met one of the key graziers in the district, as part of my initial research. Over a cup of tea I laughed and said that the drought would soon break, as soon as my film crew arrived.

I said it always rains in the Outback when I start shooting.

The grazier looked at me ruefully, and smiled. Disbelieving.

The crew arrived Sunday. It started raining the day before, on the Saturday. After eighteen months, the drought had broken. The grazier I’d spoken to couldn’t believe it. That initial burst of rain didn’t do much good – they needed much more. And we needed dry weather for filming.

By the time we were ready for filming, the rain stopped. And shortly after we wrapped and flew back to Sydney, the rains came again – heavier, and they lasted. The drought well and truly broke.

What do I make of this?
I don’t really know.

But I do know that we create our world with our thought. Every aspect of our world.

Now, today –

Today Jennifer and I walked from our village of Doolin, following a coastal path that led us to the Cliffs of Moher. 10kms there, 10kms back. 20kms for the day.

It has to be one of the most spectacular walks I’ve ever done.

Again, my photography doesn’t do justice to the majesty of the landscapes, and the seascapes – but here are some shots…

Jen walking towards.1 castle on walk rock seat rock tower in sea.ws.2

rock tower in sea.1 Jen walking to cliffs.2

Note Jennifer below on the path centre left – barely visible.
That gives some idea of scale…

path up cliff.2 (with Jen)Jen coming down path me coming up path Jen on cliffs.2 cliffs.3

Celtic Camino – dark cliffs

My photography always lets me down.

It’s not possible for me – I don’t have the skill – to adequately convey the beauty that is Ireland.

I love this place.

I will do the best I can – and start off with my first image of the day – out my hotel bedroom window (a truck unloading fruit and veggies) – through to breakfast and black and white pudding, and the hotelier arriving with fresh eggs, through to a drive over the Connor Pass, which in no way captures the extraordinary breathtaking beauty of this way – then to a ferry trip across the Shannon River, then to the Cliffs of Moher, and finally to Doolin, and a track out of town as the sun was setting, and a bunch of cows that stared at me.

Went back and had a Guiness in a pub in Doolin, and a beautifully lyrical singer/guitarist played a special request for me – The Star of the County Down. I knew it from a track by Van Morrison and The Chieftans.

(Paddy Malone and the Chieftans did the score for a movie I did for Warners Bros.)

What an incredible day.

Tomorrow Jennifer and I are going to walk 18kms from Doolin along the Cliffs of Moher and back again. Should be amazing…

Here are today’s pics –

truck unloading Dingle breakfast Dingle eggs Dingle Connor Pass bollard smoke stacks lunch Cliffs of Moher2 Cliffs of Moher3 Cliffs of Moher birds.1 cliffs of moher.ws bird tower

Cows fence and cliff Guiness singer in doolin pub rocks and sunset