Day 12, Wonders of the World.

We woke with a bit of a conundrum, should we visit another cave, or visit a smokehouse, or visit the cliffs, or visit a castle.....this is the problem. So much to do, and so little time. I like coastal scenery, and we are all really enjoying the caves. Also, the weather was supposed to turn really bad later in the afternoon as we catch the tail end of a tropical storm called "le grand" Ali I think. It was a nice morning and Joyce got out for her jog, she ran away down past last nights eating venue and down to the harbour, she chatted to someone at the pier who ran boat trips to the Aran Islands and cliffs and said they we running a very reduced schedule today and the boat would be back in at 2pm latest, they thought the weather was really going to be bad. We had breakfast, played with the boys with the Frisbee and football for a while and then settled on Doolin Cave, for starters, it was close by and we were on a cave roll. We had heard a wee bit about this caves best feature previously..... So we drove back along the road for a few miles and got our tour tickets. Dermott was our guide, and in our group there was no one else, a private tour almost. The entrance to this cave is down what is very like a mineshaft, there's 150 iron steps to go down, and the walls of the round shaft are all precast concrete sections bolter together, you then pass along mine like passages with many drill holes in the roof and walls. The original cave that was discovered was too narrow so a newer adjacent shaft was very carefully drilled through to connect the passages, they could not use explosives........we looked at a few small stalactites on the way then entered a huge cavern, and there hanging down right in the centre from the roof, like a grand ballroom with a stunning chandelier is this incredible and almost unbelievable stalactite. It is 7.3 metres long and they think weighs about 10 tonnes!!! You enter the cavern at about the same level as it, and its right there in front of you, if I had a long stick, I could touch it. It is without doubt one of the most incredible natural things I have ever seen. Its taken 750,000 years to build itself,  And looks like it should just snap off, this why they couldn't blast a tunnel through as the shock may have dislodged it, so a team of Polish mine experts very carefully drilled a series of holes and then pressurised the drillings with air to burst the rock, therefore no shock which could have potentially cracked the stalactite off, it took 14 months to drill a fairly short tunnel through. Dermot explains that its almost like an upside down tree and has roots in the ceiling above which hold it there and it would probably take a very strong earthquake to dislodge it bit they still didn't want to take any chances. It is the 3rd longest free hanging stalactite anywhere in the world, and the longest in the northern hemisphere. There is a longer one I think he said in the Middle East, Lebanon perhaps, and another in South America-this one requires a major jungle trek to get to. And neither get you so close up to it. An amazing spectacle indeed!!
After this we headed south to the Cliff of Moher, this is unfortunately a very busy place. The large pay and display carpark was chockablock (fortunately). The carpark is 8 euros, and then its another 8 euros to get into the visitor centre, so we didn't bother. We drove a wee bit further along and there's another carpark in someone's garden for 2 euros, more like it :-)). We had a short wander along the cliffs which are stunning as well, but it was very windy and we had the wind at our backs, In was well aware that getting back would be a different ball game. Logan in particular doesn't like strong wind yet. The cliffs range from about 100m in height to 200m and are vertical at least all the way along their 5 mile length.......... Will be a great walk on a calmer and less busy day. We will be back another time.
As usual on this trip we didn't have a set destination for parking up. We are using a lot of campsites, more than usual, Ireland is not so easy to park up in as Scotland so aiming for a campsite when its getting late on is the easiest option. So after a bit of a fuel crisis, there are more petrol stations in Ireland than anywhere I have been-execpt when you really need one- (I have no idea why I didn't just fill up in Galway-doh).....
We arrived at Doonaha just south of Kilkee at about 6.30pm, the weather was starting to pick up a wee bit by now. The campsite owner met us at the gate in his farm 4x4, we had a chat and said will 20 euros including electric be OK? I nearly fell over, this is almost half the price of some other sites. I offered him 25 but he wouldn't have it so we compromised at 23, everyone happy. He showed us the area if the site which would be most sheltered as it was quite windy. We nearly parked somewhere else. We had tea, got the boys asleep and had our traditional game of scrabble and a dram, onto our 2nd bottle and its our favourite Kilchoman Machir Bay....give it a try!! Joyce won the scrabble and the weather had really calmed down so no problem sleeping.
Another very good day over.