Knock Knock Knocking on Heaven's Door

After Bunratty, we continued our journey North to the little town of Knock, County Mayo. And what a surprise we got when we arrived! Turns out Knock is a HUGE mecca for religious devotees who travel from lands far and wide to see the spot where the Virgin Mary appeared to the villagers quite a few years back. Luckily for us, we arrived smack bang on the anniversary of the apparition. The little town of Knock had grown overnight to accommodate a crowd of 60,000 nuns, priests and pilgrims. Never before have I felt so outnumbered. Admittedly, there were the odd smattering of bewildered tourists wearing the same facial expression as I… not dissimilar to a rabbit caught in the headlights of a 10000 tonne truck carrying cow dung.

Meanwhile, I took up power walking most days and managed to make friends with a farmer or two. We explored the area, and even ventured into the lunar landscape of The Burren. This area is made up entirely of rocks and is quite bizarre to behold, although far from beautiful.

Another day, we went to the Aran Islands to Inismor. This was fantastic, and definitely a worthwhile stop. Mostly a fishing island, the locals are great, the beer is great, and there is a mysterious quality to it, that makes people want to keep building stone walls. Seriously, the island is full of stones, and to clear the island to make way for pastures, the locals had to build thousands of kilometres of stone walls. On an island about the same size at Rottnest... you can imagine how funny it looks.

Next stop- Bundoran… in some county with a name I can’t remember.