Bike Riding on Inis Moir

As we head off....
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After our breakfast of vegemite toast (thanks mum!) we headed 37km west of Galway to Rossveal where we caught the 10.30 ferry across to the Biggest of the 3 Aran Islands and home of the infamous Aran sweater (a nanaish looking kniited jumper!) The 45 minute ferry ride was terrible with huge waves pounding the sides of the boat as we jumped over more waves and we were rocking wildly from side to side. Thankfully we arrived on the island a little nauseous bit otherwise unscathed. We hired a suspension (I should of been weary) bike for €10 each and set off excitedly on our adventure across the island.

Stunning Irish countryside
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The wind was howling and it was a chilly 10 degrees but after 5 minutes of riding I was sweaty, aching and literally peeling off the layers of clothes as our steep uphill accent continued. I watched as the initial enthusiastic group of cyclists dwindled to only about 6 or 7 exhausted looking riders. We ended up pushing our bike about 100m up this narrow and very steep laneway until we reached the lighthoused perched on the highest point on the island and boy was it worth it. The view was breath taking and all the more enjoable because of the effort it took to reach! We were surrounded by 360 degrees of gray blue ocean and sprawled at our feet were kilometres of green green fields with little rocky boarders and cows and goats grazing on the endless grass.

The spectacular stone ringed walls form a semi circle with the 150m sheer cliff face

Coasting downhill!
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The ride down and back to the road was so much fun, not quite as steep but three times the length we hurtled down the grassy lanes between paddocks and over the rocky limestone patches! Back on the "road" (it was unsealed) we contined our gradual downhill decent past farmers walking their dogs and beautiful Irish cows who I stopped to hand feed. Coming into the small cluster of farming houses we sped down a steep hill and crossed the island again to the coast where we had to leave our bikes at the bike park. We had a quick bowl of home made soup for lunch the walked the kilometre uphill to the 2000 year old Fort ruins perched on the cliffside. The spectacular stone ringed walls form a semi circle with the 150 metre plus sheer cliff face at the centre. There are no fences or warnings or anything, just an ancient monument with people climbing all over it and a sheer drop. Luckily for us it was fairly quiet so we explored the ruins, looked down at the pounding waves, took our photos and walked back down to our bikes.

Climbing to the top.
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Getting back on after an hours break was difficult as our poor little bottoms were quiet sore, the seats were hard and although the suspension was a god send there was only so much it could do for us! We took the quiet coastal road back which was lovely. We only passed two other cyclists and a couple of farmers in the field as we coasted along past small ruins, cows, horses and goats climbing over the stone walls and basically anywhere they wanted. There was a beautiful sandy beach and a tiny Irish Cemetry overlooking the sea. The was a seal colony and more greens fields before we eventually made it back to the main town where the port was. We had about an hour before the last ferry left at 5 so we had a hot chocolate and wandered through the Aran sweater market and gift shop before hopping back on the ferry with fingers crossed for a smoother ride.