Irish exploration

Glenmaonass waterfall

Eu

Jeanie Johnston

For the past two weeks my friend Gabriela, her boyfriend Cosmin and I have been travelling around Ireland. It was Gabriela’s second visit and Cosmin’s first. They arrived in the early hours of Friday morning June 6.We went for a drive through the Phoenix Park around 1am to see the Fallow deer. At night they venture out on the main road through the Park and graze the grass along the side The first day was not too busy as both Cosmin and Gabriela had to recover from the flight and the very poor customer service from Aer Lingus. We started in Dublin where we visited the Phoenix Park and the zoo. Afterwards we spent some time along the River Liffey from the city centre out along the quays.Both Gabriela and Cosmin are photographers so they were keen to get photos of Ireland . Cosmin is also a Biologist and knows much more about Irish flora and fauna than I ever will. We saw a sailing ship called the Jeanie Johnston coming into dock along the quay side. It was great to see a ship I had heard so much about.

Here is a link to the website about her http://www.jeaniejohnston.ie/history.html
On Saturday we set out for the Wicklow mountains. It should be noted here that Irish mountains only go to a maximum height of about 1000 metres!! On the way Gabriela spotted a wild deer but it got camera shy when Cosmin got out to take a photo and went back into the forest. We stopped at Loch Bray Upper. It was a perfect day for a walk in the mountains and I was a little surprised that so few people were around. Cosmin got a bit too close to a Furze bush and got first hand knowledge on how sharp the needle-like leaves are. We drove on past the Sally Gap and stopped again at the Glenmaonass river waterfall. It is not a steep waterfall more like a rapids but still a beautiful sight.