I started the morning with a quick trip to the PO in Dingle, where I spent 50 Euro to send 35 Euro worth of stuff back to the US. Oh well.  Don't have to carry it....then we dropped off a couple of people for the horseback riding.  I skipped it, as I didn't feel like riding english.  That was a good call on my part, as the drive offered an unexpected and quite spectacular adventure.
We drove up to a little area where there was a pottery shop (lovely stuff), and as we drove there I spotted a beach with some caves along it and asked if we could go down there. So while others shopped, Mark took Corkey, Gary Rich and myself down to the beach, where we found fossils, caves, birds and generally cool rock formations.

Getting in the cave required a walk through some water, but I was not deterred.  Off came the shoes and socks, and man was it cool to walk in the sandy cave and here the waves outside.  Cool wet sand, beautiful rock inside.  For obvious reasons I didn't carry my camera inside, but I did try for a couple of iPhone pix.  The light was not accommodating.

We saw fossils and crawled around on the rock.  If I had not been loaded down with junk in my pockets and my camera and stuff I would have tried some more difficult areas on the rocks, but there was plenty to be seen just a few feet off the ground.  Mark is an excellent guide, and I am so lucky he was game for this unplanned excursion, because it was a real find.

After a lunch at a pub that was once owned by a member of the antartic expedition on the Endurance with Shackelton, we visited an oratory from the 7th or 8th century.  What is especially shocking about these sorts of things is how small they are.  This was a perfect little structure like an overturned ship with the front and back shaved square, with a door to the east and a window to the west.  A small graveyard stood beside it.

In the car I got a chance to talk to one of our fellow travelers, Gary, who is an opthomalogist doing research that I found really interesting.  My interest of the last couple of years in brain science was firing as he spoke.  Sometimes I really wish I could do my education over, not to give up the one I have, but to be able to understand neurology (for instance) better.  I think I will dig back in to the books on the brain I have on my iPad when I get to Norway.

Mark was loaded with information, song and poetry today.  He was impressed that I had read Finnegan's Wake and that I knew some other lit stuff, but, really, that's just a fact of my education, not my person.  I felt rather embarrassed about it, since I am so ignorant of basic history and geography and politics, as every day on this trip makes evident.

Later we were off toward the cliffs of Moher, though we went to some other cliffs called the Kilkee cliffs.  Fantastic.  Man, if these are not the most spectacular cliffs along the ocean, I cannot imagine the impact Moher will have tomorrow.

Had a wonderful dinner with Pam, where we talked about many things.  I realized today that being with Pam makes this trip very much easier for me, not only for the sharing of the experiences, but because she is so funny and charming I have been able to enjoy the benefit of her breaking the ice for us both.