The Easy Tour bus picked us up at the tourism center and headed for West Cork. I had no idea what to expect, really. We passed a lot of areas that had cows and sheep and a number of very popular fishing areas. Our first stop was to have a coffee and a sweet at a small coffee shop found in a hotel. We then drove up to Gougane Barra. This is where St. Finbarr founded a monastery in the 6th century. It was quaint and the church small, but it was a very peaceful location. It's unfortunate that it was raining so hard at the time of our stopping, as we didn’t really get to fully appreciate the surroundings. One rather amusing thing struck me there. You will see a very large tree with a sign that says, "I am a tree. Please do not put coins in me." Upon further examination, you will find that previous visitors have actually stuck coins in the trunk of the tree. You don’t see that very often.
Our next stop was at a local pub (Casey’s) to have some lunch. It was close to the docks where we were going to leave for our ferry to go across to Garnish Island. The weather didn’t cooperate, but it was a nice ride. We saw some seals in their habitat, and they seemed to not mind us being on their water. Finally, we arrived to the island and explored all the lavish gardens and went up to the top of Martello Tower. It would be a beautiful area to see in the summer, with all the different tropical plants. We seemed to have gotten there at not such a good time of year. Most of the blossoms were not showing.
All in all, it was a lovely outing. I would recommend going there a little earlier in the season, but it is a beautiful area, and the bus tour was very entertaining and educational. For 8 hours, we learned about this particular area of West Cork and enjoyed the local atmosphere.