A bright full moon hangs over Inisheer and the North Atlantic. A light wind blows brisk clean air off the ocean. It’s early morning and a faint orange ribbon of sky glows on the eastern horizon. We walk the deserted road along the coast listening to waves crash and stretching our legs before breakfast and the 8 am ferry for Rossaveel on the mainland.

Our B&B hosts prepares not a Full Irish but what we consider a delicious Half Irish breakfast: eggs, baked beans, brown soda bread with butter and a pot of strong tea.

The passenger ferry to Rossaveel is the local, stopping at one of the other Aran Islands, and carrying mostly island residents to the mainland. The sea during the hour crossing is much calmer than yesterday.

From Rossaveel, we take small roads along the coastline, winding our way out small peninsulas and back, catching views north to Connemara National Park and the Twelve Bens mountains. As we have come to expect, a few short but torrential rain squalls blow through. The first hits us before lunch and drenches us. Fortunately, it isn’t especially cold and we slowly dry out as we eat a meal of pannier remnants outside an unfortunately closed restaurant, where we had hoped to have hot coffee and soup. There isn’t a lot out here, which is why we carry extra food, and beans on rice crackers, oranges and almonds and some chocolate does the job. The next rain storm comes out of nowhere and pummels us for a few short minutes with drops that smack our legs and fill our shoes. And then it’s gone.

It’s late afternoon by the time we arrive at our hotel. It’s a small and fancy place Allegra has found and perhaps because we are soaking wet and look pitiful, we are given chocolate cake and upgraded to a room with its own living room. It also has a heated drying rack, which comes in very handy.