Our next day in Ireland was dedicated to indulging Deke’s insatiable desire for castle hunting. Neither rain, nor dusk, nor getting lost in narrow roads could deter him. We drove around the wilds of County Clare, seeking Deke’s often elusive prey. The clouds cooperated for the most part, providing a suitably dramatic background for our subjects. While Deke stalked with his fancy new Canon 5D Mark III, I captured the capturer with these iPhone pics.

I began to notice a little reverse Clarity in Camera Raw provided the other-worldly quality of the day. Here the hunter scouts his prey along the shores of Galway Bay:

Here Deke stalks a classic fairy tale-looking structure near our hotel in Doolin. (Yeah, “fairy tale” is an official architectural style of castle.)

Many castles we discovered were on private property and had to be enjoyed from afar (I insisted):

Some weren’t even castles, but rather ruined abbeys, but the lack of electric fence is practically an invitation. That’s my vantage point from below with the car making sure it didn’t slide down a muddy road, block a working tractor from its duties, or refuse to make a quick getaway. Meanwhile, Deke’s inside intrepidly facing his prey up close.

Finally, we ended the day near this tower on the Cliffs of Moher. We lovingly renamed them the Cliffs of Insanity because A) that’s what they inspired in the movie “The Princess Bride” and B) that’s the pace with which we were frantically trying to find them before sunset. Tip: Ireland’s most popular tourist attraction is practically deserted at dusk on cold November afternoons.