5 Day Option: March 14th - March 18th

The 5 day option will begin in Cork on the morning of March 14th and will follow the same itinerary as the 10 day and 7 day. If you require accommodation in Cork the night before, we will be happy to organise this for you. The 5 day trip will begin in the European capital of culture Cork and travel to the historic city of Limerick of for the first night. Following this you will go to Oranmore in Galway, Carna in Connemara and stay in Galway city on St. Patricks Day.

Note: Let us know in advance what kilometre you would like to run with the baton in hand when you are booking with us so we can organise this with Rith. Get the whole bus running together through a town or part of the country of your choice!

Day 1: On the Extreme Bus again with your fellow travellers and first things first, you are going to have to learn some Irish. Yes, you will be tested as you go around and bonus points will be awarded on merit. We are hoping that you haven't picked up the Cork accent from the night before!

On the bus we will be encouraging people to try and talk with each other in a few words of Irish and as we travel from town to town we will explain to you what each town name means and how it is relevant to the people that live there. Each town name in Ireland will tell you something about the area, sometimes whether it is a religious site, a geographical anomaly or a site of historical importance. It's a pity that the anglicised version does not convey the true meaning of Irish names.

We will take you to a part of the Ring of Kerry today and visit the holiday town of Killarney. You will get the opportunity of travelling in a horse and cart around the National Park and hearing stories off the jarvies who run these. They would be the closest group of Irish people to the Sinai in the Sahara! Wild deer run free in this park and is renowned worldwide for been one of the most scenic areas in Ireland. After Killarney, we will visit the charming little village of Adare before arriving in the Viking city of Limerick. You will get to see King Johns Castle and also visit the treaty stone in this historic city. Limerick in my opinion is one of the most underrated cities in Ireland. At first glance one would be forgiven to think that there is not much to see or do, but spend a little time there and you will notice that it is a vibrant little city with an underground scene of great Irish music and story tellers. Let your guide show you the best places to go and experience this for yourself.

Day 2: Don't close your eyes today because you will miss one of the new wonders of the world; the Cliffs of Moher. We will leave Limerick and give you the opportunity again to run with the baton again today. On leaving Limerick City we will pass by Bunratty Castle where they organise banquets for hungry folk and use their hands instead of knives and forks. The imaginative little folk in Bunratty also make a luxurious wine that is made out of honey called "mead". It was a tradition among the Babylonians that then came to Ireland for the family of a bride getting married to provide the newlyweds with a month's supply of this mead honey based wine and this is where we get the term "honeymoon" from, as a month is just about a full lunar cycle. We will pass through the town of Ennis and move westwards towards the village of Ennistymon that offers week long Irish music lessons during the summer. Pretty soon, we will get the first view of the windswept Atlantic coast and our first stop will be at the surfing town of Lahinch where you can go for a walk on the beach getting your hunger up before going to the Cliffs of Moher. You will get to spend a couple of hours at this famous site before making our way towards the limestone region of the Burren or "na Boireann" as we know it, stony place. This wonderful karst region is a sight to see and you will not be disappointed with this lunar landscape. For those of you who take glee in the flora of a region, you will be aghast with awe in the burren. Many people just walk around looking at the wild orchids, or gentian blues that grow between the klints and grykes that make up this national park. Wild goats run free on this barren landscape that the lovely Oliver Cromwell summed quiet well - "Not enough water to drown a man, not enough wood to hang a man and not enough earth to bury a man", charming dinner guest! Every year, our Celtic pagan past is celebrated on the hills of this region where they light fires celebrating the different equinoxes of the year, Bealtaine, Samhain, Imbolc and Lughnasa and also St. Johns Eve. Before arriving in the town of Oranmore, our stop for the night, we will make a detour to see Corcomroe Abbey a 12th century Cistercian Abbey and also get to view the seaside village of Kinvarra and Dunguaire Castle. Oranmore really is the best of both worlds, rural and suburban, historic and modern! It is situated 10 minutes drive from Galway city, at the crossroads to all major driving routes; Galway, Sligo, Dublin, Shannon, Limerick and Killarney. With an estimated population of over 7,000 residents and growing, Oranmore truly is a wonderful place to live or visit!

Day 3: Connemara is beckoning for us today. We will leave Oranmore and do a full day in this magical place. We will begin by taking you to the town of Westport before going to the base of Croagh Patrick. If you are feeling fit, you are more than welcome to climb this with us. Otherwise you can stroll around the town until lunchtime. We will drive from there through the middle of Connemara, the vast wilderness that is synonymous with walking and nature. We will take a short stroll down the famine trail and you will learn all about our sad past during the 19th century when this area and other large parts of Ireland were devastated by a little fungus called phytophora infestans, otherwise known as potato blight and caused what is known as the "Great Famine". Because of this one of the largest Diasporas known to humankind happened and from this event, over a million people left our lands to find safety in other countries where they have left their mark on every way of life. You may even have come from this! Kylemore Abbey will be on the agenda today as well before we go to Clifden, a Wild West town where Marconi sent his first transatlantic message to Newfoundland and also where Alcock and Brown landed their plane after making the first flight across the Atlantic. What looked like flat ground actually turned out to be good old Connemara bog and the plane duly came to a stop and like a sponge swallowed the plane slowly! We will meet up with the baton again in the Gaeltacht village of Carna that evening. We will take the coast road towards this village enjoying the scenery the 12 bens got to offer and the Atlantic islands we will be able to see. Enjoy entertainment with sean nos dancing and singing this evening.

Day 4: This is final run with the baton today as we make our way to Galway city and remember it is St. Patricks Day and there is no better place to celebrate our national day than in this bohemian lively city. Known as the city of tribes, the last place Columbus visited before he set sail to the West Indies, the home of the famous Claddagh ring and the Joyce family line, it is a vibrant city and the fastest growing city in Western Europe. Full of musicians and street performers, the party tonight looks like it will be the party of the century! Celebrate it with all your other partakers in the festival. We will be making our way via the coast to Galway passing villages like Carraroe, Spiddal and onto Salthill before arriving in the city to finish off what has been an amazing past week.

Day 5: Alas, this is the final day of your tour and we will be bringing you back to Dublin where your adventure began. We still have a couple of things to do and see however as we will be stopping in the monastic site of Clonmacnoise and also the town of Ballinasloe before hitting Dublin. We will be telling stories on the way back of the last 10 days we spent together and friends that we have made and hopefully will keep for the next Rith.