Setting off from misy Glengarriff, we wove a mystical path to Dingle, stopping at the beautiful township of Kenmare. Here we stopped and had a coffee and sought advice from a very helpful lady in the cafe. She "told" us the route we would take to Dingle, not necessarily the most frequented but the scenic route. The foodmarket was on and we tasted some beautiful honey still on the comb, tasted and bought a tasty local cheese, a berry tart from the local bakery and off we went to Killarney.
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| Road signs in Kenmare |
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| Kenmare main street |
After Leaving Kenmare we embarked on what was to be the
highlight of our trip. The scenery,
again along very narrow and windy roads was at first rugged and hilly.
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| Pass between Kenmare & Killarney |
We then dropped into St Mary’s Cathedral in Killarney –
gothic churches – we love them.
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| St Mary's Killarney |
After Killarney we followed the directions
to the letter and the scenery started to change – as did the weather. As we
started along the Dingle Peninsular, to the left of the road – looking towards
the Ring of Kerry – the weather was misty and miserable but to our right the
sun was shining!
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| Slea Head, Dingle Peninsular |
The weather continued to improve the closer we got to
Dingle. Our café lady had told us to go through dingle and onto Slea Head. We
thought she meant to stay but it’s the view you go for. These photos were taken
late afternoon.
We drove back towards Dingle and noticed the B & Bs that
were about 6kms out of town had the most spectacular views. We choose The
Plough where David, the husband, came to greet us. He said “herself is out at
the moment, I’ll just ring her”. It
seems that by not booking ahead, we are getting “stand-by rates” and we have
had no difficulty finding accommodation. One little glitch was no pub that
served food nearby so we went to the general store down the road and bought
some basics – bread (brown soda for me), cheese, cold meats and salad. Our
host, Beatrice, provided the crockery and cutlery and we had a lovely dinner
with red wine. The view from the front sitting room was spectacular. This photo of Peter was taken from inside!
Next morning we decided to stay an extra night and “chill
out” around Dingle. The area has quite a few examples of stone buildings built BC, including the remains of a fort on the edge of a cliff and beehive huts. Amazing! What is a little amusing is, you might see a small structure on the side of the road and think "let's check this out". Just before you reach it, you notice that there is a tiny hut with a person inside just waiting to take 2 or 3 euros to get closer.
A few observations I have made along the way:
- It's so easy to get the Irish talking - all Peter has to do is mention the word 'rugby' and they're off, particularly talking to Australians - different story for the English and Italians!
- Out in the middle of nowhere there is often a group of four to ten houses in a row, identical design. I don't quite get it - maybe developers just get lazy?
- The number of pubs in small downs is amazing, e.g. Dingle has 20 and it's a small town!
- The Irish never say "th". Not ever. It is always 't' e.g. I tink I'll have tree points.
- They have no fear - riding push bikes in the rain, along incredibly narrow roads, with no helmets.
- Americans get very stressed about the narrow, winding roads. So much so that some just want to go home.
- Nearly every Irish person we have met has an immediate family member living in Australia.
Tonight we're in the tiny village of Doolin - which still has at least five pubs and is within five minutes of the Cliffs of Moher. More on that later - we're going over the road for dinner and music.
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