Ireland: Ring of Kerry

I sit here writing you from the 2nd floor of the Coachman hotel in Kenmare, Ireland.  Below me, probably almost literally, plays an Irish band consisting from what I can tell of guitar, accordion, a fiddle and some foot stomping.  It's loud enough to be distinct, but not so much that it's distracting.  And while you might think that to be a bit annoying, music coming up through the floor of your hotel room, I guess I’m embracing it as part of the experience.  I better be because it’s nearly 10:30.  Thankfully we have nothing to get up for and from what I understand, the bands usually finish around this time anyway, so unless we were a couple of tea-tottlers ready to be in bed by nine, I don’t think our eventual sleep will be bothered much.  

It’s a nice little hotel.  Right in the middle of town.  A town, which from just looking at the main drag areas is defined by it’s triangular shape in which three bustling streets all come together at it’s points.  Our reason for coming this way after Dingle is a tour of the Ring of Kerry.  Look at "things to do in Ireland" and this will consistently be atop any list.  It's a driving tour and when I read up on it, I came across a couple recommendations that staying outside Killarny was the way to go.  Killarney seems to be the biggest town along the tour and as such, the most busy.  Due to it being the easiest to get to and the midway point between the larger cities of Limerick and Cork, it attracks a crowd.  So, we opted for the smaller town of Kenmare, just 30 km to the south.  

Coming out of Dingle after the wedding weekend died down, we got in last night, had some dinner at the hotel restaurant (some Cottage Pie just because) before having a final drink down the street at the Wander Inn.  Nothing spectacular at either, but nice atmosphere at both.  

We weren’t sure what to expect on our journey through Kerry.  Every time I’d look for recommendations on sights to see or stop off at, I wouldn’t find much outside of simply driving the ring.  And so after a while, we kind of agreed that maybe the deal was just that, we’d drive and see.  If something looked interesting, we’d stop.  And so after grabbing a small, quick bit for breakfast at a spot down the street, we set off at about 9:30.  We drove the ring clockwise, which may seem like an odd thing to point out, but it was a recommendation based on going against the grain, which meant going the opposite way of the tour buses.  As we quickly discovered, it also meant having the sea on the passenger side, which meant having an easy pull over to the left should we come across a site or path we wanted to take.  Throughout the day, this continually worked in our favor because frankly, I'm still getting use to driving on the wrong side of the road and anything that can help keep me out of  trouble is a good thing.  

Our first stop might have been our best.  Just outside of Snee, we pulled off into a small dugout to let a car behind us pass by.  It was a wooded area, but not more than twenty feet through the trees on our left, there was a bay.  Ann jumped out and I followed.  We found a little path downward and soon found ourselves at the water amongst a really interesting formation of rock jutting upwards out of the ground and water.  Surrounded by sand and grass, it was easy enough to climb around and catch some nice view of the shoreline we’d soon be traveling along.  It was also quiet, which is always a great thing about finding the paths less traveled.  There was nothing historically significant about this place, nor was there some super interesting geological feature, but you felt authentically in the middle of the Irish seaside, exploring some unique rock and plant life that you wouldn’t find elsewhere.

We continued on, eventually stopping off a random little inlet with a sandy beach.  About this time, the sun popped out, which brightened up everything.  Once again, it wasn’t a heavily traveled place, but offered some quiet glimpes of the seaside.

Onward we went, stopping at some viewpoints overlooking the bay or the villages beneath us as we passed through higher grounds.  As the morning ticked toward noon, we eventually began coming across those tour buses we had read about.  Some of the panoramas we saw were great and if we’d had more time, I’m sure dipping down to the beaches would have been a great way to sit back and relax.  Although, it did become apparent that finding a spot out of the wind was either quite a skill or a fruitless endeavor.  After a few days now in Ireland, we had learned that the only thing predictable about the weather was it being unpredictable.  Times of sun punctuated by rain and gusts of wind.  And today was no different.  Luckily the rain stayed mostly away so it was the wind that was the most bothersome.  

We eventually grabbed some lunch at the Quay, which was nicely positioned overlooking the Dingle Bay, which meant that we could just about see where we had spent the last few days.  It struct me as kind of funny that we’d spent so much time over the past couple days driving, first out of Dingle and now around Kerry, and here we were overlooking a bay, not more than a few miles across gazing at the countryside from which we just came.  

By this time, we’d agreed that it would be best to keep our stops to a minimum.  The northern part of the peninsula apparently didn’t offer quite as many stop off points, and besides, it was getting a little samey-samey anyway.  A beautiful samey-samey, but nothing unique.  Instead, we mapped a route for the castle just outside Killarney.  I don’t know that we had marked this as a must see, but since we had to make our way through that part of town, it seemed to make sense to stop.  

The castle wasn’t remarkable, but it was something different.  We ponied up for the tour, which offered some color that we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.  After tiring of feeling like cattle being led around (the tour guide was very nice by the way), we opted for a walk through the wooded grounds.  It was nice to stretch our legs, although I found myself wishing it could have offered ourselves an opportunity to jump off the paved path onto some less frequented pathways.  But alas, the rain came back and chased us to the car.  

We made a pit stop at the Muckross House where we bypassed the paid entry to opt stroll through the gardens.  But once again, we were chased away by the rain.  And so, we drove on, now pointed toward Kenmore.  This unfortunately is where I got a little too aggressive with my driving.  This particular route went up and over a pass, with lots of S turns and narrow roads.  I felt the need to release a bit and race upwards, finding small humor in anytime I could get Ann to catch her breath.  But, one particular curve jumped out and got me.  At the time, I seemed like I walked the backend on a rock, such was the thud that we heard.  We looked nervously at each other and stopped soon after.  A quick look revealed no damage.  Received, we headed back up the road.  Only seconds later, the engine light went on and our info system was telling us we were loosing pressure in the tire on that same back end.  There was damage after all.  We pulled off at the pass we had stopped at the day prior and could immediately herar the hissing of the air.  There was nothing left to do, but change the tire.  We did that with relative ease, noting the 80 km/hr speed limit on it, quickly realizing this was going to be a problem driving north the next day.  Ann, bless her heart, jumped on the phone and started dialing Enterprise.  We got some conflicting info, but ultimately, it sounded like we’d be responsible for buying a new tire.  We’d have to confirm this in the morning and due to it being well after 6pm, there wasn’t much we could do.

So, we drove on.  Back into town, we had a nice meal at an Italian restaurant, caught some music at a pub down the road (McCarthys) and found our way back to the room for a well deserved nights rest.