Day 5 Kenmare - Dingle and Slea Head

We knew our ridiculous good fortune couldn't last and today the rains came and stayed.
Kenmare was a really good base and the Hawthorn B&B was perfectly placed on the edge of the town bit with good parking, We failed to photo the high street busy in the sunshine last night after dinner so here it is on a wet Sunday morning including the 2 pubs at which we ate.




Kenmare high street

We set off in the rain to complete the Killarney end of the Kerry Ring commencing with the pass North via Molls Gap. The pass is far from spectacular though the day didn't help and yesterday's Gap of Dunloe experience was more dramatic.

Moll's Gap from south

The next landmark on the Ring is Ladies View and we pulled into a layby short of the main commercial viewing point which was good. Excellent views north and south across lakes and valleys with mountain backdrops.

Ladies' View north

Continuing along the N71 and entering the Killarney National Park, the road wove its way through beautiful deciduous woodland with masses of ferns skirting the roadside. I'll admit at this point that I've taken to calling the Wild Atlantic Way the 'Wibbly Wobbly Way', partly because of the wave symbol on the markers but also because the roads keep weaving.

Laybys provide stopping points to take in lake views dropping toward Muckross and then we see parking for Torc Waterfall on the right. A woodland walk of 5min takes us up to the falls (free) making a nice diversion from the drive. It evens holds on the rain for awhile though it is cooler and windy. There are other walks at the falls from 30m to 2.5hr but we're committed to keep moving.

Torc Waterfall

We passed through Killarney town which looked very pleasant with parkland and parked up Jaunting Carts waiting for customers in the rain.

Leaving the Kerry Ring behind, we continued along the southern coast of the Dingle peninsula in torrential rain. as far as Inch Beach, a spit which sticks out to the south with a stunning beach running along it. The rain had abated slightly and we parked on the sand and with our coats on ventured a walk on the beach for a while watching an amazingly skilful kite surfer though his skill seemed to fail later when he was trying to get the kite in in the strong winds; we watched for a while then gave up and left him to it. As we headed back to the car the rain returned.

Inch Beach parking on the sand

Kite surfing

wet heads

As we left Inch Beach, I couldn't resist a drive on the sand, no logic to it but fun for being unusual.

Heavy rain continued and we had the oft spoken  'atmospheric' views across sea withvheadlands fading to grey one after another. I'd call it dismal.

atmospheric ?

We encountered Dingle for the first time passing through. We have picked a bank holiday weekend to come here and even in the rain the traffic is backed up from the town due to people trying to park. We passed through eventually and continued to Ventry beach, a very nice curving bay. Shortly afterward we pulled into the Stonehouse café for a brief light lunch. When we got back on the road it was 2:40 and getting late fro our planned itinerary.

We stopped at signs for a Pre-historic fort which on entrance presented a €2 each charge paid into a box with a big sign CCTV in operation. We paid in spite of the clearly dummy camera :)  The fort was unlike anything we've seen before and quite interesting even though limited. All dry stone, the massively thick wall can be seen to start curving in in the rooms suggesting he beehive roof structure. Drizzling rather than raining.

Layout of Dunbeg Fort

We were now dring the Slea Head ring we drove on rounding the end of the peninsula of a brief cliff hugging road around Slea Head before pulling into the most Westerly car park in Europe at Garraun Point with views across the sound to the Blasket Islands.


Blasket Isands from Slea Head

We had had a break from the rain but I was very tired of driving and we had some difficulty with roads and directions and ended up heading back toward Dingle over the R559 having missed the last northern bit of the Sleah Head drive. We decided it was no bad thing and continued to cut short and head fro our lodgings.

Now, our accommodation at Dingle had been arranged oddly; our original B&B had cancelled on us to a family wedding and re-arranged to another. Our only communication with the replacement, Ashes, had been via telephone and Google Maps had provided a location on the high street. Arriving in Dingle, it was still crammed with traffic and we circled through the centre of the town three times seeing Ashes but not able to park in spite of being assured that it had parking. Eventually, we pulled up outside town to phone and noticed I'd written Spa Road rather than High Street. A new look at the map showed us to be just off Spa Road and within 3 mins we had found our very nice Ashes B&B with parking. Wrong Ashes! who'd have thought?

We were given a recommendation for the Marina Inn to eat which was the far end of town and it turned out perfect. We walked straight there and got the last 2 seats to eat. The staff were great and the food good but the best was that Sunday night from 5:30 is their open night for musicians and singers and just after 6:30 one guy walked in with a violin and over then next half hour was joined by a mandolin player, 2 accordionists, another violinist, a penny whistle and mouth organ and a percussionist. It was clear most were meeting for the first time and we were in effect witness to a jam session.

Jamming



evening sky

Marina Inn

Dingle lower street

Dingle higher street

After dinner the rain had finally stopped for a while and we had a walk out along the harbour wall before returning to the B&B, a half bottle of wine and surprisingly good Internet connection.

Statistics (from Dublin):

Miles today: 93; Miles so far: 603; Fuel added so far: 30 litres;

Track Today and since Journey Start: