IRELAND: RING OF KERRY

Friday, August 15th - Day 3

We tried to leave early Friday morning, but our plan was foiled. We were in the dining room of our B & B by 8am for our first taste of a real Irish breakfast which included: a fried egg, tomato, 2 sausages, 2 pieces of ham, light blood pudding, and dark blood pudding. My favorite was the pudding! It's so good! We started chatting with the folks seated around us. One couple was from Australia. They had no set plan for their vacation. We ate and chatted for more than half an hour! Doh!

We realized we had to get on the road before the line of tour busses. There can be over 100 tour busses along the Ring of Kerry. The roads are fairly narrow. We knew we wanted to beat them there! As we left, our hosts (Teresa, Marcus and their son Jonathan) kept giving us helpful hints for the Ring of Kerry. They were so sweet it was hard to just say goodbye. By 9:30 we were finally off! (Only an hour behind schedule) 

We decided it would be best to go from the west side to east on the Ring, instead of the other way around like Rick Steves recommends because we wanted to get to a sheep herding demonstration by 2pm on the east side. The first hour we just drove, instead of stopping to take photos every 5 feet to gain some ground. There were definitely a few busses out already! Most of the busses stopped frequently, and that worked to our advantage. Once we reached the tip of the peninsula we journeyed off onto a section of road that the busses couldn't travel on. We came to a ferry in Knightstown that would take us to Valentia Island. Normally, any tourists wanting to travel to Skellig Michael Islands would leave from Valentia; however, Star Wars was being filmed Skellig Michael while we were there, so they weren't letting anyone out there! How cool is that?! 

Our first photo of the Ring of Kerry while waiting for the ferry.

The ferry took all of 5 minutes! So quick and easy!

We came to Portmagee where we crossed a bridge back to the mainland and stopped to buy some sandwiches for a picnic. 

Farther down the road we saw a sign for "The Greatest Views on The Ring of Kerry." It was 4 Euro/person. For 4 Euro it better be the BEST! On our 10 minute walk we saw these fake beehive huts. Photo op!

Well, the views certainly didn't disappoint. We came to a cliff and spotted Skellig Michael in the distance. 

This was the view behind us as we looked away from the ocean.

Happy campers! Perfect spot for a picnic!

Doesn't this look fake?

After 25 minutes of enjoying our 4 Euro worth of views, we continued on our tour...

At the top of the ridge we had to get a jumping photo!

Around the corner, we came across a sandy beach! This was pure torture for Nick: strong winds, beautiful weather, and a perfect beach to set up a kite board. :( Poor Nick. 

This lovely beast was on a field right behind the beach. What a lucky cow!

Nick's sad face. No kiteboarding for you!

We saw a little chocolate factory nearby. Hopefully that would make him feel better. 

We tasted about a dozen chocolates and ended up buying some dark chocolate bark. Yum! 

And we were off again!...

We came across some old ruins along the water and Nick realllllly wanted to stop, but I told him we were already running late. He was so grumpy! He couldn't kite board, and he couldn't stop and look at some old ruins on the water. Life was pretty tough for Nick. :)

We came to the Coomakesta Pass. It's one of the highest points on the Ring. There were tons of busses in the parking lot, so we made our stop quick and took a pic from the car. 

Our next goal was to make it to the Kissane Sheep Farm before 2pm. Our GPS gave us an estimated arrival time of 2:45pm. Dang! Nick was flying around the corners to try and shave off some time. Yeehaw!

We made it by 2:15pm! Phew! They had just done one demonstration and they were getting ready to do a second one. Perfect! 

These sheep were getting ready to be sheared.

I sat next to two American women as we waited. One asked what country I was from. I said, "Calfornia." Haha! They were both from Ohio. They were amazed that Nick and I were driving ourselves around the country! 

The demo started. In about 5 minutes this sheep was completed sheared and stamped with the farms logo. The sheep stay indoors for several days after they're sheared to let their bodies adjust to the new temperature. 

This border collie came to watch as well. :)

Next we headed outside to see the sheep herding. The dogs were ready to go!

Some of the dogs listen to their demands, while others know hand signals. 

One got away...

but not for long.

After about 20 minutes the dogs had herded the sheep in a big loop around the farm. John, the owner, told us a little about the farm and the dogs. He said he wouldn't leave the dogs alone for too long otherwise they would form a pack and likely kill some of the sheep. He said they're all sweet dogs, but that just happens when you have a group of dogs together. He also said that not all of their border collies make the cut. Some get too distracted or are too skittish. He never ends up using them. 

After the demo, I saw the dogs running back to the farm so I bent down and stuck my arms out to see if they would come to me. The dog behind the fence came running over. The owner happened to walk by and couldn't believe his eyes. He said that dog very rarely takes to people. The one with the blue eye loves attention, but the other dog was the complete opposite. He stood there watching he was in such disbelief. I told John if he ever needed any help I'd be glad to come back! Haha! 

At the end, we wandered around to get some photos. 

We came across some kittens!

This one was the boss! She wasn't even intimidated by the dogs!

It was so hard to leave! Who wouldn't want to spend time on a farm in Ireland with sheep, dogs, and kittens. My kind of heaven!

The last part of our drive was just heading to the Dingle Peninsula. 

Inch Strand

Uh oh! We passed another sandy, windy beach! "Don't look Nick!" 

The land in the foreground is part of the Ring of Kerry.

Dingle Peninsula

Beautiful views everywhere you looked! I got out of the car to get this photo...

I ALMOST sat on this when I got back in the car. Tricky Nick! He was dying laughing as he watched me. 

We made it to Dingle! We stayed at Murphy's B & B. The owner, Michael, was there to greet us. We reserved a triple room because it was the only room left. He decided to change the room rate for us because there were only two of us. That saved us 60 Euro! How thoughtful!

Afterward, we hit the town. We started at the bike shop across the street called The Mountain Man. He was open early in the morning, so we were going to come back and rent a bike to do the 30-mile Dingle loop the next day

. We continued on our tour. I gave Nick my Rick Steves book to do the guiding for once, and I would take photos. He didn't really like that idea, but he went along with it. 

There are a ton of pubs in Dingle, even though the town is so small. Many of the pubs double as stores during the day. Dick Mack's sells knick knacks. 

We came across a church. We got a little lost looking for a garden in the back. This is Nick's "uhhh..I think we're lost" face. Leading tours is harder than it looks!

This was the colorful pub-lined main street. 

We started to get hungry so we walked just past our hotel to Dooley's. Locals raved about their fish n' chips, so we gave it a try. It was SO good!

We overheard someone speaking Gaelic while we were eating. As we were leaving the couple behind us struck up a conversation. They were from Northern Ireland, but you could tell they liked the south better. They taught us a few words in Gaelic. "Slan" means "Goodbye." "Slainta" means "cheers." They also taught Nick how to say, "Kiss my ____." Luckily, he can't remember that one.  

We walked off our fish n' chips by strolling along the waterfront. There was a big regatta happening in Dingle on Saturday, and we could tell the town was busy getting ready for it. 

On our way back to our hotel, Nick insisted on taking a photo with some berries in Dingle. (Hopefully you don't get the reference.)

That night we went to a few pubs to hear some traditional Irish music. On our Pub tour in Dublin we were told that traditional music never involves a microphone. The first few pubs definitely had microphones and bands playing. We were searching for the real deal. After mostly failed attempts we came across a pub near us that seemed smaller, and a bit more intimate. We stayed for about 30 minutes listening. We recognized a few of the songs from our Dublin tour. We called it an early night that night because we were getting up early for our big bike ride the next day! 

Can't wait for day 4!!!