Tuesday 18 June
On this day, 7 am saw us reluctantly saying goodbye to the lovely Annaghkeen Cottage. After one or two wrong turns, we finally found the motorway and headed south to the Ring of Kerry. The motorway was very impressive after all the narrow roads we had become accustomed to. One and a half hours later we arrived [via the view below] in the quaint village of Adare with its thatched cottages.
Before continuing south, we discovered a lovely cafe to enjoy coffee and hot chocolate.
The hot chocolate came with hot milk and a chunk of chocolate and marsmallows to dip. Hmmmmmm .........
Coffee view
Driving out of Adare.
Rural view
Driving through another Irish town.
Thankfully, there was a pullover to capture these views.
Classic traditional Ireland. This 'local' wasn't bothered about how little or much was put in the pot.
Several kilometres further on, another pullover gave us our first view of the Kerry hills.
More rural scenes.
First view of the North Atlantic Ocean, with views across to the Dingle Peninsular.
The views from the Ring of Kerry
Away from the ocean for a short while.
Cahersiveen and the Daniel O'Connell memorial Church built in 1888. Re Daniel, my research has found some very interesting information. Born 1775 - died 1847, he campaigned for Catholic emancipation, including the right for Catholics to sit in the British Parliament. Also of interest is Monsignor Hugh O' Flaherty, who is buried in the church grounds. He starred in the famous Gregory Peck film, "The Scarlet and the Black. He was in the vatican during the 2nd WW and organised the escape of more than 5000 Jews and prisoner's of war from the German occupying forces, without the knowledge or approval of his superiors. To us it, we were just passing another church, in another town, but this certainly wasn't the case.
Cahersiveen, important for Daniel and the Monsigor, but look who else have made their mark here!
Shortly after Cahersiveen we had water views again. This time across to Valentia Island.
At about the point below, the navigator was too busy being photographer, and the driver took a right hand turn off the N70. Finding somewhere safe to do a u-turn was impossible, until we arrived in the town of Portmagee, at the far end of this inlet.
This proved to be a fortuitous error. Signs for the Cliffs of Kerry were spotted. We knew nothing of them, but continued along a narrowing road, entered a very full car park, paid 4 euros, walked a dusty lane for 10 mins and were soon spellbound!
Lovely to see these donkeys as we hiked up to the cliffs.
First viewpoint on the far right.
Second viewpoint, far left.
Left again
Walking up to the LHS-viewpoint.
View to Skellig Islands from the point.
Cliffs further left.
Taken from the left side, back to the first lookout and the midpoint, where we walked to from the 'circled' carpark. Truly awe inspiring geology.
View back along the inlet we had thankfully, mistakenly driven.
Back in Portmagee.
Views returning to the N70.
Back on track - Coastline at Waterville.
Climbing another pass.
New vistas.
The fog out to sea was fascinating.
Dark clouds and traffic jams greeted us at Castlecove.
Our destination for the night was Blarney, so we could visit a dear friend in nearby Cork, the following morning. Our GPS had great delight in taking us on a circuitous route to here, once the Kerry Way was complete. We had hoped to arrive approx 4pm but it was later than 6pm, and that's no blarney!
A walk through the village to the local pub for a pint and dinner, recovered our spirits at the end of this sensational day.
Two days later, we saw our last view of Ireland from the air.
Our flight took us over the Labrador Sea, north of New Foundland. I wondered if the single white spots were icebergs.
After quite a wait in Toronto, our 3 hour flight landed us at 1am in Charlottetown, on Prince Edward Island. The excitement of meeting our darling grandson after 12 months, was mounting.
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