Saturday

Saturday

We left Waterville at mid-morning and headed out to complete the Ring of Kerry. Should you come, the southern portion of the ring is by far the most beautiful part.

The ocean is on the right and towering hills to the left. The roads were quite challenging as we meandered from quaint town to town. We drove past a nice B&B called The Scariff Inn just west of Cathrdaniel. It was perched on a cliff overlooking a spectacular view of the ocean. If you should make the drive, it sure looked like a place to think about as a stop over point.

We seem to be traveling at low tide the past two days. Even miles from the shore we saw huge expanses of exposed mud flats that suggested the water drops more than 6 feet from high o low. For boys from the Midwest all our lives, it was fascinating to see the tidal effects. Once again we find ourselves having to dodge sheep on the road as an added hazard to watch for.

We got a picture of an honest to God chimney sweep on one of the houses. Right out of Mary Pippins! 

We stopped at a unique monastic ruins in a tiny town called Timoleague.

It was now a cemetery but oddly none of the graves had a date prior to WWII.

Our base that evening would be the city of Cork. We found a really nice old Victorian B & B within walking distance to city center.  The downtown area was swarming with high school kids. (I guess that’s the thing on Saturday night). The room was huge and the bathroom the largest we’d seen, there were two steps down into it. The B&B district seemed to be in a rugged part of town but we were able to park right out the front door. When I asked about it in the AM the proprietor said “Sometimes we get people from the hill come down here but the Garda (police) keep an eye on them” The she said “The sun doesn’t shine right on North hill” We got a kick op out of that.

We stopped in a pub for dinner. A big rugby game was on with the local boys facing a hated rival. We finally had the rowdy pub crowd we were hoping to see with the soccer game earlier in the week.

Some horses on the way ioto town

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