Joyces and Lake Country

Sunday… and this is weather perfection. (this after a foggy morning) Not a spot of wind. Perfect temperatures in the sun… no sweating. AHHH. We drove a circuitous and difficult to describe route through a fjord, lakes, more lakes and “Joyce’s Country” (I THINK it is Joyce the writer.. but not sure). 

In our rambles we stumbled on a round tower, and ocher colored sheep and a super cute church ruin, as well as mirror lake perfection, beautiful fall colors and a plethora of rock walls.  Lots of twists and turns as always, and another Betsy adventure to a dirt road and some views we might not have found. 

Seriously.. it was picture perfection for photos and weather. Soak it in. The forecast has a twist for Wednesday. 

Finish line?

Our last day in the Beara and we have maintenance to do. First get the “retained” card problem solved. This takes the bulk of the day. Find place to buy calling card. Failed attempts at using calling card in actual phone booth. (the booth is disgusting and I feel like I need to be decontaminated after use)  Visit some local shops.  Finally after 5pm reach my local credit union and spend frustrating 20 minute hearing why my card was “retained”.  Something to do with compromised numbers from a Home Depot credit card scam. Whatever… 

Card now “turned back on” until the end of the month. Whew!!

We spent the rest of the evening packing up, taking pictures of the glorious final sunset and eating the last of our fresh fish. 

Order of fish favorites for my future reference:

1- Seabream (amazing… sweet, like Halibut.. but better!)

2- Hake ( rhymes with “rake, snake, bake)  Very Halibut like… just as good

3- Haddock (white flesh, a taste cross between good trout and cod)

4- Lemon Sole (white flesh.. a tad “fishy” but good)

After a quick trip into town for one last internet fix we went to bed in anticipation of a long drive to Maam in county Galway the next morning. 

The drive was neither better nor worse than anticipated. Thank HEAVENS for Betsy the wayward SATNAV. Other than a two mile cow road “shortcut” that put us behind the exact same slow car we left before we turned off, she got us through the worst of the bazillion roundabouts in Galway with little more than one or two hot flashes. 

6hours driving and we finally made it to our last house of the trip where Brege, the hostess, had made us a fresh loaf of pan bread that neither of us had the heart to tell her we couldn’t eat. (ended up chucking it in the bushes… sad but true).  The we are in the area where they filmed “The Quiet Man”, near Cong. The house has an amazing view over the lake. We are tired.. so tired we don’t take any pictures of the amazing view over the lake. Instead we watch Big Bang Theory lounge about on the various blanket covered furniture. 

6 days left. Almost finished. I’m not sure if I am happy… or sad…. I think a little of both. 

Three Rings

“Your card has been retained” said the ATM machine. No excuse, no apologies… just “retained”. 

We were planning to attempt three rings in one day (Kerry, Skellig and Valencia) and hoped for an early start.  (The Irish seem to be fond of “rings”…the Ring of Beara, Ring of Dingle, Ring of Kerry… )My card being retained didn’t seem like a good omen for getting anywhere… let alone getting there early. 

Long story short. I have my card back thanks to a rule breaking girl inside the bank (which opened 1.5 hours after the card was swallowed), my money is still intact in my accounts… but my stupid credit union, who I informed of my travel dates, has put a hold on the card. Grrr. Nothing to do toady but get on to the Three Rings!!!

This day’s photo obsession for R was rainbows as we had them aplenty. Again it was a nasty forecast, but our best option for the long drive.  Healy Pass, now a familiar friend, gave us the best views for last and our first rainbows of the day. 

On the Kerry peninsula we got off the “Ring” as soon as possible and took a road that cut through the middle. Some one had spray painted “hard way” at the turn off to this road… and further on were the initials sprayed again. H. W. R. We dubbed it the Hard Way Road, and it was one of my favorites of the entire trip. It was actually a narrow road through the Ballaghbeama Gap and the landscape was very different from others we have gone through. With lots of super narrow ups and downs with few places to stop it was up to R to get most of the shots. (even though we saw only one other car the entire time!! you never know) She did great considering the conditions. 

From there a short stint on the Kerry ring with the goal of getting off on the Skellig ring and down to Valencia Island. The ferry to Valencia was closed, so we took the “long way” round to the south where there is a bridge to the Island. The views back to the peninsula and those of the Fogher Cliffs were, again, spectacular. I think I’ve become jaded actually. After a short 1/4 mile walk to a cliff view (after waiting out a gale and more rainbows) my response was… “well it’s not nearly as impressive as the Mizen”.. 

Good NIGHT… it was spectacular, but I was quickly dismissing it. IS there such thing as too much beauty?

The drive was an exhilarating one given the passing storms winding passes and views which were un-capturable. The last hour before dusk was the rainbow frenzy as we drove for at least that long with rainbows on one side or the other… or completely over us. (At the same time it was pouring.) R shot photos like the possessed and I’ve included her favorite from the day here at the end. 

Lucky rainbow end to a seeming not so lucky beginning. 

Ogham Adventure

How many times a year does it do this? 

Oh.. two or three times at the spring and fall….. when the moon is right or in a storm. 

This was the kind reply from the woman who lived near the Ogham stone, as we wondered how long we would be waiting for the tide to let us out.  We should have know I suppose. In our search for the Ogham stone during a “mini gale” we paused on a shielded driveway and ate lunch whilst fogging up the car. On leaving (still in the storm) the road we had come in on had some water over it, but in the poor light I thought it was just a thin film of water. Within seconds of entering the wet I could tell we were in water too deep for the little car and gunned it… only to discover this was tide water… not rain water. A mini stroke, and what felt like an eternity later we emerged with only few sputters of the car (it was likely only about 30 seconds) stopping at a high spot so we could access the driveway leading to the stone.

A kind lady came out as we approached asking if the way was clear to the main road. (the water was blocking the front of her house at that point… the water we had just plowed through)  At that time the way WAS clear to the main road, and a patch of sun had come out so we were anxious to get to the stone. She also warned us that she thought it was too wet and slippery to make it to the stone. We took our walking sticks and plowed through the cow paddies to the 5.3 meter stone with a beautiful view to the sea. On our return… well our car was literally trapped between two flooded portions of road. It was actually quite funny, and we made bets on when we might be able to drive on. I funny end to a blustery mixed day. 

The gale that was forecast did not fully manifest.. but it was a mostly cloudy rainy day. We tried to go to the Ewe sculpture garden near Glengarriff.. only to discover it is closed for the season. I just kept driving and suddenly we were on the Caha pass. It was quite spectacular even in the rain, but of course not a picture possibility… plus no turn offs. We came across “Molly’s Cottage” a tourist shop and farm where we spent well over an hour digging through the goods. It was a cute place with thatched roof and many vintage items all about. After another stop at a chocolatier, yum, we headed back over the Caha pass, where R tried again to catch pictures of the tunnels we drove through. 

Back down the Beara peninsula and off to search for that elusive ogham stone. Once again, short in kilometers… long it time. We did pause at a beautiful narrow spot in a valley where a farmer was whistling his sheep down from the rocky out crops. I really wanted a picture of him in his wool hat and jacket, but I didn’t want to insult him. (already the obnoxious tourist with the giant camera gawking in the too narrow roadway)

Down Time

So tired after the Dingle Day. The weather is giving me a reprieve. Well, actually if I hadn’t slept in we likely could have made it somewhere today since the showers were intermittent… but OY! I’m knackered. 

 The forecast for tomorrow is an actual “gale” and it seems we might not be going out at all… and I’m not heartbroken. We have gone and gone and although have had “lighter” days.. it has mostly been going going. It is catching up with me a bit. 

I call it a maintenance day. Catching up with the basics. Washing clothes, a decent shower where you shave your legs and everything, stock up groceries, actually hook up to the internet. Gather your crap together. Take a nap?

We DID go to a stone circle that was only a few kilometers from Castletownbere today (in an attempt to not have it all maintenance) … also had a nice visit with Sheila, the local manager of the property we are renting. She came over after R called her because a lightening bolt had flipped a breaker in our house. This must happen fairly regularly because she knew exactly which breaker went out and said hers had flipped too. 

Now there is time to watch more British tellie which seems to be loaded with a variety of incomprehensible game shows where dart champions are considered celebrities and prizes are usually a trip to Florida.

Dingle Day

“I’m out of memory.”

“Again?” 

“Yes”

Nothing to due with the computer this time. It’s the memory on R’s camera. I made the mistake (or fortunate choice depending on your view) of showing her the continuous photo mode on the camera. That tool, combined with her passion for waves has turned into a bit of an obsession, and definitely a memory card breaker. (especially when your sd card has only 1g!… don’t even go there… the old camera won’t read new sd cards… I’ve already tried)

Like an automatic weapon, I can here her continuos clicking anytime we are near waves. phew, phew, phew, phew, phew, phew, phew, phew, phew, phew, phew, phew, phew, phew, phew, phew, phew, phew, phew, phew, phew, phew. Hence. Really it is an obsession. So…Out of memory. 

Today she is out of memory, and deleting what she can as we stop by a roadside waterfall, on the Dingle Peninsula. After a day of rest inside while torrential rains battered our cute rental house we felt fortunate to be out. The forecast for the week showed only clouds and the lowest chance of rain at 60%… the rest of the week was at 80% to 100%. It didn’t look too promising.

But… a bit of sun cracked through the windows on Monday (quickly followed by some rain) and we decided we might as well try to make it through the “long” trek to the Dingle Peninsula. The miles are really not that many.. but when you average about 30 miles per hour due to road conditions (not even accounting for stops!) it makes for a very long day. 

Obsessions of my own meant I was focused on making it as far south as the Gallarus Oratory. (A 1300 year old early Christian Church built from dry stone stacking.)   It seemed as if it were raining all about us, but we managed to stay within holes of sunshine or minimal rain for most of the day. Once we hit Killarney (main hub for the Ring of Kerry, it was evident we were in American tourist country. Actual American STOP signs and many “DRIVE ONE THE LEFT” reminders everywhere. (Not to mention Americans and tour buses)  We thought we would drive out of them when we reached the Dingle Peninsula.. but not so. It was also signed for a US audience and every accent we heard outside at stops was some version of our own. It made me appreciate the quiet and relative un cluttered time we had driving the Beara, Mizen and Sheeps peninsulas. The most common accents we heard on these were Eastern European!  This because in the 90 there was a huge influx of Lithuanians and Poles to this region of Ireland. (I know this because I asked at the local supermarket one Saturday night while everyone who was shopping was speaking in some sort of Slavic tongue and wearing kole black eyeliner.. not to mention the plethora of pickled items imported from those countries)  But back to Dingle. 

LONG long day driving.. but another spectacular one. More amazing coastline (with those photo tempting waves) barren heather and gorse hillsides dotted with sheep. Rock walls centuries old, crazy steep roads (several of which we took to get off the beaten path) and views too expansive and nuanced to describe or photograph. 

(of note:… we drove twice through the Healy pass this day, home of the stinky man, now referred to as “Healy Man”. His tractor is still on the road, but no sign of him. Thank heavens)