Day 4
Woke up feeling kind of hung over at 8:30 but recovered in an hour or 2. Jill had gotten up at 6. We need to synchronize this.
Breakfast of the usual and Jill made a Johnson Cooler to hold lunch. Destination - Beara Peninsula. We hadn't driven enough lately; we needed to drive some more.
Thru Sneem and Kenmare and we finally hit the Beara Peninsula before 12. Almost immediately the scenery got inspiring.
At first we were glimpsing the Kenmare River (really a bay or inlet) through the hedgerows. You knew it was out there but all we saw was vegetation. Then gradually the river revealed itself. They really needed Manny to come in with some bulldozers and open up the view a bit. On the other side of the River was the Iveragah Peninsula, and we could almost make out Sneem at one point.
You thought the Iveragh Peninsula was wild? The Beara was even more so. The road was unreal, twisting, turning, one lane. No farms or habitation to speak of. The road tunneling through copses of trees, hedgerows, etc. Through dense vegetation like a rain forest. I prayed for no one to come in the opposite direction so I didn't have to back up. No one did.
There were a few cars in each direction but mostly in our direction. That is, westbound on the north side of the peninsula.
The weather amazingly got sunny and the water was a deep azure blue. Oyster beds in the river but few boats. Almost none. Almost no people too. Stopped at a little place and Jill bought very good turkey and sodas.
We stopped for lunch with a million dollar view, but I did have to stop the girls from fighting and complaining. Kristen was a trouper all day though. Lunch was turkey sandwiches, cheese, an apple for Kristen and some Hobnobs. Sitting on a rock overlooking the river and the Ivergah. Just beautiful. About 5 cars squeezed by on the road where we had parked.
There were a few cars in each direction but mostly in our direction. That is, westbound on the north side of the peninsula.
The weather amazingly got sunny and the water was a deep azure blue. Oyster beds in the river but few boats. Almost none. Almost no people too. Stopped at a little place and Jill bought very good turkey and sodas.
We stopped for lunch with a million dollar view, but I did have to stop the girls from fighting and complaining. Kristen was a trouper all day though. Lunch was turkey sandwiches, cheese, an apple for Kristen and some Hobnobs. Sitting on a rock overlooking the river and the Ivergah. Just beautiful. About 5 cars squeezed by on the road where we had parked.
After lunch we continued west for more of the same. We almost went to the end. At one point I hit a hairpin turn in 2nd gear and 2nd was not low enough. I stalled on a 30 degree grade and had to restart in 1st gear, but after smoking the tires and clutch I was able to continue. I was trying to follow other cars about 100 yards behind, so that when they met oncoming traffic I would be able to squeeze by without finding a place to pull over / back up to. It didn't really matter because there was very little other traffic.
The scenery was spectacular, kind of like Big Sur 100 years ago, I guess. If it was in the USA it would be a national park.
We hit one small town and the only large town (1000 residents, maybe?) but didn't really stop. Once we made the loop around to the southern part the scenery was not as spectacular, but still amazing in a surface of the moon kind of way. The road also got wider and we were able to make better time on the way back. Still not fast though, we did not get off the peninsula till about 3 or 4.
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Drove through the very tidy town of Glengarriff and stopped to stretch the legs a bit. Then continued on through more high Kerry scenery, rocks and cliffs to Kenmare. Tried to stop in Kenmare but it was very crowded and we couldn't find a parking spot on two passes through town, so, very tired, continued another half hour back to Sneem. The girls went back into Quills for souvenirs for about the 10th time and I told them if I wasn't on the park wall I'd meet them in the Blue Bull. I lasted about 3 minutes.
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The Blue Bull had a different face this time, a bunch of locals at the bar and I ordered my Guinness and sat alone at a table as the bar was full. Halfway through the pint I felt much better. So much so that I rescinded my demand to eat elsewhere and told the girls we should eat at the Blue Bull again, once they arrived.
Shortly after they came, though, the locals left, and a family from Boston arrived and took up residence at the bar. Wrong. I heard one bartender tell the Beaneaters she was from New York. Very Wrong! We ordered 2 plates for dinner - a poorly done chicken curry and a lasagna (also Wrong). Time to go. We won't be back. Tomorrow I think we'll try O'Shea's. |
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Back home around 7, Kristen whining about wanting to watch a DVD on the laptop. maybe we'll let her; she's been very good. The TV is not working and I know damn well the owner will not have it fixed. There's an entry in the house book from a couple of years ago about the pleasures of not watching TV for a week. I think it's a pet peeve of hers.
Sun lasted most of the day and it didn't rain at all. The NY bartender told me that it had not rained every day since June 14 but that it had been a bad summer. And that the forecast for the next week was good. Whatever that is worth! Tomorrow I think we're just going to enjoy Kenmare and skip the driving. Enough already! Day 5 >>> |
 Downtown Sneem |
