Ireland, UK 2017: 5/6 Day 4 - Ireland to the West

"As I was a goin' over the far famed Kerry mountains..."
~Whisky in the Jar

Today's travel distance: 205 miles. 





If our days had a theme, yesterday would have been medieval ruins and today would be natural beauty. Well, maybe natural beauty and fekking bicycles. I'll get to the fekking bicycles in a minute. 

I wasn't particularly enamored with what little we saw in Cork, so I had no heartache leaving it this morning. We assumed our usual positions in the car, me in the driver seat and Jeff as the navigator. 














The route took us along very few miles of dual carriageways and lots of miles of narrow roads with "severe curves"; a true test of my ability to avoid the rock walls along the side of the road. 














We drove a portion of the Ring of Kerry, in the Killarney National Park, from Kenmare to Killarney. Natural beauty featured mountains, lakes (loughs), streams, waterfalls, moss-covered rocks, and trees. 

Molls Gap, Ring of Kerry

This bit looks a lot like the roads through the Rocky Mountains in the US. Well, except that you drive on the other side and the signs are in English and Gaelic. And the speed and distances are measured in kilometers. Okay, it's not anything like driving through the Rocky Mountains.

"Ladies View"

 Fekking bicycles. You're allowed to pass, if/when it's safe to do so. Being behind bicycles on a highway in the best of circumstances makes me nervous. When the roads are so twisting and the curves are blind, it's nerve wracking! Being a Saturday with Ireland experiencing a rare streak of very nice weather, perhaps they were all out for a nice ride.

 












We did make a quick stop at Ross Castle, just to see the outside and snap a few pics.

 We finally stopped for lunch at 3:00, in Limerick. Although we weren't there long, Limerick gave me a good vibe. 

The adventure from Limerick to our accommodation for the night was really interesting--we wondered if Google maps was messing with us. We even drove down a gravel road! As we got closer to our B & B, we became more nervous. What an amazing surprise to finally get there (after interrupting "Bob from Boston" on vacation at his rented cottage) and feeling like we were staying in the nicest place so far this trip! After settling in, we made the trip to a local pub for dinner and watched the sunset over the ocean.