The Ring of Kerry

Despite our early bedtime we still only woke at 8ish!  But we upped and showered and then to the dining room for breakfast.  I had a traditional Irish breakfast- which included black pudding (!?)  Then with directions in hand we were on our way to Killarney and the ring of Kerry.  The roads here are so narrow and Frank is not used to driving on the right hand side of the car, hence he drives too close to the shoulder, which is non existent and so my heart was a flapping a lot on the small back roads!  But despite the small roads we made our way to Killarney- via Bandon and Macroom.  The roads and direction are pretty well marked- although you do have to be on the look out for them as if you blink you will miss a turn. (this only happened once in Macroom).  An hour and a half after we started we were in Killarney- we headed to the tourist info booth and they showed us in the direction of some B&B's- the first 2 didn't have room - the 3rd had 2 rooms for 100 euros so we took it, dropped  off our bags and were on the road to the ring of Kerry.  We had a small map but no real detail, so we were hoping the signs along the way would tell us where to stop.  The first sign pointed us the Gap of Dunloe- off we headed, but when we go there it was a horse and carriage ride for an hour to the gap- seemed like a wonderful plan, but being that we had a late start- we deiced to give it  a miss.  It was already after noon and we had heard it was about a 3 hour round trip - we didn't want to miss a thing.  Off we sped (the posted speed is 100km's/hour, there is no way you can maintain that!) Next was the lake of Caragh, so we headed down and some how missed the lake! Yikes we are going to have to get better at this. We found our first little town at Killorglin and hunger had set in.  We stopped outside a Eurospar and they had a lovely selection of sandwiches- we ate, stocked up on some snacks for the road, grabbed a Tim Hortons coffee (yup a Timmies on the Ring of Kerry!) and then we were on the road again (after trying to find a map of the ring to no avail!)
Next was Glenbeigh and the signs promised a beach- so we turned down to the the beach of Rossbeigh- wow the most incredible beach it was at that.  The waves were wild, but it was beautiful.  We had expected this Irish coast to be so much colder but we barely needed a jacket at all.  After the wild wind in our hair, we were off looking for a castle as the signs promised. Cahersiveen and we turned to the castle- when we got to Ballycarbery Castle we were not prepared for the amazing castle that it was.  Apparently built in the 1300's, the remnants that stand are amazing- we climbed all way around this castle- it was just amazing and not another sole in site- we had it all to ourselves.  That was worth the trip all around!  A little further down the road were these round stone forts- we hiked up to one and once again the craftsmanship of those stone towers built over a thousand years ago is incredible.  We could have stayed at both these sites longer, but it was 3 and we weren't even half way around the circle. Next big town was Waterville- enroute there were so many pull outs (taking our lives into our hands as most people are doing the post 100km's) we took in as many scenic points as we could.  Waterville we were back down on the ocean after being quite high on the cliffs.  This town is were Charlie Chaplin and his family used to holiday so there are signs of him all over the town.  A brief stop and we were moving on to Caherdaniel another cute town, but we didn't stop as we were running out of daylight!  Sneem the next major town and once again stops along the way had the most gorgeous views of the ocean- the Wild Atlantic as they call it. Between Sneem and Kenmare there was not too much to see- the ocean peeked through here and there and we dodged a few sheep on the road. (Although in Sneem Frank had me take a photo of him outside a pub that we swears there is a pic of in the St James' Well in Port Moody) At Kenmare- which looked like a gorgeous little town we popped in to see the ring of standing stones that they had there- small.  Then we were on the last stretch back to Killarney- it was getting dark by now and we had 30 minutes of daylight left- we stopped for a quick pic of Molls gap and then the winding road back to Killarney.  Thank goodness we got back before dark as that was some crazy, twisty road (Road to Hana like) and with random sheep on the road a night drive would not be fun.  Sure hope we didn't miss too many sites long the way.  Whoever said we could to the ring in 3 hours was very wrong- we took over 6, going at speeds of 70-100 and we didn't stop at all the sites to see.
Back at the Morning Dew B&B we freshened up and then walked into town for dinner- we ate at O'Learys which has highly ranked on Trip Adviser- the Irish stew and Guinness were good. A nice amble back and bed by 11. What a day of driving!