Saturday, August 30, 2003 (Cahersiveen - Republic of Ireland)
The Ring of Kerry. Brief stops along the way.
Keeping in touch is always fun. A nice little hideaway.
Day 171 (log entry for day 170). I was too
tired to write my log entry last night after coming back from the pub so
I’m going to do it this
morning.
The campsite that we stayed
in last night was at the start of what is called the Ring of Kerry. Actually,
since the recommendation is to tour the ring in an anti-clockwise rotation,
it’s more like the end of the ring than the beginning. The route is more
or less a coastal road that travels around one of the rocky escarpments that
make up the Irish West coast. The main road that travels the route is little
more than a winding country track that is extremely uneven and causes the brick
to bounce up and down and side to side almost uncontrollably. It’s also
very narrow and we had a few interesting encounters with buses and other
oncoming vehicles. After about an hour of ricocheting in and out of the various
pot holes and dips in the road surface, Sandy was starting to feel a little ill
and wasn’t really enjoying the breathtaking scenery that much as a result.
It’s quite touristy here with every other building housing a B&B,
restaurant or pub. Various tourist attractions dotted around the ring and on the
peninsular itself draw in busloads of tourists (fortunately all adhering to the
recommendation and going in the opposite direction to us). So far, we’ve
managed to get about half way around and are now moored up in a campsite in
Cahersiveen.
We had a couple of stops
on the way to admire scenery, stroll along the rocky beaches and to explore an
old dry-stonewall fort amongst other things. It was an interesting day and there
were some stunning vistas but all in all, I think we enjoy visiting castles
more. The one castle that we did want to visit along the way was badly
sign-posted and we ended up missing it
completely.
As we passed through
Waterville, we noticed a couple of Internet Cafés and so decided to stop
and log on for a half an hour or so. There were a few replies to the last
WorldTravel update and, of course, the requisite few jokes and Internet funnies
from Lisa. There were also a couple of job offer e-mails that looked like they
might prove promising. I will follow them up just to keep the contacts warm but
we’re not ready to start work again just
yet.
After a short drive from
Waterville to Cahersiveen, we found a nice, out of the way, little campsite and
settled in. Like every other smallish town here in Ireland, the centre of town
is littered with pubs and taverns. The West of Ireland is where some of the best
traditional music is to be heard and there was a sign in the campsite reception
listing all the pubs where music could be heard on different nights of the week.
Although it would mean a late night, I wanted to hear some traditional music and
so we decided to go out for the evening. The only problem is that the pubs tend
to liven up late in the evening – just when we are dozing off. We managed
to sit and listed to fiddler and accordion duet for a few numbers in one
particular watering hole but the pub was not very lively and there were very few
punters. To make matters worse, we were sitting perilously close to the
musicians and certain high-pitched notes were piercing through us like knives.
After about an hour, we called it a night and left. Perhaps we will have better
luck tonight instead.
Posted: Sat
- August 30, 2003 at 01:15 PM