I'm actually in England now, and back with access to a computer. I have officially become one of those people that finds it incredibly difficult to be disconnected from the Internet for this long. Next time I leave home, I'm swiping Faith's IPod Touch so that I can have WiFi access where ever I go. Sad but true.
Now, back to our story....
On Sunday we headed down to the Ring of Kerry, which we had heard was terrifying to drive on, but discovered after driving in The Burrens that it wasn't so bad. Other than a few spots where the yellow lines on the side of the road (almost all roads in Ireland have white lines in the middle, and yellow lines down either side) were actually painted on the grass as the road was so narrow, it was pretty good by comparison. I had a few heartstopping moments driving through Kilarney National Park, where just a few sticks strung together with wire seemed to be the only thing keeping us from plummeting off the side of a mountain, it was actually a great Sunday drive. Oh, and the guy coming towards us driving on the wrong side of the road (i.e. the right side for North America), gave me a little start.
Apparently the Ring of Kerry is best enjoyed counter-clockwise, so we took the advice of the guidebooks and headed out through Magillicuddy's Reeks (the mountains). It was one beautiful vista after another. For lunch we stopped at a village called Waterville that was, surprise, right on the water and we all had fish and chips. I'm not a big fisheater, but my rule is that if you're going to eat fish, it has to be next to the water where it was caught. And, it was delicious.
After lunch, we headed back around the ring for more breathtaking vistas...good grief! It was almost boring after awhile, it was so beautiful. The most interesting part was seeing all these little sheep/climbing paths on the sides of the hills, and wondering how you could possibly farm on the side of a mountain. We also stopped to take pictures of what looked to be an old village that was just left to ruins. (For some reason I love old broken-down stuff, and Ireland definitely has lots of ruins dotting the countryside.)
Once we got into Kilarney National Park, our big stop was Torc Falls. After walking about 200 metres back into the forest, we came upon the "most photographed falls" in Ireland. (And, yes, when I get home, I'll upload all the pictures.) The funniest thing, however, was the guy in the parking lot stuffing some of the local plants into his minivan to take home with him! Apparently National Park means local garden centre to some.
It took us about 8 hours to drive the whole ring but it was well worth it.
We ended up outside Macroom that night at a B&B in the middle of nowhere...somewhat of a mistake because we had to head back into the local village for supper. Supper was great...but finding a B&B on an unfamiliar road in the middle of the night, driving on the wrong side of the road was not. After we had to turn around the second time, I was just glad we didn't leave the luggage and could go on to the next town if needed. Luckily we found it and tucked ourselves in for the night, after a well-deserved glass of wine.
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