May 24th - Off to Dingle - the LONG way

We set off Sunday just after noon for Dingle, of course, it was after a morning dose of music (not that we won't hear a lot more before our stay is finished). Dingle will be the first bike pick up where the guys would explore the Dingle Peninsula by bike and me by car. But first we had to get there. Scott and I decided we wanted to take the coast road so we headed to Ennistymon which is a bit north and west. There we could pick up the roads south and down the coast to Kilkee.

I love the rocky coast of Ireland (and the Pacific Northwest). There is something about the formations of the rocks and the waves crashing on them, that I find just beautiful. In Kilkee, a major town in County Clare, we picked up part of the Wild Atlantic Way and headed south. Our first stop were the cliffs just south. I had taken pictures of these cliffs in 2009 on my first visit to Clare and have always wanted to make one of them into a quilt. I now have several more to choose from.






Scott caught unaware.

After our picture taking stop, we headed further south to Loop Head Peninsula which is a mistranslation of Leap's Head. There is a large rock some 20 feet from the mainland and there are legends about people who have leaped into the Atlantic there.

The guys opted to take the Lighthouse tour while I wanted to walk the grounds. There were tons of gulls at one side of the hill and when you angled yourself to see what was going on, there was a huge colony perched on the sides of the cliff. Further down, on the large rock I mentioned was another colony and one tiny black bird perched on the top rock.

Scott and Mike with their guide at the top of the
Lighthouse. Mike is the bright yellow, Scott's the navy.

The guys of course got a totally different view from the top and learned that the lighthouse is directly across the ocean from New York City. They also learned that there has been a lighthouse on this spot since 1670. They did get a bit of the same views when we all had to retrace my steps because I managed to loose the keys. Fortunately, they were found by a young couple on the same walk I had done.

Back in the car, it was time to head to the ferry if we ever wanted to get to Dingle that night. We were taking the ferry from Kilmer to Kerry.

One of our points of interest on the ride were all the modern windmills we were seeing along the way. We concluded that this is a major source of alternative energy for them, solar is definitely not an option.

We got to the ferry at a perfect time. It runs hourly on the hour and we arrived about 20 minutes before, just enough time for bathroom breaks and snacks. Mike got a picture of the ferry as it came in.










He took this picture from the ferry. It is the corresponding lighthouse off the coast of Kerry. With both the Kerry and Clare (Loop Head) lighthouses lit, a boat could find its way directly into the Shannon Estuary and on to the Shannon River.

From the ferry we headed to Dingle via Tralee. It was the first direction incident of our trip from Ennis, but it was only a short detour. We had made a left when it should have been a right. With fingers crossed, we did find the right way and soon landed in the seaport town of Dingle.

We had a great B&B, good food and headed to bed so we could face the Dingle loop tomorrow.