Bantry Bay
Today was our first day driving on the Wild Atlantic Way. For much of our drive we were either right on the water, or at least within sight of the water. What water you might ask. I guess you could call most of it the Atlantic Ocean, although most of the bays have names. Again the weather gods favored us. Its been bright and sunny and close to 70 degrees all afternoon. The good news is the weather is supposed to stay this way for a few more days.
A stop along the Beara Peninsula for pictures
Along Main St. in Clonakilty
Yes, its narrow, but one way.
Drombeg stone circle
Ancient stone structure used for cooking
On our travels we wound our way through several small towns and villages. Towns like Clonakilty, Glandore, and Skibbereen. Near Glandore we took a side trip down to an ancient stone circle, The Drombeg Stone Circle. It is thought to have been built about 1,200 BC. It was very interesting and we spent some time there admiring the site and the views.
The highway around the Beara Peninsula
The Heather is blooming
Coastline of the Beara Peninsula
Aquaculture in the Kenmare River
Along the way we stopped at Bantry for lunch. Bantry is a very busy town at the head of Bantry Bay. Just beyond Bantry we turned off of the N71 highway and headed out around the Beara Peninsula. This is a very rugged, mountainous tongue of land that juts out into the Atlantic. The views were amazing and the scenery the brightest green you can imagine. Well OK, most of Ireland has been bright green, except where is rocky.
Kenmare
Quills Woolen Store in Kenmare
Karen feeling her Irish
Rockcrest House
Once around the peninsula we arrived in our home for the night, Kenmare. Kenmare is a bit more touristy than the other towns we were in today, but very pretty. We are staying about a five minute walk out of downtown. The B&B were staying in is the nicest we’ve stayed at so far. The view through the huge picture window in our room is breathtaking. As I write this I’m watching the sun illuminating the mountains just outside our window. Wow!
Tomorrow we’re going to join the cars, trucks, and tour busses on The Ring of Kerry. This will be an all day drive and take us to Killarney for the next three nights. By now I’m getting used to sharing the narrow roads with trucks and busses. Here the centerline (when they have them) is just a guideline. Somehow when two vehicles are approaching each other at high rates of speed some kind of magic happens and they don’t collide. Don’t ask me how it works because I think there have been many times when we should have crashed and didn’t. I’m getting braver every day and will be driving like an Irishman soon.
I’m afraid I’m still being plagued by technical problems. It seems that there are some that I sent an invitation to view my blog to that are waiting for notifications of up-dates. Travellerspoint doesn’t send out notifications unless you join. I wanted to send out notes to the group, but either google or Apple have disabled my groups in my address book. I worked for an hour today trying to fix it with no luck at all. Technology is only good when it works! Between my camera and my e-mail I’m pretty frustrated right now. I’ll keep writing though and posting them to the blog, but there may be many people who are still waiting for an announcement to read.
Until tomorrow,
Jim
This featured blog entry was written by olytrains from the blog Adventures in the Emerald Isle.
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