Day 5 (September 19) Killarney - Ring of Kerry
Today was an easy start. Breakfast at 8am, and on the bus by 9am. Today we had a replacement driver for the day - Mossy. I suspect it was Julian's day off. Our tour for the day took us to the Ring of Kerry - "a 100 mile panoramic drive of the mountains adjacent to Killarney.
Ireland is bilingual - all the road signs have been in both English and Irish which has been very interesting. Today, as we head into more local areas, some of the signs are in Irish only. We had NO idea what they were saying! But since we weren't driving, it wasn't a problem. Mossy was a more aggressive driver which has been quite interesting as the Ring of Kerry road is VERY narrow and winding. Enough said.
The road travels around the base of the mountain for awhile and then up to the summit and around the other side. Much of the road was tree lined, but the open areas showed a varied landscape from agriculture - many many sheep farms, rugged cliffs, valleys, mountains views and small villages and towns.
Our first stop of the day at 9:30am was at the Red Fox Inn, a scheduled stop where we had a bathroom break and could pick up a "coffee" - Irish coffee. It soon became clear that this was a tourist mecca as we counted no less that 12 tour buses at this stop. We realized we were sharing the views today.
We noticed that some of the sheep had their backs painted in different colours. Our tour director explained that the purpose of the colours was to differentiate who owned the sheep. The second colour was used during breeding season to indicate if the sheep had been "mated" and could be pregnant and who the "daddy" was. It was cute to listen to the tour guide describe this process in "gentle" terms.
Lunch was at Scariff Inn, another stop that obviously catered to the tour traffic... a bit like a cattle call. It was buffet style, but a "server" took our tray and pulled us along the buffet table and served the foods we chose. Very little time for choice. Not my favourite process.
The scenery was quite varied and interesting. We were entertained with stories about the area along the way. I was particularly impressed with the rugged stony landscape.
We arrived back in town just after 2pm and had the rest of the day on our own.
We downloaded our photos for the day, and put our feet up for a bit, and then around 4pm headed out to explore the neighbourhood. We wandered the shops for awhile and did some people watching.
Around 5:30 we could feel the hunger slipping in, so headed to Laurel's pub for a pint and a meal. It was already starting to get busy, and since the two of us were sitting at a table for four by ourselves, we invited another couple who couldn't find a table to join us. Bill and Shelley are from Southern California and are exploring Ireland on their own. Bill is a newly retired secondary school teacher. We had good conversation and good food. We also enjoy meeting new people.
After supper, we wandered back to our hotel and are now resting up from the day. Bob might slip down and get a couple of nightcaps to bring back to the room later on.
Another good day!
Hotel: Killarney Towers Hotel
Weather: mixed sun and cloud - high 19c
Many of the photos today were taken through the window on a moving bus with reflection and motion.
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