The watery ring of Kerry
Oh, Ireland. Such diverse weather! A slight drizzle, standard rain, rain with wind, heavy showers .. and this is just in one day! When we got up this morning, it was actually almost dry. After a bit of a disappointing breakfast we decide to visit the Ross Castle (Caisleán an Rois in Irish) on the shores of Lough Leane. We’re there before they open up, so we seek shelter from the rain while we wait the few minutes until the doors open up at 09:30 sharp. After purchasing two tickets for the guided tour (which is to start at 10), we visit the exhibition room to learn a bit about the castle’s history. At ten o’clock Tom the Tourguide shows up and shows us around the castle. There are lots of defensive mechanisms built into the castle, and we learn about some interesting history facts along the way. Must’ve been pretty tough living in such a castle back in the day, but at least the view over the lake is spectacular (must be even better when the sun is actually shining).
After the tour, the rain has gotten worse, so we quickly jump in the car and continue our road trip. The plan is to drive around the ring of Kerry, which we’ve heard a lot about. We’ll just hope the weather will improve. Our first planned stop on the ring (not counting the castle) will be the Gap of Dunloe. It’s only a short drive up there from Killarney, but unfortunately it’s still raining. We decide to skip the gap and look for better (or at least drier) sights to see. We continue along the ring and see many beautiful places, all covered in dark clouds and very, very wet. We stop in a small town along the ring on a foraging mission. Salmon, salami, cheese, ham, baguettes and milk are acquired and we drive on.
Pim prepares our lunch as the kilometers (and liters of rain) fly by. At one point it seems to clear up a bit as the windscreen wipers fall back to interval mode. But alas, all good things come to an end and before we know it we’re back in a proper shower. Just before Sneem (this is a town in Kerry county, Ireland, not a character in a Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings book), we hit 4096 kilometers on the odometer! (the wonders of switching between the imperial and metric systems…)
So, we’ve just checked into the Radisson blu hotel in Cork. Let’s find out what we can do around these parts (preferably something that doesn’t involve being outside, as it is still raining).
Posted by Paul de Weerd at 9:06 AM
