You Can't Do Ireland by Bus

 Another day, and oh what scenery. 

 It was more varied than any other day so far.  We started by driving across the inland portion of the famous Ring of Kerry.  We chose not to do the whole of the Ring of Kerry partly due to timing and partly to avoid the hordes of buses that we were assured would be out there.  It turned out to be a great decision.  Our route took us through Killarney National Park.  This area is like nothing else we have saw in all of Ireland.  It is a forested area.  Some of the trees would rival in size the ones in our own Algonquin Park.  We were not expecting this.  Better yet, Sue got to see a pretty impressive waterfall within the park.  While hiking up to it, we got to chat with a couple of New Zealand tour cyclists.  They had just arrived in Ireland by way of Romania, Italy and France.  After leaving Killarney National Park we were treated to another pass, this one called Moll's Gap.  The road had greatly narrowed as it wound its way up and over the peninsula.  A bonus was a lack of traffic.

In order to get to our destination for the night, Bantry, we had to get across The Beara Peninsula.  Google route looked interesting but we decided to take a slightly longer route and are we glad that we did.  Highway 574 (yes this one actually had a number) cut across the heart of the Beara Peninsula.  It started out as a rock walled/tree lined mostly 2 lane road.  As we continued further up it became a very narrow 1 lane road through extremely desolate surroundings.  It was just us and the sheep that were wandering around.  As we reached Healy Pass we were able to stop the car, get out and wander around on the road enjoying the incredible views.  Not a sole was around the whole time we were there.  I hope some of the pictures do it justice.

Then the fun really began.  To descend the road had a series of switchbacks.  I am not sure how many it had but it must have been more than 20.  What a blast!

As far as the title today, we have concluded that if you really want to see 'Wild Ireland' you can't do it on a bus tour.  Part of the fun, at least from our perspective, has been our ability to take 'the roads less travelled'!

Torc Waterfall - Killarney National Park

Killarney National Park

Killarney National Park

Lady's View Lookout - Killarney National Park

Healy Pass

Healy Pass

Healy Pass Lookout

Healy Pass Lookout

Switchbacks down from Healy Pass


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Amazing Architecture

Image
 Our drive today across the south of Ireland compared to so many others on this trip was almost boring.  The terrain was reasonably flat but the roads were anything but straight.  We saw something other than sheep for a change.  It was obvious that we were travelling through 'dairy' country.  Holsteins dotted the landscape and for the first time we actually saw evidence of grain growing and even a few corn fields. As we were sitting enjoying our bottle of wine in our room last night (bought downstairs in the hotel bar), we decided that we should visit the Rock of Cashel.  This is a castle built originally in the 12th Century and given to the church by the local 'king'.  It is somewhat of a mythical religious shrine.  Extensions were built in the 13th and 15th Centuries.  It is now of course a ruin as most of these old castles are today.  The architectural abilities and workmanship of those long ago days puts our buildings today to shame....
Read more

Black Cab Tour

Image
 This afternoon we took a Black Cab Tour of Belfast.  For more than 90 minutes we were toured through the streets of Belfast looking at the political murals commemorating the years from 1969 to 2000.  This period is commonly known as the 'Troubles'.  Although interestingly enough, our guide only used the term once instead choosing to refer to the time as 'The Conflict'.  This was a political conflict between the catholic sector led by the IRA (Irish Republican Army) against the British Government.  The IRA wanted political independence for Northern Ireland.  The IRA used bombs and targeted killings.  The Police/British Forces used just about as brutal of tactics.  About 3000 people were killed during the conflict.  A wall was built between the Catholic section of the city and the protestant territory.  Still today, 24 years after a peace agreement was signed, the wall still exists.  All but one of the gates between the 2 areas ...
Read more

Inis Oirr

Image
 A boat ride was in store for today out to Inis Oirr.  Inis Oirr is the smallest of the Aran Islands.  It is one desolate piece of rock.  They have very little soil.  They make more soil by mixing seaweed with sand and spreading it around.  Can you imagine?  The island has 300 permanent residents.  The island has 500 to 600 cattle.  They graze in fields the size of postage stamps. Daily they are moved to a different field.  It makes no sense! But our tour was a fun one.  We took a horse and wagon tour of the island.  Thomas was our guide.  He has lived here his whole life.  Toby was our horse.  To say that Toby had an attitude would be putting it mildly.  He moved at his own pace and as Thomas said, "he cannot be persuaded otherwise but he is a good horse'!  While other horses and wagons were galloping past us, Toby just plodded along!  It was a fun experience. On our way back we were treated to a ...
Read more