We're going to try for the Dingle Peninsula today. A subset of the group - just five of us: me (Ger), Just Patrick, Patty, Kit, Joe - was ready to go by nine. The others had previously done the Dingle - or, like Sarah, just wanted to hang out around the home base - and planned a local day. It was a foggy morning but we hoped it would clear as the day progressed. It did not. Just Patrick was doing all the driving - it was about two hours to the beginning of the peninsula from our house in Ballenskellig near the tip of the Iveragh peninsula.
We ate an early lunch at Murphy's Pub in Dingle town where Patrick said he had
gotten the best Guinness ever on a previous trip.
That's Just Patrick standing guard outside the door. We were all hungry so we went in a bit before noon - they hadn't started serving yet. The Guinness was good - perhaps not much different than any other, but good.
Then on to the peninsula - under the cover of fog.
We could see almost nothing more than 50 feet from the road.
But what we could see was beautiful And undeterred, we drove on, stopping to check out several beehives - the dry rock buildings dating to about the first century AD.
The primary site was the Fahan Group - next to the pen of tie-died sheep.
We also stopped at a terrific pottery factory and each picked up a few things. Including a ceramic pig for Bridget.
It was a long, long day driving for Just Patrick. We finally got home, after
stopping for groceries in Cahersiveen, around half seven (7:30pm).
Patrick went to take a nap. When he came back, we had a great fish and mussel
chowder - that John and Sheila had prepared. Along with the daily loaf of brown
bread that Sheila bakes.
While our group was on Dingle peninsula, the rest of the family spent the day
close to home. First, they went to Caherisveen to get some provisions including
the fish for the chowder. Then, stopped by the smoked salmon factory but they
were closed for lunch so they went on to Knightslanding and took the car ferry
over to Partmagee.
They all drove back towards Ballenskellig but explored other areas - ending up near Finans Way, home of the Skellig Chocolate Factory. The factory was sold out of chocoloate. (We'd come back the next day.) So back home to Ballenskellig for lunch and then down to the beach to explore the local ruins. There is a small castle right on the beach and then up to an old cemetery. (cemetery first and then castle) On the return, they took a shortcut and ended up fording a creek, doing some swimming - well, Johnny was the only swimmer, diving into the cold water. The rest waded quickly across - Johnny carrying Sarah about the raging torrent.
At about half nine, we headed to the Maines pub for live music. The Dinble Ttrio was playing - a group consisting of guitar, accordian, bohdrain (the Irish drum.) The drummer was the Kerry champion.
They played a mix of traditional and other music (we requested some Buddy Holly tunes that they worked into the set.) We stayed until closing at midnight. A grand time.