Extremely wet and wild drive to the Kerry Peninsula.

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No chance of an umbrella today as far too windy so quite obvious that it was going to rain. It started at 6 am, I know this because when you sleep in a motorhome you hear every drop on the roof.

We left the Blarney campsite at 10 am and it rained all day, all the time, hard and relentlessly until 7pm when we did get a few minutes of respite.

Today was a scenic drive day. Ha ha. Nothing scenic about a view you can’t see for the raindrops on the windscreen, waves of rain lashing across the road and clouds so low you drive through them.

We started off on the planned route which was through Cork then down to Kinsale, reputed to be one of the prettiest villages in Ireland. It did look good but not good enough, given torrential rain with a gale behind it, to get out of the Tandy, so we had to give Kinsale a miss.

Still following our original route in search of pretty coastal views, with a somewhat rugged and definitely misplaced optimism, we started on the R600 west coast road and then the main N71. Views, lovely or otherwise, were just not an option as everything was obscured by the driving rain and mist.

We passed through towns with lovely names such as Ballinskittle, Clonakilty, Skibbereen and Ballydehob. Some of them looked worth a visit but not on a day like today, at times I could barely open the Tandy window to take a photo without getting soaked.

Bantry looked nice, from the comfort of the Tandy, but the few people we saw walking around were wrapped up and hurrying, heads down so we carried on our way. From Bantry to Kenmare the road surface deteriorated and when I checked my road map it showed the road as being unsuitable for heavy goods vehicles and coaches. Not helpful when you want to get from A to B. The road just seemed to suffer from poor foundations and was bumpy and in places patchily repaired. The Tandy was not impressed anyway. This section of our route took us quite high over craggy moorland and we were driving through clouds for several miles.

At Kenmare we turned left to follow the N70 round the Ring of Kerry. This was a little disappointing as the road looks, on the map, to follow the coast but the sea was barely and only infrequently visible. Where we could see the coastline it looked lovely and dramatically rocky but most of the time it was hidden by trees, banks and ferns. All very, very green and very wet. The view improved for the last few miles and then we arrived at our campsite at CaherDaniel near Waterville.

At last, sheer delight. A pitch with a superb view out over a rocky cove and almost worth the grotty drive. For a few minutes here and there the rain stopped, though the wind didn’t give up, and we stepped outside the Tandy to admire the scenery. For a couple of minutes we even saw a patch of blue sky but the forecast tells us not to get our hopes up.

This dreadful weather is also hitting England and possibly harder than here. The tail-end of a hurricane from across the Atlantic. As we have such a lovely location, we will sit out tomorrow in the Tandy until hopefully the worst of the weather has gone past. And if it cares to stop raining for a while this looks a lovely spot to take a stroll.

Campsite is Wave Crest at Caher Daniel, Ring of Kerry . 9 out of 10 just for the view.

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