Ring of Kerry - Day 2

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Geo: 52.267, -9.70966

Today started out really well. I was up early for a change, showered dressed and packed by 8am. I went outside for a smoke and was greeted by an awesome sunrise over the mountains. Down the road I can see just a little bit of the ocean and I could see the mist rising off it. Magical!

That was the good bit. After breakfast I headed toward Valentia island....and I got lost. Then I thought I figured out where I was, but I was wrong. There is a bridge to Valentia island from the mainland at Port Magee. Somehow I managed to make it to the island without crossing that bridge. Well at least not that I remember. When I do remember seeing the bridge I crossed from the island side...I think. Maybe aliens came down and picked me up and plonked me on the island and erased my memory or something, but I swear the first time I crossed that bridge I was coming from the island side, not the Ireland side. On the way there I went around some pretty hairy roads....maybe they were more hairy than I remember.

Anyhoo, somewhere along the way I saw a sign for the Cliffs of Kerry. So I stopped to take a look. (I think this is on the Ireland side). I parked the car and saw the sign saying all visitors must report to reception. So being the responsible tourist I am, I reported in, just in case I fell off the cliff or something. Turns out seeing the cliffs was free, but parking cost €4. The girl at the cafe talked to me about the cliffs (only a 300m drop) and some of the birdlife I might see along the way. Its the wrong season for puffins, damn! From the cliffs I should be able to see Michaels skellig, another island. On this island there are the beehive huts, little stone huts from around the 5th century. Monks used to live in them apparently. You can catch a ferry to Michael Skellig in the summer and see them, but as this is the off season, you must book in advance, which I hadn't done. Plus the girl at Muckross house had warned me that getting there is an extreme sport. Well not really but its really choppy and dangerous.

So why do I mention these huts. Because on the way up to the cliffs there were replicas of the huts. As I walked up to the huts I saw these birds sitting on the roofs. I thought wow, check all those birds just, there is so many, hey I think that's a puffin, she said there wouldn't be puff.....oh, they're not real birds. So the cliffs were awesome, big drops, ocean veiws and I didn't fall off them. Thats one win for the day.

Eventually I did make it to Valentina island, and confirmed I was actually there. Nice scenery but not much to actually see. I made my way to the tetrapod walkway. A very scenic rocky bay. On these rocks are the footprints of the tetrapod, the first sea creature to crawl out of the ocean. The footprints are 385 million years old and were formed when Valentia Island and Ireland itself was somewhere south of the equator. It must have been an talented palaeontologist that first identified them, because they look like slight depressions in the rock to me.

Further up the the road from the tetrapod walkway was a slate quarry and grotto. The road up there was definitely the hairiest I've been on. Another narrow road, mountain on the left and a steep hill on the left that drops all the way to the ocean. And there wasn't much by way of a barrier, just a little hedge that wouldn't stop much. There wasn't much to see at the quarry. A really big hole in the rock. Above the really big hole was a little hole where someone has built an alter to the Virgin Mary. I'm not sure why, it seemed like an odd place to me, but it was kinda cute.

After the grotto I decided it was time to get back onto the mainland and start making some miles. I drove for about an hour and stopped in Cahirseven for lunch. I had an awesome calamari salad, probably the best food I've eaten in Ireland. Feeling much better after lunch I decided to turn off the main drag and head to Balycarbery castle. This is another ruin standing in the middle of a paddock. There are no guides, you can walk right up to it. Part of the second floor and the stairwell are still intact and of course some folks were climbing up there to take a closer look. I didn't like the look of the staircase, it looked like a broken ankle to me so I stayed with two feet firmly planted on the ground.

After the castle I went in search of the two ring forts that are supposed to be in this area, but I must have taken a wrong turn because I missed them. Before I knew it I was back on the Ring. At this point I was starting to get tired so I figured it was time to push on and get to my next pitstop. Tralee is actually a reasonably sized town but I think it must be a medieval place because it has those weird streets that I couldn't make sense of. I did find the tourist office and they gave me directions to a very reasonably priced hotel. After settling in I went down to the hotel bar. I ended up chatting to a very nice man, who is s truck driver in these parts (on a boys weekend with his mates) While we were chatting I had the ipad out and was looking for a place to stay in Ennis, which lead to a discussion of my travel plans. He suggested instead of driving overland I take the ferry at to Killrush and drive up the west coast to the Doolin. I liked that idea so the plan of attack for the next few days have completely changed.

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Photos

Tetrapod walkway - Valentia Island
See the footprints?