Benners Hotel, Tralee

Well this morning we woke to heavy heads and grey skies. A quick brekkie and we were off on the bus once more. We drove along the Dingle peninsula for a while, which some breathtaking cliffs and scenery. At one stage we got off the bus to take some photos, and Mike closed the doors and drove a little way down the road - enforcing some fresh air and exercise! We also got the opportuinity to climb a rather large hill, covered in sheep ...

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Back onto the (new) bus - we picked up some new travellers today, some canadians, an indian and some hawiaan americans. Not too sure what they thought of us all at the start, but i'm pretty sure everyone has bonded now (karaoke is about to start in the pub next door, so everyone is well full!).

We then crossed the river Shannon from county clara into county kerry - which is just spectacular green rolling hills, along the ...

... to see how we react to situations. and if any of you know how many bathroom breaks Nic and I take on roadtrips, you'll know when I say that I have seen more bathrooms in this country than Irish pubs. And they are all grosssss gas station bathrooms...giving us all great thigh workouts!! And it is sooooo hard to find a good cup of coffee here. Honestly, its all instant coffee and super strong. There isnt Time Hortons or Starbucks on every corner.

... the peninsula until we saw a sign for Cappogh Beach. We went down to it, and had a lovely walk picking up shells and just enjoying the sea air. After a while we decided to drive back over the pass and do the Slea Head Drive in the opposite direction of yesterday’s drive. There was also a fort that we hadn’t found, so back to Dingle Town we went. On the way back, we again met the front end loader which we had to follow up to the summit.

I ...

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Dinner was again at Murphy’s, and then we drove through the quiet streets back to the b&b. John took a shower and we went back to the Marina Bar for coffee, dessert and trad music. The season is winding down, and even with a tour bus in town, there weren’t many of us in the bar. We stayed for over an hour and came back so the kids could skype us.

The moon is still mostly full and with its light shining brightly, we have the promise of a beautiful day tomorrow.

We decided to do the Ring of Kerry trip, a lovely trip around the south west cape of Ireland, approx 160 kms on our own than on a bus.. glad we did they were full of old Americans.. woops!! There was heaps here that we didn't see as we only had a few days until Amy had to head back to Australia. We did the ring in an anticlock wise direction, good in the fact eveyone else goes clockwise, bad because half way around ...

... to take a look around and were amazed at the size of the inside as well. The stained glass windows were beautiful, and the altar was exquisite. It was really getting windy outside at this time and Jamie wanted to get off the top of the hill, so we left and walked back down and made our way back to the car. We then drove to Midleton, a town about 15 km from Cobh. That's where the Old Midleton Distillery is located, which makes some of the best Irish whiskey: Jameson Irish ...

... the voices coming from our room belonged to at least one stranger. Pauline's husband bellowed, "Have you got a man in yer room??!!!" and I, being a poor liar, sheepishly started apologizing and with my tail between my legs, led Shane out of the B&B. I was treated in the manner of an errant teenager being busted by an overly-protective dad and the funny things was...here I am, 39 years old, and this was the first time in my life I'd been busted ...

... yelled at me when I wrote with a piece of chalk on the sidewalk, "Krista and Kerri were here". She snidely said, "my daughter would not be pleased to see you using her chalk!" I wanted to belt her especially when later she took her foot and smudged it out. We endearingly began to call her "*****face", when writing her a letter to tell her we were staying another night we were dying to begin with "Dear C***t" So off to the first Irish Pub we went, sat and watched the ...

... at some point too. Unfortunately seeing part of a game on TV was as close as I was to come.

The spectacular scenery of hilly and rocky green paddocks of Ireland’s windswept and desolate western coast continued as we completed the Ring of Kerry and then moved onto the Dingle Peninsula.

Then as the afternoon drew to a close we crossed from County Kerry to County Clare by catching a ferry across the wide ...