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Ring of Kerry
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When we told people that we were driving to Ireland, almost everyone said, "Are you going to the Ring of Kerry? It's beautiful there." Or words to that effect, so we thought we simply had to visit.
We started our Ring of Kerry experience in Killarney National Park on Sunday morning, parking next to the Torc Waterfall. The waterfall was lovely, and obviously very popular with visitors. To try and make the most of our visit, we decided to go on one of the set walks around the area. According to the information point, the route we were on was "moderate" and should have taken 35-40 minutes. It took us about 1.5hours!! OK, so we did amble a bit and stopped for photographs, but even if we hadn't, there is no way we could have completed the route in 40 minutes unless we had run around it. As for the "moderate" nature of the walk - if your idea of moderaste is hundereds of steep steps and uneven footpaths, then they were spot on - I would have said it was "slightly challenging". Based on the number of people we saw giving up, so did everyone else!
Next it was on to Ross Castle, another restored Tower House, for a guided tour and walk around, before heading on to Cahersiveen where we were planning on spending the next few nights. The Mannix campsite at Cahersiveen was worthy of all the awards it had won - a four star campsite with very friendly and helpful owners and beautiful views of the surrounding area. Our first morning in Cahersiveen was a bit grey and drizzly. However, by the afternoon the weather was sunny and warm, so we walked to the town and explored the local area, taking in the church, old barracks and several of the shops. The second day got off to a much nicer start, so we took the opportunity to explore more of the ring, setting out for Waterville and Sneem (billed as the "most colourful" town on the Ring, which it certainly looked like it could be) and returning back to base in Cahersiveen using the quieter "Ring of Skellig", which took us to Ballinskellig, past the most Westerly chocolate shop in Europe (which was unfortunately closed) and towards Valentia Island. The views on this smaller ring were excellent, possibly the best we had all day, although the driving was much harder and understandly no coaches attempted this route.
We had decided to go back to Killarney town on Saturday to go to the Farmers market there (as advertised at a previous campsites). We cheked at tourist info to see where this would be, and headed off accordingly. However, once we arrived, we found that there was no market. We were confused to say the least! Seeing as we had already paid for our parking, we spent the time wandering around, shopping, getting a bite to eat for lunch before heading back to our campsite via Killorglin, another largish town on the ring of Kerry, where they crown a goat "King Puck" every August. We were considering staying slightly longer and exploring the last stretch of hte Kerry Ring (from Sneem back round to Killarney), however, when we woke up our camper van was swaying in the wind and rain, and we decided to take this as our cue to move on somewhere more inland!
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