"Filching John Benny's wife?!"
Morning in Dingle dawned... clear. Not especially warm, but clear. Looked like a good day to go whale watching, but first we went for a wander around Dingle again, this time so I could find myself a nice little thing to take home. Filching of the WiFi at the previous night's pub to attempt to book onto a horse riding session for the next day while we were at it.
Souvenirs bought - lovely little leather-bound notebook and a Connemara marble necklace. Pretty things.
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| Foxy John's Bar/Hardware Store/Bike Rental... |
Finally left Dingle at just before lunch to make the short trip down the coast to Ventry and our whale watching trip. Went on a bit of a mystery tour trying to find the pier, but managed to locate it eventually.
And so it was onto a little boat and out into the Atlantic to see if we could find some whales. Saw a colony of seals at Great Blasket Island. Very cute.
Sailed on past the other Blaskets and then out across the waves south towards the Skellig Islands. Which never got nearer than about 20 miles, but you could see them quite clearly. Would have liked to visit them if we'd had chance.
Gemma and I got sat out on the bow for a while. Great fun until we turned back towards Ventry and headed into the wind. Got just a little bit soggy then.
All the back to Ventry and still no whales. Disappointing, but they are after all wild animals. Can't force them to show up.
After that it was just a case of driving the hour or so to Killarney, via the tiny village of Inch. That's where I stayed when I first came to Ireland and it was nice to see it again even though we didn't stop. Beautiful place.
Hit the rain just as we got to Killarney. Fortunately we soon dried off in the lovely Dunloe View Hostel.
"Will you please stop eating?!"
Tried to feed the hostel's goat a carrot the next morning. It didn't want it. Lots planned for the day, so we set off in search of the riding stables. Headed towards Killarney. Thought we were going the wrong way. Turned round. Drove for a while. Decided we'd gone wrong. Turned round again. Finally found the stables.
So nice to be on a horse again. I used to go riding when I was little, nearly 20 years ago but it's amazing how familiar it felt when our guide helped me up onto Aladdin, a lovely bay horse. As I got myself comfortable, Claire and Gemma were helped onto their own horses and I heard our guide explain to Claire that her horse, Monty, had a few bad habits. Nothing was said to either me or Gemma about any bad habits our own horses might have...
Satisfied that we had at least basic control over our horses, our guide led us into Killarney National Park. Beautiful place that is, but due to being on a horse for the first time in forever I didn't take any photos.
Claire started having a few difficulties. All the horses were interested in eating the grass and other plants they could reach when given the chance but both Aladdin and Gemma's horse Solomon responded to us pulling them back. Monty on the other hand... well, Monty's bad habit seems to be that he's an eating machine and he was determined to ignore every pull and nudge Claire gave him. At one point he dragged her nearly through a tree and a hedge, which resulted in a whole assortment of bumps and scratches.
Not that I escaped completely unscathed. We went for a few short trots. Now, in theory I remember how this works and I was quite comfortable with the first couple. On our final trot Aladdin decided initially that he didn't want to go and when he finally did, he went just that little bit faster to catch up. I had an awful moment of flashback to when I fell off the Shetland pony when I was little and had about 5 seconds of sheer bloody terror before I managed to convince myself everything was fine. Aladdin seemed completely unfazed.
Anyway, our hour of riding was up all too soon and we had to be off again. Our next stop was the Prince August Toy Soldier Factory. A bit of a weird choice, but we'd seen it in a leaflet we'd picked up and it looked so odd and unusual that we had to see it.
We ended up casting our own toy soldiers and then painting another one. And since we'd just been riding, we all chose men on horses. Two and a half hours we spent in that shop painting tiny tin men and bloody good fun it was too. Here is my masterpiece.
The plain cast figure is now sitting on my computer at work.
After that it was over the back roads to Kinsale for a lovely tea at Dinos Restaurant. Really good fish (I had fishcakes) and really good value. Kinsale looked like a pretty little place, but since we'd spent so long painting toy soldiers we had no time left to explore. We had to be off to yet another action packed adventure!
Starlight kayaking, that is. Claire and I had been kayaking in New Zealand, but this was completely different. Starting just before 8pm from Reen Pier in West Cork, we set out into the calm waters of the bay in the gathering darkness. It was beautiful - the stars coming out slowly overhead, bioluminescence beginning to spark in the water and us just bobbing along in a little group. Probably my highlight of the trip and I'd recommend it to absolutely anyone.
Unfortunately, again, with me being in a kayak and it being rather dark, I have no photos of this amazing experience save this very poor shot of the stars that I took before we got back in the car.
And then the Sat Nav sent us down a road with grass down the middle on the way to our Travelodge at Cork. Grr.
Long day, late night. Glad we booked that Travelodge.
Hostels
Dingle, Co. Kerry: Rainbow Hostel
Killarney, Co. Kerry: Dunloe View Hostel
Things to do
Whale-Watching, Ventry, Co. Kerry (45 euro for 4 hours)
Horse Riding, Killarney, Co. Kerry (30 euro for 1 hour)
Starlight Kayaking, Reen Pier, Co. Cork (50 euro)
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