They say that that hardy surfers ply the stormy Atlantic shores for big waves. They rent jet rescue skis to pick them up when they crash. Yesterday we wound our way around the charming Ring of Dingle and I wish to God someone had told us not to bother with the Ring of Derry because we'd be nine hours richer and a whole lot less tuckered.
The beach at Inch, one of four that stretch more than ten miles. The Dingle peninsula is the most westerly point in Ireland and Europe.
Surfers catching a wave.
Dinner?
The roadside.
Dingle is one of many "Tidy Towns" in County Kerry. It's an ingenious concept to encourage town pride. Our guide in Kinsale said that Kinsale entered the contest five years ago and came in last. The shops had drab fronts and there was litter. The ingenious owner of the local paint store spearheaded a grand cleanup. Two years later, the town won the cash award and she was a well off woman.
We should bring this contest into our cities. Downtown Ottawa and Vancouver could use a cleanup.
The competition has eight criteria: Community involvement and planning; Built environment and streetscape; Landscaping and open spaces; Wildlife, habitats and natural amenities; Tidiness and litter control; Sustainable waste and resource management; Residential streets and housing areas; Approach roads, streets and lanes.
The result is spruced up places like this one.
All dressed for work.
A public toilet is the sign of a civilised community.
On the 20 minute ferry from Tarbert to Killimer across the Shannon River en route to Doolin.
Crotty's pub in Listowell. Irish pubs are amazing -- many with music at night and spectacular food.
The cliffs of Moher
These cliffs are a breathtaking 214 meters in height with brilliant waves crashing into the shore.
This is an island where Puffin birds nests. They weren't visiting as we peered down.
You could spend a week mixing shades of green. The fields go on forever unbroken by houses. It's breathtakingly beautiful here and when you get used to them, the narrow, winding roads have their charm.
A cottage abandoned during the potato famine. Before the famine there were 40,000 people in the Dingle Peninsula and now only 10,000. So only the lower fields are cultivated these days.
In the mid 1800s my mother's parents left Ireland during the potato famine. They would have lived in a cottage like the one above before emigrating to the new world. Originally the animals were kept in the house. But later they lived in the attached extra section.
Because the main diet of West Kerry families, (both animals and people), was the potato, when the black rot hit, they were doubly affected. Catholics suffered mightily under English rule, and had to pay taxes for the privilege of keeping animals.
After a week here we've found our stride. I'm sure we each lost five punds in sheer terror the first few days and I would love to hear audio recordings of all the shouts and curses inside rental cars as visitors grapple with right hand drive, stick shifts on the left (Ireland is a country of stick shifts), narrow roads with tractors, gigantic tour buses, vans and non natives in the wrong lane on one side and stony hedgerows on the other with you squeezed whitefaced somewhere in between.
The Irish are a hardy, resilient, congenial and friendy people. It's odd haow we get wrapped up in our little world, sometimes worrying about little bits of nothing, especially those of us who have the privilege to travel. We sleep in our beds at night, like bits of sand on the planet. Sometimes I lie in bed at night and imagine what people are doing at that moment in all the places we've visited and then my life falls into perspective.
On to Galway. See you soon. Be well.
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