Give him an inch and he will drive miles

Itinerary

• Kerry Cyclists
• Horse riding
• Inch beach
• Dingle etc

 

 

 

The ride around Kerry

The laughter and whoops were pretty loud for 6:30 on a Saturday morning. Bearing in mind family Dembo currently arise about 9ish, it was quite a shock to the system to hear the happy laughter from the street. Initially thinking it was a few drunken lads carrying on from the night before, we tried the old turn over and ignore it trick (used many a time for an early Drew wake up in the hope Ree would "hear first").

The yells continued so I peered out the window to see the road at the fron of the B&B (aka the main road aka the only road) replete with cyclists and spectators.

Today, it turns out is the annual Ride Around the Ring of Kerry charity bike event. 8500 cyclists (including Darran O'Sullivan) each pay 60 Euro entry fee and raise a lot of sponsorship by riding the 110 mile road around the Ring of Kerry.

It's a classically Irish event - the riders start in Kilorgan about 30km from where we were staying, The event begins at 8am but people rock up when they feel like it and get undeer way. The riders came through at all different speeds, peletons and individuals, fancy and not fancy bikes. Many stopped for a coffee or a chat. Heard one spectator call out "June is dat yu". It was, June stopped and the cyclist behind her, evaded her with skill.

The spectators were brilliant. Waving and cheering the still happy cyclists - easy to be happy on a beautiful day after a bit of a ride. Lets see them in another 140 kms I say.

Still, we were glad we had not decided to drive the Ring today.

 

 

 

Marvelous day for it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quite white legs

 

 

 

 

Horse riding

The morning began with the kids and Ree heading off to do a bit of horse riding.

Drew and Ree ended up with old cob horses called Tom and Ted. Zoe's horse was called Samson. After walking / trotting down to the beach of Rossbeigh they spent an hour riding and watching Ted trying to bite Toms arse. Fun for all.

I made the journey all the way across the street to catch up on a bit of travel diary and have a coffee. It can be revealed that there are a few places in London, mostly run by Aussies and New Zealanders, which make a good coffee. As yet in Ireland, that trend has not caught on.

The idea of coffee may be newish to the Isle - the thought seemingly being to superheat the milk to Mordor Magma temperature, heat it a good bit further again, possibly a little hotter, then add a TINY amount of coffee of which every bean must have extracted every last grimace bitterness. Think drinking scalding, steamed dishwater with aftertaste BUT served by the nicest smilingest Irish teenager girl working behind the counter.

The hour of child free silence was lovely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Dingle journey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inch beach.

Windy +++.

Dull, overcast skies.

Jacket weather.

Beach and carparks around it - packed.

 

 

 

 

 

Drew throwing a coin up high then watching how it buries itself on landing in the soft sand

 

 

 

Inch Beach Eatery

 

 

 

 

 

 

Loved the rental car. Diesel with a bit of grunt.

 

 

 

 

Dingle

The town of Dingle was buzzing. Narry a parking spot to be had. Pubs full (there was a rugby match against Australia showing live).

It was all quaint but in a genuine unashamed way so that you just went along with it all without the desire for a little patriarchal chuckle or two.

Homemade soup in a lil cafe and a stroll before we continued our drive along the coastal road with gorgeous green hills on the other side.

Does the Ring of Dingle have any Cliffs of Mordor? Nopes. Hmmmm. So far, 2 rings, small cliffs, no Mordor and no sight of Hobbits.

 

 

 

Classic combo - bar and bikes. Nice work "Foxy John"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Little Dingle houses...made of Ricky-tacky?

 

 

 

So pretty

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

House proud

The Irish seem to have a very strong home, family and community way of mind - a culture if you will. Much seems based on the home itself (I imagine a bit of hearth during the winter months).

Perhaps as a consequence, there seems to be a sense of houseproud. The houses are generally immaculate from the outside with pristene, neat gardens, swept paths and cleaned windows. The plants are just so, even in an area with sea salt winds. Nice.

 

 

 

A few houses of Galbeigh.

 

 

 

Tomorrow we leave for Connamara which I have been looking forward to a lot.

 

 

Enough