Writing this as  a quick catch up as Pat and I are about to leave for the airport. Here’s what’s been going on, without any pithy comments…

- Left Killarney

- Stopped at the Rock of Cashel (neither a pub nor a professional wrestler, the Rock of Cashel is the ruins of an ancient fort and cathedral 

- Marty, John, and I got to Dublin and began sightseeing and pubbing.

- Picked up Pat and Donna at the airport early Wednesday morning. They didn’t sleep on the airplane either.

- Continued sightseeing and pubbing. Pat and Donna were troopers - made it to almost 7:00.

- On Thursday, more sightseeing, shopping, and, well, you know what else. Doheny and Nesbit is right down the street from our B&B. Doheny and Nesbit is a great old pub in the Georgian District, and packed after work with folks in suits and ties. The  bartender told us all the regulars are lawyers and politicians from local offices. We went back there anyway. Just made sure we held onto our wallets and ethics tightly.

- Took Marty, Donna, and John to the airport this morning. Marty and Donna to Lisbon, and we’ll meet them back at the Dublin Airport on Wednesday. John’s heading back to CLT and promises to add his thoughts to the blog.

Best Lines of the Last Couple of Days

Best:
We were stopped for a break in Killarney National Park, in an area where we were passing day hikers. A couple came by walking briskly with a terrier on a leash. I made a passing comment about how tough it must be for a small dog with short legs to keep up on a long walk.

Marty replied: “I can relate.”

More Best:
Sitting at the bar in a pub in Kenmare. There was an American couple a couple of seats down asking the bartender questions (too many) about the ring of Kerry. The ring of Kerry is a popular drive around the Iveragh peninsula, roughly following the path we’ve been walking. The road is narrow and curvy in a lot of places and it’s also populated by the occasional tour bus.

The dialogue went like this:

American Husband: Is it dangerous to drive the Ring?
Irish Bartender: No
AH: Is traffic bad?
IB: Not this time of year
AH: Should I drive it clockwise or counterclockwise?
IB: Clockwise
AH: Do I need to get an early start?
IB: (chuckle) What do you call early?
AH: 7 o’clock
IB: (Laugh) Jesus Christ, Lad. You leave by 7:00, you’ll be done by noon. You could do it twice. Now, why don’t you relax, have a couple o’ beers and just get up tomorrow and go? This ain’t DisneyWorld, it’s fookin’ Ireland.

If I make another trip to Ireland, I think I know what I'll name the blog. 

Kenmare to Killarney

Last leg of the walk. 16 miles today, starting with an hour uphill right out of Kenmare. Then, over Windy Pass (aptly named), down into a valley, and over another pass into Killarney National Park. Many miles through the National Park on trails following mountain streams and waterfalls. Really beautiful. I hope the pictures capture some of it. Then, through the Muckross Estate, and into Killarney.

Killarney is, by a lot, the largest town we've been in along the walk. Because of the National Park there's a pretty large tourist orientation here. The football stadium (Gaelic football) is a block away from our B&B, and the crowd was coming down the street after a great win by Kerry over Tipperary. We were going up the street and it was a little like going the wrong way down Stonewall Street after a Panthers game. Only there were more people. And their team had won.

Had a good dinner at a pub in the old part of town, then went around the corner to another pub packed with people and playing some terrific trad Irish music. Great craic. (Gaelic, look it up.) Stayed until the band quit, and went back to the B&B, bone tired. Thirty seven hard miles over the last two days  is a good finish.

Now that the walk is over, I've got to think more about how to really describe it. Awesome is a start but not good enough. This is such a good way to really get the feel of a country.

The walk may be over, but lots more fun to come. We're off tomorrow for Kilkenney, on the way back to Dublin.

Heavy Metal, Now I Know the Answer

Heavy Metal asked an enigmatic question about a picture I posted the first day of the walk. I didn't know how to answer it until today. One of the reasons I didn't know how to answer it is because I didn't know who "Heavy Metal" is. When the answer to the question came to me, I immediately figured out who Heavy Metal is.  What a great metaphor!

The picture is below.

The answer came in a flash today when the three of us were walking down an old rocky road through Killarney National Park and, strangely, Marty belted out a line from an old MGM movie.

The question was: "What are those painted yellow lines down the sides of the road?"

The answer is: They're not painted lines, they're....

You Need a Pair to Hike the Kerry Way

I can't tell you the number of times hiking sticks have saved our bacon on this walk. Walking on rocky paths, down muddy slopes,  and sloshing through mucky areas, and not one fall among any of us. It would be so easy to crater an ankle or knee on these walks. Hiking sticks are our friends.

Now, can anyone guess which pair belong to Szabo?

Why Did They Need the Second Sentence Anyway?

Saw a sign today that I wanted to take a picture of, but it was raining too hard.

On a back road in the middle of a forest was an old stone building that looked like an old house, but in decent shape. There was a sign on the building that read:

THIS BUILDING IS A BAT ROOKERY.
ANYONE TRESSPASING OR DISTURBING THIS AREA IS
SUBJECT TO PROSECUTION UNDER WILDLIFE STATUTE 2.31Q.

Man, glad they told me I could be fined , else I was headed right inside that ol' bat rookery.

Sneem to Kenmare

I think it was Marty who best described all of our feelings about today’s walk after we finished. If it was just the distance (18 miles) we would have been fine. If it was just the rain (a steady rain, not just a drizzle, all day long) it would have been ok. If it had just been the wind (30 mph, gusting higher), we could have dealt with it. If it was just the boggy, muddy ground we walked through part of the day that would have been a pain. But all of it together was a royal  PITA.

And it almost didn’t have to be that bad. We knew at breakfast this morning that it was going to rain and blow, and what the mileage was. We discussed an alternative of getting a ride partway to shorten the day, and walk from there.

Two of our group said they didn’t care, they’d go along with what the others wanted. One of our group said that we ought to go for it - there was some kind of sense of accomplishment to be had. I won’t divulge which person that was. But when we final got down off an interminable final slog over the final mountain, got to our  B&B and showered, and found a pub, Marty bought the first round of Guinness.  And he owes more.

But there were some great moments out there today. Some of them we didn’t capture in pictures because it was raining too heavily to get the camera out. But in particular, there was one stretch of trail around Lackeen Point along Kenmare Bay that was simply awesome. Got some pictures of that.

It figures that as soon as we got to Kenmare the rain quit, and the sun came out. It gets worse. Phillip, the husband of the couple that runs the B&B (Druid Cottage) says that this is the first day this year that it’s rained that hard all day long. Lucky us. But Phillip has seen this before. He’s got all of our wet gear hanging in the shed drying. And he says he knows how to get the boots dry by morning. Trust me, that’s a major challenge.

Had dinner and the appropriate refreshments in Kenmare. This is a great little town, with 2-3 blocks square of pubs, restaurants, all the other things that make up a town, and shopping. I mention shopping because Marty and I are coming back to Kenmare in a couple of weeks, after Donna and Pat come over.

For you foodies - dinner was traditional Irish Pub food. Marty had Shepherd’s Pie. I had Beef and Guinness pie. And John had a mega-Burger. Just so you know, the traditional Irish mega-Burger comes with cheese bacon, lettuce, tomato, and onion rings on the burger. Chips (French fries) are on the side.  It was all great.

Tomorrow is the last day of the hike, and ends in Killarney. Hope the weather’s better.