What's Ireland Without Some Rain?

As you can tell we haven't had internet for three days so I've got a lot to catch up on with this blog.  Someone said to me the other day that the previous blogs have been rather short, so I think this one will make up for it.

Tuesday we left Kinsale and were set to arrive in Rosscarbery that night after sight-seeing that day.  Our first stop was to Blarney castle where everyone had to kiss the Blarney stone.  I decided not to climb up the narrow castle steps with the throngs of people since I already did that 15 years ago and Karl didn't think he could climb all the way with his bad leg.  So we waited until our group did the kissing thing and talked with other people that were waiting for their own group.  The ride wasn't too bad this time with the threat of rain, but not much really fell. 



Our next stop was to a vantage point where we saw how people who lived on Dursey Island got to and from there.  Dursey Island is a small island off the coast and the only way to get to the island is by the cable car.  But not only are people transported that way, but sheep and cows are lifted by a hoist and put on a barge that takes them to the island.  Not too bad right?  Except that the water they have to travel over is choppy and not smooth most of the time.

On Wednesday we traveled from Rosscarbery to Kenmare in the driving rain.  There are some pictures, but very few since most of the day the rain was very heavy.  I had on long johns, t-shirt heavy jacket, jeans, outer protective pants, boots and socks.  Everything got soaked!  The only part of me that wasn't wet was a small spot from my knee to the middle of the thigh!  But here I do have to brag.  Many people who ride motorcycles know about the "Tail of the Dragon".  That is a stretch of road in Deal's Gap, North Carolina where in 11 miles you do 318 curves - a motorcyclist dream!  But here is my bragging part.  On this day's ride we were on roads no bigger than a cow's path, barely paved, room enough for one car, but is two way traffic, not a straight road in sight, in the rain and on the wrong side of the road!  So take THAT you tail of the dragon riders!  You ain't got nuthin' on us!  This picture shows one the the better paved roads.

On Thursday we were on to Dingle and it was a beautiful ride!  Partly cloudy, but mostly blue skies shined on us.  We drove through some amazing countryside with the farms dotting the green hills and the fields being separated by either a stonewall or hedgerows.  Then we were at the coastline, which reminded Karl and I of the California coastline on the Pacific Coast Highway.  We road around an area called Slea Head Drive with follows the coastline for quite a while.  Most of the road is about the sharp cliffs and gives a dramatic backdrop to our riding.  We couldn't have asked for a better day of riding to see this beauty of Ireland.

Today we rode straight from Dingle to Killarney because, again, we were in hard rain.  We are here for two days before we travel to Galway on our own (with our original group) since the official tour has ended today.  We hope to have better weather this weekend so that we can enjoy the Killarney area.

Phew!  I think I have made up for the short posts this time, don't you think?