Beara to Dingle via the east end of Kerry....

We left Knockatee on a grey, wet Saturday morn. We sadly waved goodbye to the Beara, stopped in Kenmare for my Dad to see the great stone circle there while we grabbed take away lunch from Jam, and then we were on the road to Annauscaul. Kenmare to Annascaul is only about 55 miles, but those miles are hilly and narrow and there are lots of stops that could be made along the way. Here's a map of our route and stops: http://goo.gl/maps/QGSIv. Our first stop was at an Avoca store (http://www.avoca.com/home/explore/stores/?id=6) at Moll's Gap where we were hoping to park somewhere with a nice view, go to the loo, and eat our take away lunch. Well...at that point the weather had turned to a gale. Really. It was all my Mum could do to get inside to use the loo! The rain was coming sideways and hard and cold. I bought a nice warm pair of knee high socks and we huddled in the van eating, seeing nothing... Oh well! We had experienced such amazingly nice weather the first week of our trip that we could hardly complain...well, maybe a little! We saw the Ladies View from the van as well (http://www.killarneynationalpark.ie/Ladies%20View/Ladies%20View.htm) and hoped for a break in the weather before our next planned stop. 

Totally socked in...so lunch in the van!

Jamie loved the van...as long as he wasn't supposed to be seated and buckled!

Driving thru the Killarney National Park (http://www.killarneynationalpark.ie/), we were struck at how very beautiful it was. Forested and mossy green with amazingly pretty views of loughs and rivers. Luckily, by the time we got to the Torc Waterfall (http://www.killarneynationalpark.ie/Torc%20Waterfall/Torc%20Waterfall.htm), the weather had calmed, and we piled out of the van. Jubin and the boys and I hiked up the path to the beautiful falls, a little beyond there, and then went back to the van and encouraged my father to do the same. We also enjoyed watching the horse drawn carriages there, and the bikers going under the road using the stone underpass. Unfortunately, Mom wasn't feeling very well that day, so didn't see much but the HC bathroom, but at least it had stopped raining enough that she got good views from the car (and they had a HC loo for her to use!).

So fun - the bikers had the tunnel to the right to go through to get under the busy road.

Gotta love what they call horse-drawn carriages!

Through Killarney Town, then on to the Dingle Peninsula we went. Our holiday rental for 4 nights was in Annascaul (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annascaul), a village about 10 miles to the east of Dingle Town. It was a cute village, known for the explorer Tom Crean who went to the South Pole and earned an Albert Medal for rescuing other stranded explorers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Crean_(explorer)). Tom started a pub in the village, the "South Pole Inn", where I went one evening to finish my Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellows application, as well as a couple small groceries and little shops. We ended up getting take away 2 nights there and eating out in Dingle Town another night, in part because the house had such terrible kitchen facilities - it was all nicely and newly remodeled, but there was very little in the cupboards...not even dish towels or an oven mitt to take things out of the oven when cooking! One of the grocers in town had the most amazing bread though...the woman baked it herself in the shop, and it wasn't ready until lunchtime, much to our consternation a couple of mornings when we were wanting toast, but oh...so good! A wheaten, but a different one then we'd had before or have had since.

Mountain View home and view from the back (below) - pix from Trip Adviser

Mountain View, the name of this holiday let, was very pretty, large and airy, with gorgeous mountain views (http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/VacationRentalReview-g983232-d4212075-Mountain_View_Holiday_Home-Annascaul_Dingle_Peninsula_County_Kerry.html). However, it wasn't set up very well for us. In fact, we had to move the 2 single beds upstairs and the double bed downstairs, my Dad slept on a pull out couch (not advertised that way), and the handicapped bathroom kept flooding during my parent's showers! Oh, and the dryer was a condensing dryer that took hours to dry clothes and needed to be emptied multiple times each load... Oh well! The village was quaint, and nicely located among sights, the place had internet (after 8 nights without, we were ready!), the owner was lovely (Brid, pronounced Breed), and she gave us great advice about sights to see. I haven't reviewed this house yet, but would probably give it 3 out of 5 stars and wouldn't go out of my way to return...but, it was certainly not terrible, and we were rapidly realizing that you cannot have it all when traveling!