Day 74 28th April 2017
Up and out of the hostel fairly early to get on the road to our next overnight at Dunquin via Dingle.We leave the Cliffs of Mohr behind and keep to the coast arriving at a town called Kilkee which we knew nothing about.We headed down to the beach to a cafe and then went walking along what turned out to be what Ireland specialises in-dramatic coastlines.
Then on to Tralee where we stopped to get supplies and have some lunch.Melanie chose a venue called “Cafe Delights” which turned out to be a greasy spoon where the vegie soup came out of a packet, the toilets should have been condemned, and the owner had probably been an army cook.However in his defence the “Full Irish” breakfast (the safe option) was terrific.We ended up chatting to the locals who thought we were Americans (!!!!) and as usual with the Irish they get away with murder because they are so damn welcoming.
Driving through the rain we went through Dingle which was swollen with tourists and appeared interminably cute to our final destination.It is hard to describe the road which clung to the cliffs and was incredibly narrow but which dropped down in Dunquin revealed a stunning coastline with islands sitting just offshore.We checked into the Hostel with the hospitable Carmel then headed out to explore in the wind and rain.The islands we had seen are called the Blaskets and Great Blasket was inhabited up until 1953 ,we could see the remains of houses on there and determined to go to the Visitor’s Centre the next day.In the meantime we hiked past sheep down to the beach on then on down to the small harbour which is accessed by a winding road which is often featured on tourist brochures.Locals run trips to see the remains of the houses on the island from this harbour apparently in zodiac inflatables-the trips were cancelled for the next three days due to bad weather.We got the impression this was not unusual.
After our walk we prepared a meal at the hostel where we started chatting to an Irish family who had checked in because their tent pole had broken.The Dad was secretly delighted as camping apparently wasn’t his thing as we talked on we found out that they had lived in Melbourne.In fact they had lived in Clifton Hill just around the corner from our house !Another one of those travel coincidences!
