Boog's Blog

Saturday 13 May woke to a morning rain. Rain stopped and cloudy all day but no rain.

Breakfast at Kilkenny Design center. Good and very popular place for eats.  Cafeteria style, as are a number of places in this area. 

Still nary a squirrel.

Scarves. Found another nice place with a very friendly and good proprietor. Stable is it’s name.

Williams Street, similar to Soho in NYC, cute shops, eateries, converted mansions.  Above a shot of the street and one of the converted mansions.

O’Connell is a main broad Street, the town center. The general post office is near the top. Big exhibit on the history of the uprising of the early 20th century.  Picture of the 240 meter spire on Flickr.

The GPO is across the river.

Little museum, sold out. Listed as one of the key attractions so we tried to get in.  Got tickets for tomorrow.  Below the museum is a eatery recommended more than once by shop keeper and tourist office and hotel. Nice cheese board and tea. 

Saint Steven Park walk. Another top attraction, nice little park to stroll around.  

Dinner at ramen restaurant on Williams, Kokoro ramen.  No kimchi, not done here.

Went to the cellar bar to have a draft Guinness.  We were told that it tastes different and better (both turned out to be true) in Dublin. Waitperson at ramen joint claimed old timers could tell the difference between Guinness transported by rail and Guinness transported by canal back in earlier times. 

Friday 12 May, on and off rain in Dublin.

Still no squirrels.

Train to Dublin. Early but non stop so we took it.

Hotel entry blocked, Prince Charles visiting the government building across the street. Missed Chuck and Cam.

Over to Grafton street before the Book of Kells visit.

Trinity college library and the Book of Kells. Excellent exhibition but no pics allowed. Story of this and similar illustrated books of the 7-9th century.

Views of Trinity college main square.

Library where the book of Kells is exhibited. There is a fine exhibition, no photos allowed, giving the history of the illustrated works of the period.  Well documented and presented.  The book is, of course, in a sealed display case.  Surprisingly bright colors. 

Magnificent hotel rooms, we got a very large upgrade in this 5 star place.  Two bathrooms, dressing room, bedroom, living room plus amenities of all sorts.   

Just the living room:

Thurs 11 May sunny very warm

Final day in the Kerry area.  Still no squirrels seen.  None. Not one, neither grey or red.

Kerry guest lodge.

 Walked to an almost non existent waterfall.

Kenmare is a tidy town.  Has won awards up through 2015.  When I asked a local about recent results he mentioned another with competition has gotten stronger.

Fine landscaping with rockgardens as well as little parks.

Nice cheese, combo of French and Irish, at Maison Gourmand.

Wednesday 10 May weather still good

Taxi in the morning to Kenmare for loop walk in town. The tourist office could not find a loop walk, only a linear one. Nice town to explore so we did.

Market day in town. Mostly nice food but other stuff too.

Two attractions of the town are the 11th century bridge

And Bronze age Stone circle

With a hellmouth in the center.

Very nice dinner at Packies

Tuesday May 9. Another sunny warm day to start and remained so.

Grassy walk

with lots of road walking after the Kerry Way crosses the N70.

Hardest section of the walk:

Downtown Northern Sneem

Bobby alerted us that eating full fat cheeses are fine for the heart. Lunch in Sneem. Four local cheeses. Picture taken after olives eaten

Our B&B tonight

Boog Terrain Poem

Roots ‘n’ rocks,

Field ‘n’ stream,

Boy

Bogs  ‘n’ boards,

Stones ‘n’ stiles,

Bogs ‘n’ Stones,

Grass ‘n’ sheepshit

Boulders ‘n’ gravel,

Roads ‘n’ rocks,

Stiles ‘n’ mud,

New road.

Walk done.

Monday May 8 Sunny and warm again. Might be peak warmness.

A rest day.

Last evening was cloudy.  This is relevant as we are in a 10 km ring which has clear skies for star viewing.  No evening lights. 

Morning view from window.

Met the architect of the bar and restaurant at Merrion hotel where we will be staying when in Dublin.  Nice group of well educated men and woman, golfers, travelers and proud of the Irish architectural successes – several big prizes. 

Walked to a cafe on the beach. This place, again, claims the best beach.

On the way we passed a tourist office on the road. Maps we asked, to Sneem. Nope, do not cover that far. Less than 20 KMS from here, oh, well

A day of rest and reading.

Saturday May 6.  Wind, very Ireland, very windy and cold on the high ridge where we spent considerable time. 

Last evening at QC’s we had a fine room, very fine, in a severely understaffed and not well thought out place.  No way to find anyone to help the usual minor items of a place. Appliances off, missing items in room,that sort of thing.   Good kitchen and nice people. 

The latest Star Wars was filmed at Skellig, prevously mentioned, and clearly was a big excitement for traffic and lodging.   The star stayed in the hotel we are in tonight.

The hotel below, our domicile tonight,  was frequented for ten years each holiday season by Charlie Chaplin.  A seaside escape.

The walk today starts at the Mastergeehy post office. A shorter walk today but not always an easy one. I enjoyed  the walk  a great deal but QB did not, too strenuous-hard on legs. 

After an ascent we got onto a ridge, strong wind, and stayed there most of the day.  Met two other pairs walking; they passed us easily.

Some of the ascent was like being on the Cornish coast.  Some of the ascent we realized, again, that we must be nuts to do this. 

Unanswered question:. why is it so boggy on tops of hills that are wind buffeted and in areas that have not seen rain for more than a week?  Unanswered.

Typical three room Irish cottege.  Passed many of these in the past few days.

View of the main Street of Waterville.  Lovely seaside place. In the picture above with the statue of Chaplin the sea is evident.

Friday May 5 the kind of morning and day that one expects in Ireland: cold, very cold wind, strong wind, overcast, green.  Even birds had difficulty flying straight. Only thing missing was driving rain.

Breakfast in the room.

Admin work tied us up this am. Paperwork instead of a walk. Fortunately this town has a good library and post office.

Coffee shop for admin work

The walk not taken is one that Peter described as many multiple stiles before a rocky 360 plus meter ascent on hands and knees with boggy sections. Good day for admin.

Walked instead to an old fort.  Not a great shot, fort is up on the right.  Related to Ballycarberry castle.

The castle.

The town

Dinner.  A truly fine crab and prawn bisque with Pernod.  Just the kind of dish Bobby could make for us.  Fresh crab, picked perfectly, fresh prawns, good sized, in a lovely seafood bisque.

One of the outstanding dishes throughout this walk so far has been the seafood type chowders. 

Thursday May 4 sunny and then overcast.

Very nice conversation with our hosts last evening. They are pictured at end of yesterday’s post.  Haters of May and supporters of Corbyn, fed up with the smooth talking moderates of labor. Explained the current labor weakness, Corbyn being the only choice, due to the ruthless purges of the old guard by  Blair.

Interestingly, even though they are outsiders from England they feel well integrated  in the community. 

Explained history of this area. Occupied since Neolithic times, most populous part of Ireland in those days, trade with the Mediterranean, copper mines here.
Morning view from our window

We start the walk near one of the oldest Christian sites in Ireland.

http://www.activeme.ie/guides/attractions-2/caherlehillan-srugreine-ancient-church-and-graveyard-kells-kerry-ireland-things-to-see-and-do/

Another easy walk:  fields and streams, many stiles, no difficult sections. Perfect walking weather.

Smallest cottege in Ireland

Picnic  spot for lunch. We were joined by a local dog without his partner. Sat there wanting us to feed him. Came from a house up the road. Nice looking golden retriever.

Very nice boutique hotel in a somewhat depressed town. Many vacant and abandoned storefronts.  Gothic cathedral style church but, strangely, no steeple. Apparently not enough money to build one.  

Fine monkfish dinner at our evening abode.

Wednesday May 3. Our walk was very warm and sunny.

An outstanding walk and day. Perfect in almost any measure (a bit too warm).

Sunset last evening, as viewed from our window.

• Terrain: flat along the main highway. Peter’s guide mentioned a narrow vertiginous section which I wanted to miss especially with an almost perfect stroll alongside the ocean. Past Dingle bay and Kells bay.  Highway walking but acceptable, to us, verge to walk on.

One recurrent observation: if you ask the locals about the walking conditions (paths, rocks, ascents) you will find that few have actually walked the Kerry Way and are really describing driving on the Ring of Kerry road.

Today’s  walk is the West of Kells.  The same Kells as the book of Kells which we might see in Dublin.  

Scenic walk as described here:

http://www.destinationringofkerry.com/kellsfoilmore-on-the-ring-of-kerry/

• After the road a nice pleasant walk along a ridge which we joined from a side road we found that took us back on the Kerry Way

Houses are also heated here, in addition to smokeless coal, by peat.

Views of our B&B run by a lovely couple from South England.  The place was not on Google Maps; added it.