Wild Mountain Thyme

Tralee Bay behind us

Stardate 67296.6

22:22 - After a night out of great live music, we got a great tip on where to go for the next day from some locals. From Limmerick, we set off for the winding roads of Dingle Peninsula. This peninsula stretches 30 miles out into the Atlantic Ocean in southwest Ireland. Through the middle of the peninsula runs a pretty steep mountain range. Since we started on the North of the Peninsula, we drove through the mountain range, which led to some pretty breathtaking views of the bays and ocean below. We stopped to take a few pictures of Tralee Bay from up high. Lucky for us, there is always a turnout available.

The Dingle Peninsula has many fantastic features, but one of the prettier ones is Inch Beach! Inch Beach basically sticks out of the south part of Dingle Peninsula. In the Summer, it is a pretty happening spot to swim and sometimes surf. We arrived in the winter with a bunch of wind and sea foam. The views from Inch Beach were outstanding. Everything there appeared to be softer shades of green, blue and grey. We did not stay here long because of the cold and the hunger we felt.

We could have stopped anywhere to eat. In fact there were a great number of pubs or inns or general food places, but I had my eye set one place. Armed with a travel book, I told Rob to trust me as we traveled a bit further to eat lunch. You see, Focus Foxies, we have a love of penguins and there was a famous Irishmen from the Dingle Peninsula who went to the Antarctica, named Tom Crean. Tom Crean was a member of the crew who lost the race to the South Pole. He had even worst luck when on another boat that sank, he remained stranded near Antarctica. He managed to survive the 800 mile open ocean journey to safety. Eventually, he came to Annascaul, Ireland where he opened the South Pole Inn. The Inn is decorated in his honor with memorabilia from his travels to Antarctica. Also, it has a cute penguin sign. Totally worth driving and extra half an hour on an empty stomach for.

After lunch, we turned our attention to our nightly destination, Killarney. We had a grand first day in County Kerry, but it was about to get better. We settled into our bed and breakfast and then popped out to Danny Mann Inn for some Irish folk music. A man by the name of Dan O'Sullivan entertained us with his voice and his guitar. We drank our Smithwicks and sang along with him to songs we were just learning. By the time we left Ireland we knew them quite well. In fact, most of the Irish blog posts are named after songs that we sang that night.