V5 travels: The dangle on Dingle

Our second day staying at the Courtyard Cottages, Blennerville, we decided to drive the Dingle Peninsula. Our host, Myra, suggested we take a back road over the Cahaconree mountain to get to the coast a little earlier. The road got narrower and narrower, until it was barely wide enough for the car, and had grass growing in the middle of it….I said to F…if we get to dirt, we turn back. There was no phone signal, and no building or person within eyesight but the road kept going. At one stage the incline was so steep, our trusty little i20 was reduced to barely second gear to make it up…we both found ourselves leaning forward and talking gently to her to encourage her upwards.

We reached the summit and what lay beside and below us was a deep green valley. We pulled over to take some pictures to document where we had come from, and beside the road was a little babbling brook…barely noticeable from the car and would have been quite dangerous had we pulled off!

While the travel up the mountain seemed to take forever….the view was worth it….and before we knew it we were travelling down and came out right on the coast. At the top of the mountain it was clear, however at sea level, the sea mist had come in and this followed us nearly all around the peninsula to Dingle - only leaving when we went inland. We could imagine what the view would have been like had the day been as glorious as the day before, however it was our imagination….a low mist, little light, grey cloud made the sea and the coast look ragged and rugged for most of the morning before we reached sun on the other side of midday.

We lunched at Dingle, in a pub on the waterfront, enjoying what sun was poking through and a GnT with our seafood meal.

As we continued to drive after lunch, the sun poked its head in and out for us. We took the coastal drive to the edge of the peninsula before heading north and back to Tralee. The road was Slea Head Road, and at times it was precarious on the edge of th cliff face…not unlike the Amalfi Drive, although no tunnels. We followed a motor home for parts, and were pleased he was ahead …. Until….. there was a van coming the other way! There was no where to go to pull over, so the van reversed for a few hundred metres until he found a rock cutting to take his van off road by 30-40 cms (1 or 2 cms from scraping his mirrors and rear on rocks), while the motor home travelled through….motor home driver and van driver talking to each other….dozens of cars backed up in both directions! We had just managed that situation - with us guiding the van to say he had room to move forward to allow the motor him to pass, when it happened again not more than 50 metres further on! We were both rather pleased to be in our little i20! It could well have been the dangle on Dingle for anyone on the seaside of the the road!

We met some fellow Australians just after this who had experienced the same thing and we bantered with them at a pullover while taking in the beautiful scenery. We felt that we had heard how beautiful the Ring of Kerry was, but we all agreed we had not imagined it to be as it was when the sun was out…sparkling Atlantic Ocean, with sapphire blue pockets, blue sky, sheer granite cliffs, white frothy surf on the rocks and then sheer emerald paddocks Criss crossed with stone walls and the dotting of sheep/cattle. Just stunning…when the sun is out, and desperate when it is not!

The next day, I had found a hole in my shoe from all the walking…and as the weather has been on the cool side and sneakers a necessity (the sandles have only seen one day of use in the five weeks so far!). We ventured into Tralee to shoe shop. We had marvellous help from the shop assistant and old shoes were left behind and I walked the streets in my new shoes straight away.

We then decided to drive the road on the north of the waterway to Ballymacquin and Ballheigue Beach. We had a lovely walk on the beach to get our appetite up before we found a restaurant at Ardfert called Kate Browns and enjoyed our lunch of seafood…and I got my wish for Scampi! F and I both agreed that it tasted exactly as we remembered it from our childhood…..a big tick!