We had to have an extra day in Killarney. We were just too worn out from Brandon’s (Bear and Sassy’s son) travel experience. It took him 30 hours (an hour for each year of age—I hope he’s not planning a big trip to celebrate his 80th birthday), numerous cancelled flights, and lost luggage to make it to the start of the Dingle Way.
Trendsetters we are. Yesterday, we entered an empty Celtic Donut shop for a quick healthy bite and a cup of coffee. Before we made it to a table, a line had formed out the door. Today, we stopped in a cafe for a late breakfast with only 1 table occupied. Before we got our food, every table was full and people were waiting at the door. Sadly, this trend follows me to every toilet. I never get 5 minutes of peace.
The Kerry Way starts with about 3 miles of road walking. The official start is outside the tourist information office downtown which has the first trail marker by the door.
The trail heads by Killarney House and gardens which we toured yesterday on our honorary “Brandon Rest Day”. It’s a beautiful walled estate which was donated to the city. It’s gardens and lands stretched all the way to Lough Leane.
Near the estate, we were greeted by a couple of local historical figures. Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, who helped hide Jews from the Nazis while he was serving in Rome. He also helped several thousand escaped POWs get back to the Allies. When the Allies took over Italy, he watched out for Nazi POWs believing that God has no country.
The other was Johnny O’Leary, who was an accordion player and dedicated his life to keeping traditional Celtic Music alive. It’s through his dedication that Celtic bands of today are able to gain worldwide acumen.
Muckross House and Gardens was our first opportunity for a cafe stop. (Not actually true, we passed up several, but Bunny wouldn’t let me stop, insisting we had to walk more than a mile between stops.) This house was finished around 1850 when the local rich kid decided he needed a new home. He inherited obscenely large amounts of money from his family land holdings and copper mines. It is a beautiful house which I would gladly live in right on Muckross Lake.
After his death, the estate traded hands several times until it ended up in some American’s holdings. They decided they finally had too much and decided to donate the house and 25,000 acres of land to Ireland which became the start of Killarney National Park. A very generous gift indeed, but also very screwed up system where one person or family can accumulate so much wealth while a country has 40% poverty. How did we get back to politics again?
The crowds followed us on the start of our climb to Torc Waterfall. Torc Mountain sits beside Muckross House, Lake, and Gardens. Once again, all the outside tables were empty at Muckross Cafe, until we sat down. When we left, people were hovering for a chair. These same people followed us to the waterfall. When we turned at the falls and started the steep climb up, the people took a look at the stairs in the mountain and let us know how much their desire to follow us was worth in physical effort. We were pretty much alone from there on.
By the time we realized we were becoming isolated from society (on this trip, actually, I’ve been aware of it all my life) we were almost 6 miles in. The climbing was finished and we were in a high bog. The bogs are crisscrossed with streams and creeks. The rainwater is soaked up by the ground and gradually released which keeps all the area flush with water. We are in a kind of temperate rain forest (when we’re in trees). Mosses and ferns are the dominant life up here.
From this point on, we only ran into locals who were out for the day. I noticed bike tracks in the mud on a steep, muddy climb with occasional rock steps. There’s no way anyone could ride a bike through here. A couple minutes later, we met a guy carrying his bike coming towards us. He lives in Killarney and had ridden to Kenmare and back. He said this is the only section that couldn’t be ridden.
We never really had a goal destination for today. We just wanted to get out of town and civilization. We reached the junction of the Kerry Loop section. The first 9 miles was the entry point to the loop. We’ll have to do those miles again when we finish. I was thinking that if we were early enough, we’d try to make it to Lord Brandon’s Cafe. It was apparent to me now that we’d be after 4 before we got there (if we’re passing a cafe, I want to give it every opportunity to be open). I suggested we camp near the shore of Upper Lake.
The sheep are hiker friendly. Except for the output left behind, they do a great job of picking and maintaining campsites. We found 3 really nice spots they had manicured for us near the shore. There was even a little creek next to one where we could get water. We’ve finally had to filter water for the first time on this trip.
We had camp set up and had eaten by 6:30. Because we’re even further west in this time zone, the sun doesn’t set until 10. We tried to sit out by the lake to watch the sunset, but we couldn’t do it. We were in bed by 7:30. We’ll get up early tomorrow and put in a longer day. There’s no rain in the forecast until Wednesday so we’ll be ready to go by 6.
EFG
No issues with just camping anywhere in Ireland?
HOT here.
Open camping in Ireland, just like Scotland. We still haven’t had a 70F day yet.