Beara Peninsula

On Friday, we drove the Ring of Beara, on the Beara peninsula, just south of Kenmare. Our first stop in the morning was Gleninchaquin Park. To get there we had to drive about 15 km on very narrow single track road. We didn't encounter anyone on the drive in, but had a couple close calls on the way out. 

 Gleninchaquin is a family run farm that is also a nature reserve and park with hiking trails. We hiked for an hour, past a waterfall...

 ...and up to a lake.

 There were sheep grazing in all of the areas of the park, so we had to go through many gates and climb over fences and avoid lots of sheep poop.

 We stopped for a snack break beside the "Famine House", a tiny stone house that illustrated conditions in the valley during the potato famine.

Our next stop was the cable car to Dursey Island on the far western end of the peninsula. The cable car is the only one in Ireland, and the only cable car in Europe to cross open sea.

 

The cable car was opened in 1969, and didn't really look like it had received any upgrades since then. 

 The island is 1.5 km by 6 km, has 3 tiny towns and a population of about 60. There are no restaurants, shops or pubs.

 We didn't do the whole trail on the island, but walked for a while to check out the scenery, some fishing boats and more sheep.

 The locals also use the cable car as transportation to and from the island. A hiker asked one of the locals on our cable car what to do while on the island and he replied "get some fresh air".

 Jasper was really fascinated by the several broken cars we saw on the island, and insisted on having his picture taken with each of them.

On the cable car ride back, we met some new friends who were travelling with their 2 year old and 4 month old. We ended up in the same park and pub as them in the next town over, so Jasper got to see his friend again.

Kenmare

We spent today in Kenmare, the town we are staying in. We had a relaxing morning of playing in the backyard, then a 20 minute walk into town.

 Our first stop was the playground (of course). Jasper keeps surprising us with his playground equipment skills.

After a cafe stop for tea and scones, it was down to the Kenmare pier. It was low tide, so the boats were all sitting on the sea floor.

The town is at the end of a really long inlet, quite far from the open ocean. Other than it being low tide, you wouldn't even know it was the ocean.

 After lunch, nap and more playing outside, we were back in Kenmare to scout out some "rock stars". We found a pub that had a scheduled session at 7:30, early enough for the kids.

 While we waited,we went to check out the ancient stone circle just on the edge of town.

 Apparently, it is "one of the largest stone circles in the south west of Ireland".

 Jasper must have run up and down this little hill 40 times, falling into the bushes each time.

 We ate dinner at the O'donnabhain pub, and waited for the music to start.

 The food was pretty good, but unfortunately the musician was an hour late getting there. The waitress said he was caught in traffic...although that would be like being caught in traffic in Bruce County.

We dragged out our dinner long enough to stick around to see two songs, and Jasper was really into it. He was definitely the only dancer in the pub at 8:30, and he cried when we had to leave.

We will have to find him some more music to see. Apparently, there are often afternoon shows for families on Sundays. We'll have to seek that our when we're in Kilkenny on Sunday.

Killarney and Ring of Kerry

Today we drove into Killarney and rented bikes with trailers to cycle through Killarney National Park. The man who rented us the bikes was very gregarious. He told Jasper the park map was a treasure map and that he should look out for monkeys in the park. He gave Jasper some gummy candies for the trip, and he even let us take the bikes without paying, since we didn't have enough cash on hand!

 Our first stop was the Torc waterfall.

 I'm not sure what Ellis is looking at that is so interesting in this picture.

With the rocky hills and lakes, the landscape is quite similar to Killarney Provincial Park in northern Ontario.

 We opted for separate trailers for each kid to share the load, and to avoid pinching/ biting/ squishing during the ride.

 After a brief stop at Mulcross House, we had lunch in front of the Mulcross Abbey.

 We hurried back for the 1:00 opening of yet another farm/ historical village/ kids play area.

 There were donkeys, piglets, peacocks, a blacksmith shop, mountain views, and a bouncy castle.

Jasper was not harmed in the filming of this video.

 With all of the animals and amusements, the kids spent about 10 minutes staring at this (dying) beetle they found.

 There was a really cool forest park towards the end of the farm trail.

 After the farm, it was a quick bike into town, an ATM stop to pay for our bikes, and a roadside ice cream cone.

I think Ellis enjoyed her first ice cream cone experience!

The kids fell asleep by the time we left the parking lot, so we continued on to drive the rest of the Ring of Kerry. The drive was spectacular, as advertised, and we avoided the tour coaches by taking the trip in the late afternoon. We couldn't make any stops at the lookouts, with the kids sleeping in the back, so I didn't get any photos, but I will leave you with some guy's youtube video of the drive.

Bunratty Castle

We had to get up and pack up from our hostel this morning. We said goodbye to our favourite hostel staff, a German guy with a Blue Jays hat.

 We had a 3 hour drive to our next stop, so we planned to drive 1 hour in the morning, then the rest during nap. Unfortunately, when we arrived, we realized that we'd left the stroller at the pub the night before.

 Fortunately, we were at Bunratty Castle and folk park, so I was able to tour around with the kids while Pat drove back to pick up the stroller.

The castle and park was a great place to spend a couple of hours. There were people dressed in period costumes, throughout the grounds. Jasper pointed at a man in a green costume and loudly asked "is that a leprechaun?".

Climbing the castle stairs was quite the task with both kids in tow. I had Ellis in the front carrier, and Jasper did a good job of carefully climbing the windy stairs. 

 Most of the pictures are of just Jasper, since Ellis was strapped to me, and I'm not great at selfies.

 There were also lots of animals in the park, which kept the kids happy.

 Jasper also liked all the beautiful flowers. He insisted on having his picture taken with these orange ones.

We finished the rest of our drive to Kenmare during the kids nap. The landscape changed a fair bit as we drove, it is hilly and much less rocky here. We are all very excited to be in a house with our own kitchen and a room for each of the kids!

Kids Farm visit

This morning we took the kids to Moher Hill Farm, a kids farm/ play area nearby.

 They had tons of different animals- farm and exotic- that you could feed and pet.

 Jasper enjoyed feeding the animals, Ellis was more tentative.

 The llamas were a big hit, and the sheep that tickle you when they eat the food.

 Pat fed the ostrich, who was prone to also biting hands when grabbing food.

 We followed a school group, so the kids got to try out feeding a baby goat.

 It was funny to watch Jasper line up with the rest of the kids to wait his turn. He was about 1 1/2 feet shorter than them.

 Jasper also got to hold a 7 day old bunny. The bunny was born the day we arrived in Ireland.

 In addition to the animals, the farm had all sorts of play areas for the kids- a giant sand box, bouncy castle, playground, go karts, mini put and a ball pit.

The kids would have stayed there all day (they both cried when we left).

 After nap, we went to see the Poulnabrome Dolomen, an ancient portal tomb.

 The actual structure was somewhat underwhelming, but it was interesting to read a bit about the history and to see the Burren landscape up close. It is all limestone, and reminded me a bit of the Limestone Islands in the Georgian Bay.

There were also a lot of wildflowers in bloom.

 We tried to go see some traditional music in Doolin, a small town with 3 pubs known for their "trad" sessions.

Unfortunately, none of the sessions started before 9pm- too late for us to stay with the kids. We had an enjoyable meal of pub food. Sorting ketchup packets kept the kids busy for most of the time while we waited for our meal.