The next morning, it rained and rained. Finally when it stopped, C left us for Killarney. Then J and I walked to the tourist info center to get info for her and a hostel guide for me. Finally, I left at 11. A lovely fountain was on hand to bid me farewell.
In the very next town, which was not far at all from Tralee, there was this windmill at a coffee shop, where I got me a cup of tea. I found out it's an actual working windmil, but that day must have been its day off, cause it wasn't working.
Here's a little taste of the mountains I am going to cross....
After a while, I stopped at a roadside pub to get a bite to eat. They were closed, but... there were KITTENS!!!!! No, I did not eat them.
OK. Back on the road.
I kept seeing lots of pretty flowers along the roads in Ireland, so I decided I would start taking pictures of them.
all kinds of interesting plants are here.
BEHOLD: THE SEA! I love the smell of the sea.
It sure ain't Minnesota.
There was even a SURFER in evidence! Not like the Great Lakes. Hey there proably ARE surfers on the Great Lakes, somewhere. Maybe on Lake Superior if there's a good wind. But I digress.
If the sea looked like THIS, I don't know what I would do. Too late to run! But fortunately it's the mountain ridge.
Wait wat? IRISH SNAILS!
BERRIES were found! But they were merely raspberries.
People decompose into the ground, grass grows, cows eat grass, people eat cows. The cycle of life is complete...
After a while, it came to be time to start climbing up the mountain. Here in the mountains, there are no cows. Instead, there are SHEEP.
Yikes! This could get grueling...
and with lots of skinny, curvy roads.
A few hundred meters up. Still not to the top yet...
Prickly Spiny! I saw some of these right around Shannon airport and failed to take pictures. I never saw them again, until now! These ones are younger looking than the Shannon ones, and flowering. I found some older, crustier ones later though.
Sheep Crosing! Somehow I did not see ANY sheep roadkill.
Hey wait a minute! This is starting to look..strangely familiar....
It's starting to look like ANOTHER place I biked over that ended with the word "pass"! Remember that? It did not end well.
Good thing I adjusted my brakes to "hair trigger" before I left. Otherwise I might just end up with a matching OTHER broken collarbone!
One of several lush crevices.
Those little snail trails down there are really WALLS.
..and what awaits intrepid cyclers at the top? Why, ICE CREAM, of course!
The other side...
BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE! You can keep walking, even higher!
ANd what awaits you at the top of THAT? Why, A BIG PILE OF ROCKS, of course!
I was wishing I could take a picture of how strong the wind was blowing. Then I saw these kids with their clothes flapping. Pretty harsh wind! I was feeling it further back down the mountainside, but up near the summit, it was pretty quiet until I rounded the top.
If you squint really hard maybe you can see my bike.
I didn't take any picture on the way down. Needless to say, I did not break ANY bones! See, the strong wind was slowing me all the way down. I didn't even have to use my brakes! I had air brakes. It was the first time I was ever happy to have the wind in my face while cycling. Here is a viewing the magical (well magical looking at least) town of Dingle.
But the ride's not over yet. My goal for the day is at the tip of the Dingle peninsula, in the far littler town of Dun Caion (prononced Dun Quinn).
Out here they have Low Altitude Sheep.
I have since learned all the palm trees here are landscaped. They did not wash up on the shore as coconuts, ever.
The Blasket Islands. I did not go there, although I thought I might.
2 views from the hostel where I stayed. They remembered Ms C there! The lady Carmel who works there said there was recently a Japanese girl who cycled over 100 miles the day she got there.
