what was I thinking...

Tuesday, June 12! Breakfast in the new hotel - it’s another fairly big buffet, plenty of cold options from muesli, granola, other cereals, some fresh fruits and some canned, lots of bread options and then the hot line - eggs, fried and scrambled, sausages including black and white pudding varieties, bacon (which is like Canadian back bacon but sliced thicker) slightly cooked tomato halves and here we have fried potatoes (deep fried, that is, of course) and the guy in front of me was helping himself to a spoonful of nice looking, tomato-y sauce so I thought I’d try it - turns out it was beans but all the beans were gone - I loved it! Also, bonus, we get to make our own toast. Janet very nicely popped an extra slice of the Irish soda bread in for me, thanks, sister!

The itinerary says, ‘today’s hike will lead us through some of the most spectacular scenery in Co. Wicklow. Beginning at the Glendalough (“Glen-of-Two-Lakes”) Visitor Centre, our first stop will be one of Ireland’s premier monastic sites, established by St. Kevin in the 6th century. Afterwards, we shall hike the Spinc Loop around the Upper Lake. The trail climbs past Poulanass Waterfall before joining a boardwalk, which will lead us to a spectacular viewpoint above the Lake. The boardwalk skirts the top of the cliffs before descending through bog and heath into the Glenealo Valley and back to the Visitor Centre. (Moderate-challenging, 12 km, 1250 ft elevation gain).’ What really happened - we climbed and climbed and climbed...OMG! Whoever thought of this? Why am I doing it? Where did I go wrong in life? Jaysus Murphy and his mother! We finally get to the top - I can’t look because I am afraid of heights! Then as if that wasn’t bad enough, we start to descend! Still walking on planks covered in heavy staples to add some traction, we go down and down. At least I am no longer huffing and puffing. Thankfully the weather is considerably cooler and overcast  and there is a bit of wind. We are out in the open with no trees to break it and I have to put my wind jacket on for the first time in the whole trip! Doesn’t last long though. The downward trail becomes boulders, rocks and stones, the trail is zigzagging back and forth and it requires full concentration to watch your footing and keep your balance. It was definitely the most challenging hike of the trip, about 4 hours worth with a couple of breaks along the way, and it feels good to finish up, a nice sense of achievement!

Dinner tonight is at our home hotel. Potato leek soup, breast of chicken with bread stuffing, a few veggies and chocolate brownie for dessert.

limerick...

Day 7 Monday is bus travel back to Dublin. Janet is always the first on any bus and secures the front seat so we have the best vantage point for the trip. Our Killarney driver, Charlie, is taking us to the big city and he has some issue with his driving hours - they are quite strict and each driver has a card that he puts in a special slot while he is operating the bus and they are only allowed to drive for nine hours but need to take half hour breaks every so often and then so many hours rest between and he had a call out last night that kept him out just past midnight. The substitute driver takes us for the first hour, Charlie is following in a van and then they switch off, with Charlie back in charge of our bus and the other guy takes the van back to Killarney. A bit of a rigmarole!

We have a  stop in the town of Adare, a little walk around and a snack. I choose something called Chester cake which I thought might be a bit like a raisin butter tart in a slightly different shape...it had a pastry top and bottom and the filling looked like it was moist with dried fruits. Three servers had to be consulted before we had a name for it and I figured since they went to all that trouble I could at least try it. I googled it later and it’s made up of leftover things that didn’t sell. Be warned, do NOT buy Chester cake! 

It seemed a long bus ride and we were passing through Limerick, so Ron - you know, the guy in every group who’s always got something to say and tries to get everyone stirred up - lots of fun and a nice guy with a really nice wife whom he obviously adores - they celebrated their 48th wedding anniversary with this trip - tells everyone they have to come up with a limerick- we would get a few lines going but nothing solid and after most had fizzled out, I decided it was too hard to rhyme Canada or Toronto but it was all in good fun and helped to pass the time!

We got to our new home, Mespil Hotel in Dublin 8 which is the good side of the river, had a quick walk around the block with Robert, our tour leader, pointing out a few restaurants, the grocery store and pharmacy. Back to our room, a bit on the small side but we have a fridge and kettle, twin beds and a decent bathroom, it’s all good!

Dinner is Ely wine bar, one of 100 best in Ireland - the bar is raised! Everyone agrees this was our best meal yet! I had crab cake, salmon with peas and bacon sauce and this chocolate pot with peanut brittle and salted caramel ice cream, so good!

the windy gap...

Day 6, Sunday. After the usual breakfast, we are bussed to  the head of the trail for a hike to the Windy Gap which is between the two highest peaks in Ireland. In case you are wondering, windy gap refers to the weather conditions, not the shape of the trail. For a change, the day is coolish, about 15C and overcast, perfect hiking when you are going to be ascending some fairly steep inclines. This is the hardest we’ve worked yet - MAO (yours truly) is definitely huffing, puffing and red in the face but maintaining her place in the lead group and very glad of the cooler temperatures!  Our trail is a combination of small rocks and a lot of animal droppings, mostly sheep and horse - have to watch your step! The views are amazing and there is no vehicle traffic here, only on foot. We are travelling through farm country, plenty of sheep, a few horses but we don’t see any farmers - there must be another way to access the fields by motor vehicle. 12km later with a ‘bring your own’ lunch break we end up back at the highway and our coach/bus driver transports us to the Red Fox Inn for a pint reward. The pub has a big screen tuned into a ‘hurling’ match, the Irish sport that has been played for 3000 years. We are all enthralled! It seems to be a combination of soccer, lacrosse, and football, with a little hockey, played with a small ball like a hard baseball, a wooden stick with a scoop-like end and 15 players per side. It was very exciting to watch and try to figure out what was going on. Lots of action, plenty of body contact, no protective equipment except small helmets, and  some spectacular-looking athletic moves.

Back in Killarney, after a brief rest, we walk to our group dinner to another local pub/restaurant, Treyvaud’s.  The menu has another Irish food item that I’ve been hoping to try, ‘colcannon’ which google tells me is mashed potato with any variety of cabbage, kale, onions, scallions with lots of cream and butter. It is paired with meatballs and a tomato based sauce. Janet had that (it was good - I did get a taste of the colcannon, yummy) but I chose Irish bacon in mustard sauce with cabbage. Mine is actually ham - I thought it was going to be like our pork belly but no, though it was saved by a really nice mustard sauce, and the cabbage was steamed only and rather yucchy- not what I was imagining, but there was bread pudding for dessert!

tidy town....

Day 5, Saturday, takes us to the Beara peninsula for a coastal hike which begins at the ‘tidy’ town of Eyeries. This small village, near the southwest coast of County Cork, has won the silver award for being tidy for several years - it is very neat and tidy! But the sad news is they used to get the gold award but have somehow been displaced. Could it be the little bit of bird poo on that roof? There are no dead heads in the flower pots even!

Very pretty, very picturesque, the trail takes us to an old coast guard station and there are 11 modern, metal stiles to

climb up and over fences safely. We are hiking the coastal area and get a chance to stop for anyone who wants to dip their feet in the Atlantic Ocean. I get my hands in - it feels quite warm but I don’t want to take off my boots - too much hassle getting your feet properly dried off with no sand in your boots after! The planned hike is actually cut short by a few kilometres at the end due to extreme erosion - there is no trail left! We end up taking the nearest road back to where the bus is picking us up. 

We stop at another small village, Kenmare, for a little shopping and coffee break. Janet finds a nice winter hat and scarf set and wouldn’t you know, I find a version of that Celtic pin I’ve been searching for. This one is a a stall of local street vendors and is handcrafted of hammered silver - I couldn’t walk away without it but I think I made a bad deal. It was €42 and I was thinking about the VAT deal and

thought it would be cheaper because of the rebate but didn’t realize the vendor may not be legal. I paid cash and asked for a written receipt and she gave it to me but it had no details on it, no address or tax number or anything. When I questioned her, she took the receipt back and quickly penned in a number that she said was the tax number but I am not confident that I will be getting VAT back...

Dinner this evening is just a short walk around the corner from our hotel to Murphy’s at the Kenmare Inn. Robert has given us the menu options earlier so we can make our selections for a 3 course meal. I opted for the beetroot and quinoa salad, which was quite large and I could have been satisfied with just that. My next course was sirloin steak which I chose hoping it would be medium rare - I’ve found that most meat is very well done here, especially if it was a roast and I don’t particularly enjoy that. The steak comes, delicious and just as I ordered, and trimmed with deep fried onion rings. The side dishes, served family style to the table, include boiled new potatoes, scalloped potatoes au gratin, big, thick cut French fries, mixed roasted vegetables, peppercorn gravy and the obligatory Irish soda bread with butter. OMG! So good! I have been trying to develop a strategy not to eat dessert but it’s not quite working out. Bailey’s cheesecake - how could I pass that up? I left the dollop of whipped cream off the top...

fifty shades of green...

Day 4 of the tour, Friday, June 8, is our free day to do whatever we wish and have, through CHH, pre-arranged to have our hire-coach and driver for the day to take the whole group to the Dingle Peninsula. It is a lovely coastal area about an hour and a half southeast of Killarney and the scenery is spectacular, especially as we have another sunny, gorgeous day. Arriving in Dingle, a small village, we have the chance to walk around for an hour and a half and find our own lunch. Many of the group get fish and chips from one of the food trucks or street shacks and find a place to sit and enjoy open air. Janet and I opt for soup of the day (sweet potato) served with a generous slice of soda bread and local Irish butter. Meandering the town, we find a small farmers market with fresh strawberries, local fresh produce, flowers, baked goods and arts and crafts. There is one lady selling knitted sweaters, rather plain looking, especially as we are in the land of the Aran cabled sweaters. She has a small piece of work on hand knitting needles and as we approach, picks it up and makes a few stitches. I am looking at her goods and I can tell right off they are not hand knit, they’ve been made on a basic knitting machine and I ask her if she’s used a machine. She grudgingly admits that yes, she has people knitting for her on machines but she’s the designer and if these were done by hand they would cost a lot more than they are! It was a brief conversation as she was quite defensive and I thought the quality of her finished product poor as nothing was finished properly or blocked to give it a nice appeal. I dearly wanted to get a photo or two but didn’t want to be totally rude. Virtually all the knitting for sale in the shops is now mass produced by complicated, industrial machines that can do cable work automatically and the finished garments look very nice.

There was a local Irishman named Tom Creen, who was part of the Scott and Shackleton explorations to Antarctica and it seems that every small village in this area has their own version of the ‘South Pole Inn, home of our Antarctic hero’.

Back in Killarney, Janet and I are on our own for dinner. We chose a local nearby hotel dining room called Hannigans. They offer a 2 or 3 course meal with 3 or 4 choices per course. We have a young lady waitress who convinces me that I should try the black pudding salad for my starter - ‘we all eat it here and think it’s good, you really should try it!’ she said when I asked what was in it. I made a deal with her that if I tried it she would make sure I couldn’t have the sticky toffee pudding for dessert. The salad was delicious, warmed black pudding (which is what they call this sausage of pork blood, suet, and oatmeal and various other bits and is on every Irish breakfast bar) salad greens, fresh pear slices, bacon and feta cheese. Then I had my main course of roast beef - as I had not yet had beef - it was a couple of slices of very-well cooked roast beef over a pile of mashed potatoes, drizzled with beef gravy with mixed steamed veggies. I didn’t much enjoy it. Somewhere in there, a man took over serving our table so when it came to the dessert menu, I realized all deals were done and asked for the sticky toffee pudding, hoping It would be poorly done and I would really hate it and therefore be unable to eat it. Darn, it was the best one yet!

The black valley....

Breakfast is at 8:00 am, we meet at 9:30 and hop on a small chartered bus that takes us to the trail head. The bus is a 22-seater, just the right size for our group.

The hike begins with some narrow wooden walkways and rocky paths, easily up and down without too much effort. We are aiming for the ‘Gap of Dunloe’ which is a glacier-carved opening between two of the largest peaks in Ireland. The scenery is picture-postcard, the weather is fabulous, sunny and almost hot (especially for Ireland) and no rain in sight! Our leader, Robert, says he’s lead this hike for ten years and never before with no rain! He said the same thing the day before. Are we lucky or what? 

We pass through the Black Valley, a small village, so called because up until about 30 years ago there was no electricity. There are multiple switchbacks on the narrow paved road to grade the slope and take us up to the gap without having to climb straight up. Plenty of sheep to watch our progress. Traffic on the road varies, lots of ‘jaunting cars’ (what they call horse-drawn carriages for two to six people plus driver), cars, and cyclists, both motorized and manual. The road is very narrow, one lane or less and it is necessary to get off to the side in most cases to let the traffic by for your own safety.

16km later we end in Kate Kearney’s pub, a half pint and a perfect way to end the day. Everyone is anxious to get back and take off their boots! Walking on a paved road is not the easiest thing on your feet.

Back at Scotts Hotel for group dinner and an early night.

meeting the group...

Tuesday, another good looking weather day. We set off on our own to the Killarney Park again and take a different route. We only get lost a few times but find our way again within a few kms, no big deal. Beautiful scenery, interesting foliage, the odd deer and we are having a fine time. 

The hiking group of Comfortable Hiking Holidays, is arriving this afternoon and we are supposed to meet at 4 pm for an introduction and brief walk around town. Killarney is basically a small village of 15000 population and the hub of tourism in this area. It is full of restaurants, bars, pubs, shops and tour venues catering to vacationers. We do a quick, group walk over to the local Tesco so people can stock up on supplies for lunches and snacks for the hikes. Dinner is as a group at the Scotts Hotel. 

St Mary's Cathedral, Killarney

In total, we are 20 people, all Canadian, 5 married couples and 10 single ladies and one tour leader. Some of the ladies knew each other, came together and are rooming together but several came alone and took their chances on getting a suitable roommate, and so far everyone seems happy. Most of them have been on previous CCH trips.

Muckross House

Next morning, breakfast at the hotel, a big buffet of typical Irish breakfast, from black pudding, porridge, eggs and toast, hot and cold, quite good - the Irish soda bread is amazing! We hit the trail at 9:30, right out of the back entrance of the hotel and hike along the road about 3km to Ross Castle ruin, a brief look around. Then we get into two 12-man motor boats and get a lovely ride on Lough Lein over to an ancient abbey ruin on Innisfallen Island. Boat back and then hiked 4km to Muckross House, had lunch, hiked 5 km to Torc Waterfall. Bus took us back to Killarney. Went to dinner at Bricin (pronounced Brikeen) where we had a local delicacy, boxty which is a savoury, potato pancake with various fillings, like a chicken tarragon stew or vegetable ratatouille. Very good!

The restaurant has a retail shop on the street level, very good quality Irish knitwear, jewellery and art. I’ve been looking for a shawl pin and find just the thing, a Celtic cross in sterling silver. I had almost given up!

Before coming to Ireland, I did not realize there was an actual Irish language - I thought everyone just spoke English. Most of them do but the old Gaelic dialect has been revived and is now taught in the schools and all the signposts throughout this island are posted in both English and Irish. In some of the smaller country villages there are people who only speak the old language, now called Irish.