Boo hoo hoo! We have to leave!
Such an amazing event at such a beautiful venue. ..
We showered early, packed up and were at breakfast by 930. We had a great visit with a few families including the most amazing Gaeil - who barely knows us - but stayed at our table for 10 minutes chatting. That David is one of the luckiest fellas I know. What an angel he has found - if only they lived a bit closer...
We jumped in the car and headed west across southern Ireland toward Dingle.
No sooner had we left Kinsale, Google Maps sent us down a road the size of the hallway in our home. There was no way we could leave such a major centre and be on a road with trees scraping both sides of the vehicle 10 minutes into the trip.
We pulled over and double checked and sure enough this was the quickest route and we had to take a few back roads to get to bigger roads and eventually the western ocean.
A close friend who shall remain unnamed sent me an update on the roads of Ireland.
" Here's a helpful driving hint in case you weren't already aware: The way the highways are named tells you the quality. "M" roads are the major freeways... double laned, wide, a treat to drive on. "N" roads are still wide enough and are very drivable, but single lane. "R" roads are f****n goat paths that are just wide enough for two lanes of traffic to meet each other. "
This person failed to include the next two levels of roads. 'L' roads are almost single lane roads with about 10cm shoulders on either side. One car has to pull into the ditch or hang off the edge of the cliff in order for the other vehicle to get by.
'Roads That Currently Remain UnNamed!' are the Worst! They are almost narrower than the car. If you meet another vehicle, one of you literally backs up however far it takes to get to a driveway or approach and backs in so the other person can get by. You literally get out of the vehicle and rock/paper/scissors to decode whos backing up unless it's apparent which person clearly has the closest driveway or approach behind them.
This seriously happened today.
Now let's talk speed limits. In Canada we would be 110/90/70/50/30
Here - it's 120/100/100/80/60
ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!
These roads are winder than any car racing video game you've ever played - the sides of the road are STONE WALLS with a bit of foliage growing on them for aesthetics and people are going light speed on them - meeting Farm Equipment coming from the opposite direction - on curves - where the farm Equipment is 25% over the centre line!
IT'S BANANAS!
I tried to do 20km/hr less than the posted limit most of the time. When I tried 10 less, Krista would hold on to the Holy Crap handle and scream expletives at me while the boys got a whole new vocabulary and there's constantly an Audi riding the bumper with somewhere to be.
So as you can imagine, the first 90 minutes on the way to the ocean was a complete gong show. My fingerprints are engraved on the steering wheel for life and many scenes from Planes Trains and Automobiles were replayed during the journey with the only exception of not driving on the wrong side of the freeway...
We arrived in Killarney and stopped at an outlet mall and hit the Nike factory. My shoes had no grip at all since leaving Canada so 30 Euros later and we are into a brand new pair. The other ones tossed in a dumpster and off we went into Killarney National Forest and headed south a bit to the waterfall. We parked and hiked down 1000 steps (yes I counted them) and took a few photos before hiking back up those same steps to the car. That was a great way to stretch our legs!
We drove past the Muckross house where all the other Tysowskis were touring and we headed to the local grocery store and bought sandwiches and made lunch.
Monday August 8th pt 2
We got back on the road and headed for Inch Beach. Having not seen a really great beach in Ireland yet, we were eager to drive along the ocean.
After driving on even more sketchy roads, we arrived and we're overwhelmed to say the least.
Down off the highway, you could drive down onto the beach and park on the hard sand. Cars were parked up and down the beach for kilometres. We met up with the Lukes who were there for the day so James and Rhys could take surfing lessons for the first time. The waves were strong and resembled those we had at Bondi Beach in Sydney Australia. The water was definitely a lot colder though.
James and Rhys got their wetsuits on and did some dryland training before hitting the waves. Their french instructor had them both up and surfing within minutes! It looked like loads of fun.
Alas we had a lot of land to cover and had to depart. We headed west to Dingle and drove around for a while to see the sights. We then headed north east along the Wild Atlantic Way route driving the Cliffsides for almost an hour before turning into the interior. The view was magnificent but couldn't fully be enjoyed by the driver as he was doing all he could not to get the entire family killed! Traffic was nuts!!
We pulled over several times so I could take some photo / video and catch my breath before jumping back into the rat race. We finally rolled into our Hotel at 9pm after a hard day of driving. I was wasted - mentally that is.
We found a local restaurant that served rotisserie chicken so we headed downtown and had a huge meal at Coqbull. It was delicious.
We headed back to the hotel with toothpicks in my eyes in order to arrive there. Back in our room to an icy cold beverage. Phew.
I Facetimed my parents and we had a good 15 minute chat catching up in all the events in each other's lives.
Lights out by 11. Big day tomorrow with a lot more driving along cliffs....
No comments:
Post a Comment