Driftwood in Ireland -Day 3 (Wednesday)-Dingle

Because we had visited the Cliffs of Moher already, it meant that we could do another cliff top walk near Kilkee-with similar scenery to start Wednesday.

Sadly we said goodbye to Sean, our tour guide (he's only allowed to work 6 days in a row) before we boarded the ferry from Kelliher to Talbert across the Shannon river. He outdid himself on this last morning with a very long story about Finn McCool , catching the salmon of knowledge and becoming a strong and knowledgeable leader. We picked up our new leader Henry to board the ferry. Henry teaches navigation at the uni to outdoor ed students, drives a private ambulance and works as a fly fishing guide when he is not a tour leader. He is a bit more mature and not such a story teller as Sean, but I think he will do OK.

Goodbye Sean

We headed for the Dingle peninsular via Tralee to have a quick look at the Rose gardens. This is a bit of a crazy plan as the Lovely girl Competition is on at the moment and this means that Tralee is really busy. Apparently the lovely girl competition is a very big deal. The girls (from 22-36) diplay their talent for dancing, music, joke telling and conversation. Apparently they tour the country, the event is televised, and they get to wear a tiara for a year, win a car and represent Ireland in competitions if they win.Tralee was burnt to the ground in 1690 when the Jacobites had to flee the Williamites. They razed it to avoid the Williamites from having it! The roses (flowers) were beautiful and the story of the rose of Tralee and all the winners are engraved on glass panels in the park.

The Jeannie Johnson was a boat which was built near here to transport people during the famine, and unlike others of the (coffin ships) never lost a soul in its 14 voyages. The had nurses and doctors on board. Apparently it did lots of journeys to America and Canada.

Then we headed out along the Dingle Peninsula. Henry  told us that the Murphys icecream store has the best icecream.  There is one of these on either side of our hotel in Dingle. Apparently gin and sea salt flavour is the recommended flavour. We stopped there as our first part of exploring Dingle when we got into the street.  The gin icecream is made with local gin and it is fantastic. I think we may have to have more icecream before we leave Dingle.

We made a quick stop in to see a local crystal cutter (ex waterford) who does beautiful work-but a bit heavy for putting in the luggage.

We had a bit of a chance to wander in town, grabbed some fish and chips which we ate in the square by the marina,  found a quick cache as we admired Dingle's marina with lovely reflections and headed back to our room.


At about 10 pm The town starts to come alive with the local Irish music  scene , so we headed downstairs again and took in a little culture before we dropped in to bed.


We have Internet here,but it is sketchy, so once again the pictures are limited.  They are taking about half an hour each to upload if they will upload at all!