My Travelouge - Killarney.

Continued our ride to the Muckross House, which was the estate of a wealthy and prominent family in the 17-1800s(?). It was beautifully restored, but we soon were on the trail again to circle Muckross Lake (or the Middle Lake as it's sometimes referred). The ride was fantastic and took us through some brilliant woods where a lot of the granite was covered in moss...very Mirkwood-ish. The ride takes us completely around the lake although there are two bridges, which connect Dinis Island with the parkland. One of the bridges takes you past the Meeting of the Waters where the waters of Lake Leane, Muckross and the Upper Lake all meet. We ended the ride at Torc Falls, which was a pretty relaxing way to begin the ride back to the hostel. As the weather goes, we were again very blessed as it only started to drizzle on us as we made our way back! The only sad part of the day was when my camera fell out of my jacket as I sped down a short hill. Yes, it did break (I'll have to check with Ballard Camera to see if it repairable), but it did not spoil our day (it's just a camera) and thankfully, it was at the close of our time in Ireland that it busted.

Yesterday (Wednesday), we made sure to get up with enough time to get down to the pier near Ross Castle in time to catch a boat (with Mick the Gun, our skipper) to Lord Brandon's cottage which is one of the starting points to bike the Gap of Dunloe. The two-hour boat ride took us through the three lakes including the Meeting of the Waters where we had to unload the small boat of all bikes and passengers (6 of each). The rains of the past few days made the level of water in the lakes area rise four feet so it was quite difficult to motor a full boat thru the MOTW. Mick had another boat on the opposite side where we made our way onward.

The bike up to the Gap of Dunloe is three miles up and seven miles down with a six-mile jaunt back to Killarney. Again, the rain held it's ground for us as we rode up to the Gap (essentially a little pass through the surrounding mountains just west of Killarney National Park. Although it wasn't clear and sunny the entire time, the views were still spectacular...and the ride up wasn't as bad as I had expected; I literally thought I may have had to walk my bike up the route) We did make it up to the Gap before we knew it and the valley just opened up. I'll have to let our pictures describe what we saw as I just can’t do it justice...a good view of the valley below with one of three smaller lakes (the Gap of Dunloe is through a much smaller valley than the one we took the boat through to get to the start of our ride).

We met an Aussie couple and a German couple on the boat ride who we caught up to all along the route and at the bottom of the Gap, we ended up sharing a pint with the Aussie Couple at Kate Kearney's Cottage before heading back to Killarney. Treated ourselves to an Indian "take-away" meal and hung out at the hostel reading and chatting with the other guests. When Pa (the Sugan Hostel's host) got back from his nightly show, he greeted us all and then picked up a guitar and told us he'd play us a song that a friend of his wrote after breaking up with a long time girlfriend...proving again that he is a good entertainer and host! He got up and put the gutar away three more times, claiming that each additional song he played would be his last. Finally he handed the guitar over to Eugene (a guest from Brisbane) for a try on the guitar. What a way to end our time in Killarney and my time in Ireland for that matter!!