Killarney

Just a quick update. We left Schull on Saturday bound for Dingle peninsula, but after passing through Killarney, with its fabulous scenery, oak forests, and potential walking we turned back and have holed up here instead.

Sunday saw us visit the national park's major drawcard, Muckross house and its gardens. As it was pretty wet, we decided to take a tour of the house, which was quite enlightening, particularly in terms of the class based nature of irish society right through the 19th century (and beyond?). Reminded me of the Robert Altman film Grafton House (I think that was the title?). Then for a walk around the estate, out onto a peninsula into the lakes, wonderful oak and yew forests (some of the last remaining in Ireland), moss covered forest glades, green swardes, lake and mountain views, all under a leaden grey sky, misty, damp and windy...we managed to enjoy ourselves immensely...

Today, we planned to climb a small mountain in the park, Mount Torc, and gave it a pretty good shot....it is only around a 300 metre climb and the path is largely made, but the wind and rain forced us back about two thirds of the way to the summit. Boronia managed to wear the chaps she had bought to keep her trousers dry, I stubbornly didnt put mine on as it would have meant removing my boots in the rain. As a result, we both ended up damp, me somewhat wetter than Boronia. Still, a bracing three hour walk through forest, along rivers, besides waterfalls, and onto hill sides in wind and sleet was just the thing to make us feel like we are confronting the elements and not allowing the weather to determine everything we do!

Not much more to report!

best wishes to all our readers

mike