After a great night at the lovely Avalon House and a delicious breakfast, we were ready for our longest driving day and we set out thinking we were going to Dingle!
All of us had been so busy before the trip that most of us hadn’t really had much time to look at Sara’s proposed agenda and see what all we wanted to do around each stop. In a way, this is fun because everything is very spontaneous. It also takes a bit longer to make decisions like where and when to eat a meal, etc. Traveling in a group of 5 very different people could make that more difficult, but so far everyone has been very accommodating and very much, “whatever, I’m just happy to be here” which helps a ton!
Anyway, because I didn’t look at anything pre-trip, I didn’t realize we were driving on the ring of Kerry for part of this leg of the trip. Not that it matters, but I just didn’t realize it! I also didn’t realize that where we were staying was 1.5 hours from Dingle. Meaning, by the time we got to Kelly’s Bay, we’d already driven 3+ hours so there was no way we were going to want to drive another 3 to get to and from Dingle that same day. We were ready to explore!
Kell’s Bay was AWESOME. It’s like a beautiful tropical jungle lodge set midway up a hill looking out at the bay. There were awesome trails cut out with waterfalls, suspension bridges, incredible flowers and trees. Even hand carved dinosaurs from fallen trees! What a great walk! It was a bit more cool in the shaded areas but still not chilly. We had so much fun exploring and walking.
We decided to try a place called O’Neils for dinner. It was a seafood place on “the point”, meaning right at the edge of the sea. It was about 25 minutes away so we headed to it after our walk. We got there in no time but also before the place opened:) We killed the 30 minutes or so walking around, watching the car ferry go back and forth. Neat spot! We noticed a small group of men walk into the pub early and get pints so we sauntered on in, too. We’d already lost Ashley who was down near the water exploring, but we figured she could figure it out and come join us — and she did.
What a great spot! We chatted with the owner for a bit. Her daughter is now living in Santa Barbara. I decided to try the Dingle gin and ordered a gin and tonic. It came out with a slice of orange and juniper berries! It was SOOOO delicious. Wow. I was excited to visit the distillery in Dingle because it had actually been featured in a recent Wine Enthusiast magazine— so between that and my first taste, I was really looking forward to the visit the next day.
As we finished up our awesome seafood dinner (I had the house smoked salmon — sooooo tasty), we headed back to Kells Bay. Everyone was ready for some down time, so we split off to our 3 rooms to chill. Our room faced the bay and we had the windows open and got this incredible, cool breeze off the water. It was so awesome. Another great day of exploring in the books.
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