We’ll be moving on north today. If all goes well, we’ll be in Galway County
by evening.
It will be a bit sad to say good bye to Kenmare, where we’ve
made some new friends and enjoyed some wonderful meals at P.F. McCarthy’s Pub and
Restaurant.
We encountered our first substantial rain yesterday, but it,
in no way, dampened our experience.
Instead, it gave us an opportunity to wash
our clothes and visit with a friend I met on my first visit to Ireland.
Annie and I met Cass Foley back in 2012 when we sought out
an opportunity to do some horseback riding on the beach near Tralee.
Cass organized our experience, which included
riding through a village to the ocean shore with our guides Mikey and Alice.
Annie rode Monster. I
rode Legolas. Annie had fun. I did not.
Legolas, a huge white gelding, had no brakes, and Legolas
had no power steering. Legolas did what
Legolas wanted to do.
So, Legolas had a lot more fun than I did.
We reminisced about Legolas and Monster yesterday. I was happy to hear Cass’s assessment of my
mount. It matched mine.
Yesterday we had the opportunity to meet Cass’s daughter
Grace, a pleasant 10-year-old horselover who appears to be following in her
mother’s footsteps.
Cass now runs a
stable in Killarney where she lives with Grace and her husband Jerome, a
retired policeman turned tour bus driver.
Jerome also competes in master’s running events.
Our visit yesterday had an added benefit. We met at Muckross House in Killarney
National Park.
Even though our family
stayed at a townhouse in that vicinity in 2014, for some reason we never visited the Muckross
House grounds, which are magnificent, even on a rainy day.
Bill and I also took a spin over to Ross Castle where we had
visited before. The rain was not stopping outdoor activity, as we saw bikers and
boaters enjoying the setting.
While driving to Killarney to visit Cass, we took the Moll’s
Gap route, which runs through the national park and right past Kissane Sheep
Ranch (200 years of operation, 2,500 acres), where we watched a herding demonstration on
last year’s visit.
We were thrilled to
see that the tourist bus season has not closed at Kissane.
So, we pulled in, met some of the 12 Border Collies at the
ranch, watched a demonstration, which included one glitch.
Sally, the
Border Collie singled spooked a sheep in the corral. The sheep jumped not over the fence but
through the fence, breaking a top board.
As usual, we loved every moment of our Kissane visit,
petting friendly dogs and pups as often as possible.
Today we have clean clothes, thanks to some outdoor machines
at the Super Value store.
So, we’ll be
fine for the next few days as we explore around Galway and eventually take a
ferry to Inishmore in the Aran Islands, where we’ll stay the night in an ecopod on the ocean shore.
Lots of adventures to go, lots to remember already. Glad I do a daily blog to keep it all
straight.
Happy Friday. Enjoy
the photos.
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