Leaving Dublin to start the hike Sept 20/23

 This morning we were taking the train to Tralee via Mallow.  Our train departed at 11am.  We had coffee and a bun in our hotel lobby.  Sandy and Joanie went off to a nearby pharmacy to find a brace to support her ankle.  Our cab to the station had been booked the night before. We soon discovered it had been booked and then actually cancelled……apparently they were too BUSY! We re-booked a cab.  The trip to the station was about 10-15 minutes.  Soon we were seated and enjoying the ride.  The route took us through the Irish countryside, sheep, cows and lush greenery.  It’s easy to see why it is referred to as the Emerald Isle. 

We were picked up by taxi courtesy of our tour company, for the half hour drive to our destination, the very small village of Annescaul.   We were staying at one of the local guest houses and after depositing our baggage we met up with our tour guide Peter at a local pub, where he treated us all a drink…..Guinness all around! 

Annescaul’s claim to fame is that it is the hometown of a young man by the name of Tom Crean.  Tom Crean was a participant with Major Ernest Shackleton on the expedition to the South Pole.  In this town there is a restaurant called South Pole Inn.  The story of the men and their expedition is well depicted on the walls of the restaurant.  

Since it is really the only restaurant in town we had our evening meal there.  We were disappointed to find there was no fish that day as the fish man didn’t come.! 

We retired soon after as the hike started the next morning. It rained heavily most of the night. 

September 21/23

We were up and downstairs for breakfast by 8:45.  Breakfast menu had been chosen the night before and packed lunch choice as well. 

There was a table of American ladies in the dining room and they regaled us with their stories of the mud they encountered….and fell in! Not something we wanted to hear.  

We started off in sunshine and good spirits. Our route was mainly ascending and quite a bit of tarmac. The scenery was easy on the eye, plenty of patchwork green field to look down on as we trudged up! The usual farm animals, cows, sheep and goats. 

Quite a few nice houses, some very old Croft cottages abandoned. There were lots of old stone walls, no mortar to hold them together., but most still standing the test of time.  The road we travelled was very narrow and we quickly got into single file when we heard traffic coming.

At about the halfway point we came down a little hill and could see the Atlantic Ocean the ruin of  Minard Castle., which is a huge structure looking out at the ocean. There was a field of daisies and a bench which would have been a perfect place to eat our lunch……already occupied by two ladies. We ended up sitting on damp grass leaning against a farm gate. 

Only a couple more kilometres we reached our end point of the day and called our host to pick us up. 

We are being transported back to Annescaul ….where we started our day as our accommodation is there for a second night.  We went to a local pub for a Guinness and a game of Farkle. 

Dinner afterwards was again at the South Pole Inn…..but the fish man had been so it was a better dinner! 

A short walk by the river ended our day.  Tomorrow we will be on the road again🎶🎶🎶 we will be at Dingle.