Despite the forecast, it never rained hard today, but it was cool, very humid and misty. The clouds would hang low so you often could not see the mountaintops. The Dingle Peninsula is quite mountainous.
For most of today’s walk we followed a trail heading west about a third to a half way up the side of the mountains. “Just keep the water to your right and the mountains to your left,” we were told. It’s been raining for days here, so much is wet, and we are frequently crossing streams that run high – happily not too high. The ground is wet and boggy, but the path is built up above the water flows. The way is quite rocky, and we share the mountainside with occasional sheep and cows.
Happily, it rains only a few times, never hard, never for long, and always easy to manage. But we often think we’re walking through a low cloud; the mist is so thick that we feel droplets even when it’s not raining, the humidity is so high.
We come across only one other group of hikers, six women, all from Ireland. We chat briefly, but they’re all good hikers who keep a faster pace than we do.
Along the path the views are lovely, but the day is consistently grey and misty. We look over the Bay of Tralee, down on the one road across this side of the peninsula, and down on the farmland and the scattered homes and villages. Looking up to our left, we see mountains and the occasional sheep.
The path also takes us past a few abandoned structures, small buildings where only the partial walls of stone remain. Once these were homes for people, but now they are covered with fauna. One was an “Oratory,” a church or meeting place, built hundreds of years ago. Someone takes pains to keep this one clean and available for walkers to examine, no doubt for its historic significance.
Today, there is a good bit of up and down, especially up toward the end of our walk, so we were thrilled to finally reach our B&B. Our host, John, recommended Fish & Chips at one of the two pubs below his place. The pub served drinks only through a window to patrons in the parking lot, where a food truck offered Fish & Chips. We enjoyed the food, and a whiskey (Sara) and a Guinness (Evan) to reward us on our first real day hiking. Then back up the hill to John’s place, the Camp Junction House B&B, for a very pleasant evening rest.
