Hard rain on day 3 of our Dingle Way walk but it didn’t last all day & certainly made for gorgeous photos. We went through a lot of farmland & river terrain and the hike downhill into Annascaul was hell on my ankles & Eric’s knees. But again, we never really noticed the discomfort until the end.
We stopped at Sammy’s on Inch Beach for fish & chips w/mushy peas, Irish coffee, & hot cocoa with pink & white marshmallows.
For some reason, all the marshmallows in Ireland seem to be pink & white — anyone know why?
Once we arrived at our lodging we were beat so we took an afternoon snooze & missed dinner (unknown to us, the town stops serving dinner @ 8:30pm). Yet again, our mistake turned into a gem. Bedraggled & starving, we walked into Hannafin’s Bar just hoping for peanuts, & the bartender John immediately welcomed us & made us sit at the bar.
Irish breakfast usually entails all or some of the following: egg with fresh tomato wedges (sometimes seared), mini pork sausage links, rashers (large bacon similar to thin country ham), black pudding (sausage mixed w/ barley, oats & dried blood), juice & coffee/tea, cereals & yogurt, fresh fruit, bread (always different but delicious) & toast with butter & jam
Walking past Killelton Church & abandoned town
Tralee to Camp (23km/15.5mi)
Through wind & rain & rocky terrain, we prevailed on our first official day of inn-to-inn hiking. We took a wrong turn early on, which added an hour to our hike, but it was a beautiful mistake. Our morning began with a traditional Irish breakfast & heated debate about soccer football. With our detailed trip notes from Sherpa in hand, we set out for our destination. This was the hardest day physically, due to the weather & distance but the scenery was ever-changing from farm to coastal, to forest & we never really noticed our aches & pains until we ended the day.
At one point the rain was so bad that we couldn’t see & some locals in a VW bug stopped to ask if we needed a ride — they looked at us like we were crazy when I replied “no thanks, we paid to do this!”
By the time we crawled up a steep hill to the Sea View B&B in Camp, our wonderful host Joanna met us with steaming hot tea & homemade fruit bread. Our room here was the most spacious room of the trip. Mattress was hard but breakfast was good with different options; HELL of a steep hill to climb to get there though! Ashes Pub was by far my favorite dining experience on the trip. They had the BEST seafood chowder I’ve ever had and the building was very old, with a cozy local pub vibe. It was a true hiker’s oasis. Also ate grass fed beef burgers (not so great), mushy peas & fries, & Smithwicks.
Our first trip to Europe was a walking holiday in Dingle Ireland. We booked the trip through Sherpa Expeditions, so they took care of all our lodging, itineraries & luggage transfers from inn to inn. With travel days included & all expenses, this was a 10-day trip that cost us $3200 (airfare was free & I’ll talk more about that in future posts). Well worth the money. There is SO much I want to share about this trip, so I’ll divvy it up into separate posts.
