Our vacation in the Ring of Kerry has been full of adventures and our last (full) day would be no different. We had plans to explore the Dingle Peninsula's surf and turf; except today was a rare occasion where minimal legwork would be required. We began our day with a drive to Ventry, a small town of outside Dingle where we would meet Tayto and Black Jack, our equine transports. Our horse riding experience is scant to say the least, however, it is a shade above carousel riding proficiency.
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| Horses deliberating on who will carry the humans |
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| Julie petting a horse |
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| Tayto, named after a brand of crisps |
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After signing all the death and dismemberment waivers, we saddled up and were ready for our beach excursion. Luckily, the majority of our group were greenhorns, thus, the leader maintained an easy pace. Trotting a few hundred meters south of the farm we arrived on the beach where tour groups opportunistically snapped countless photos of the strangers on horseback. Following the paparazzi welcome, we rode along the coastline, climbed the dunes, and returned to the beach - where the guide was kind enough to take our picture. The hour journey with Tayto and Black Jack came to an end, concluding the turf portion of the day.
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| And we're off |
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| Tayto taking a picture of us |
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| The end of the horsey ride |
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Down the road, we had a quick bite to eat and an Irish Coffee at the Stonehouse Restaurant. We then made our way down to the pier to catch a boat for an afternoon tour to the Blasket Islands. Our excursion had a wildlife guide who provided much reason for whale-sighting optimism. Unfortunately, with great optimism comes great disappointment. The tour wasn't a failure by any means, however, five hours on a boat with little to see can cause unrest. While there were apathetic patrons on board, we really enjoyed the dolphin sightings and the occasional puffin flapping by. The best encounters involved the grey seals who periodically popped their heads out of the water like Whack-a-Moles.
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| On the pier |
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| Off to the Blasket Islands |
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| Great Blasket from the stern of the boat |
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| Feeding birds from the stern |
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Somewhere near the two hour mark, all the surrounding wildlife decided to disappear and boredom burgeoned. Both the guide and captain were equipped with binoculars while the rest of us normies were relegated to standard ocular vision. At one point, they took turns climbing to crow's nest atop the boat and eagerly declared a Minke whale sighting. Optimism was restored, however, the next forty minutes of staring at the rolling blue current slowly drowned out our naïve hopes. Later, we continued to Tearaght Island, Ireland's western most territory and home to Europe's steepest funicular track - which leads to the isle's lighthouse. As we returned to shore, we coasted by Great Blasket Island one last time to watch the gallivanting grey seals. By the end of our journey, Julie and I concluded the "whale sighting" was a ruse to spurn interest - like a parent telling a child cough medicine tastes like candy.
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| Tearaght Island and lighthouse |
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| Our boat wouldn't fit through there |
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| Elusive grey seal pictrue |
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| Abandon homes on Great Blasket |
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After returning to land, we gathered ourselves at our B&B and drove the 500 meters down the road to meet Peter and Joan for dinner. In only our second encounter, it now felt like we were dining with extended family we have known our entire lives. We shared stores of our day's adventures and celebrated a perfect end to a wonderful vacation in the Ring of Kerry. Sadly, the time came where we had to go our separate ways; said our last goodbye to Peter and Joan (or was it...) and returned to our B&B to watch the Irish sun disappear beyond the horizon one last time,
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| Dinner with Peter and Joan |
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| Sunset from our B&B |
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