Slea Head Drive (½)

Wednesday

Well, another stunningly perfect weather day. Is it really Dingle we are in? We both took walks into town going separate routes at about the same time. Oddly enough we met up at the Dingle Library where I renewed our library cards and Elaine got some books. And we ended up back at the house about the same time. We had home-made sandwiches and chips for lunch and then decided to take a ride.

For the ride we headed out to Slea Head, possibly the most beautiful drive in the world. It’s brilliant in the sun! We did about half the normal circuit and then cut off to go back into Dingle. We’ll do the other half (and indeed the whole route again) another time. Pictures tell the story here. Nothing you haven’t seen before, but as beautiful as ever. We didn’t hold a baby lamb.

Click on the galleries below to bring up scrollable windows with full size pictures – the gallery previews may show just thumbnails of the pictures. By the way, the pictures look much better on a tablet or a computer than they do on your phone. Just saying.

At one overlook there was a piper selling wares and entertaining the tourists.

Next is Trá an Choma (Coumeenole Beach) which was made famous in the movie Ryan’s Daughter. Find Elaine. See one person swimming (that’s not Elaine!)? See the baby lambs?

Next along the route was Clogher Strand, perhaps my favorite spot. First pic is from the road above looking down on the beach (see the Three Sisters in the right background?) and then shots from the beach itself. There is a wonderful short hiking route from here that we may or may not do another time. See the island? It’s one of the Blasket Islands and is known as the Sleeping Giant. See why? The actual name of the island is Inis Tuaisceart. The beach here is usually raging surf and very unsafe for swimming. Today it was as calm as a lake with barely a ripple for waves.

After that we cut off and took the back road home. Nap time! Then it was time for dinner. Our favorite restaurant, the Chart House (unrelated to the American chain) is no more. Jim decided to retire and his premises is now an uninspiring breakfast and lunch place. Still, we may give it a chance one day. But tonight it was dinner at Ashe’s Bar and Restaurant, another favorite. I had local Glenbeigh oysters followed by delicious John Dory. Elaine had seafood chowder followed by Thai flavored mussels. We split a delicious fruit meringue dessert. The wine was French, a Beaujolais. Does Elaine looked stunned by the seafood chowder?

Then we decided to stop in for a quick sip at the Dingle Pub. Well, we stayed longer than expected because Richie O’Brien of Dreams of Freedom was performing. We chatted up a nice young couple from Florida (who graciously took our picture) and a nice young man from Canada. My selfie isn’t bad, but the other picture of us is pretty good. The big guy next to Elaine in the green jacket is the Canadian.

And home to bed. We walked into town. It seemed a lot longer walking home!