Around 7:00 I woke up to the cows mooing right outside our window. We got up, packed, and headed to the dining room (beautiful!) for breakfast. They had found someone with ducks, and actually made me a full Irish with duck eggs and a huge pot of chamomile!! It was so exciting! I felt like a normal person, at least until I whipped my salt grinder out of my purse... Dan ate my pineapple, but I ate the eggs, black and white pudding, bacon, fresh baked soda bread (heavenly!), and toast. I was so stuffed.
We both felt a bit queasy after breakfast (probably too full, although the eggs were a bit runny...), but made our way to the pier to catch Brendan Casey's eco tour of the Skelligs at 9:15! The Skelligs ("Sceillic" means "steep rock," although our captain said "dark rock") are two bizarre islands poking out of the ocean several miles from shore. Our captain was really sweet, knowledgeable, and cracked some good jokes as he took us out between Portmagee and Valentia, past rough cliffs, bizarre land formations, and beautiful fields, until we got out into the open ocean.
Last time I took this trip, it was horribly windy, raining, cold, and too rough to get close to the islands. So not only did I have low expectations, I also was convinced we were going to freeze. We showed up in our warmest clothes, with raincoats and layers. I was in black fleece pants. This time, the weather was glorious! As we were getting ready to leave, the captain said, "I can't believe I'm saying this in Co. Kerry, but if you have sunscreen, you'd better put it on!" It was so sunny, with bright blue sky, and after about twenty minutes we were both pretty warm and sea sick. We shed some layers, and I stood up which helped a lot with the nausea.
We could see forever -- it was so clear! And the birds were flying all around us. We got some good views of puffins, razorbills, guillemots, terns, shearwaters, multiple species of gulls, and of course... gannets! I even saw some catching fish, or flying with fish, seaweed, other nesting materials in their beaks.
The first island we came to was the Little Skellig, home to 60,000 gannets! It's the largest colony in the world. Our captain shared some fun facts about gannets, their history of being hunted, and how they came to live on this tiny island, simply because it's impossible for humans to safely land. The amount of guano on the island was pretty incredible, and the smell became quite pungent as we circled the island. As we turned the corner, there on a rock was an adorable grey seal snoozing! It didn't care one bit about our presence, so we were able to get up quite close.
Next we came to Skellig Michael, home to a remote monastery and film location for Luke Skywalker's Jedi hideout spot. The monastery was built over a thousand years ago to house about twelve monks. They were repeatedly attacked by Vikings, and fled back to mainland Ireland in the 13th century. The structures, paths, and stairs from that time still remain intact. Since then, various people have returned to the island, and two lighthouses were built in the 1800's, one of which was modernized in the 1960's. Families still lived on the island to man the lighthouses until recently; there were enough deaths that people stopped coming. Now, it's an historical heritage site and wildlife Special Protection Area for all of the nesting sea birds. And since the Star Wars movies, it's become so full of tourists, the landing tours on Skellig Michael were sold out several months in advance.
We were able to get much closer to the island than I had previously, so I was bouncing around the boat, excitedly looking at everything and taking pictures. We got to see the beehive huts, three stair cases (only one safe enough to use), and both lighthouses. He also pointed out where each scene from the movies were filmed, such as the rock that Rey attacks when Luke won't train her, and the spot where she first meets Luke.
When we finally returned to land, Dan was pretty nauseous and I was pretty overheated, so we found a small patch of grass by the water, surrounded by flowers and birds, and took a nap. It was so peaceful. Then we stopped at The Moorings so that Dan could get another chowder. I got a tasty open salmon sandwich on brown bread with cucumbers on top (and of course, lots of salt!). Whatever funkiness I was feeling from the breakfast and boat was gone after lunch.
I was sad to leave Portmagee, but as we followed the coast to the second half of the Ring of Kerry, I realized I was no longer afraid of the driving! I was finally comfortable on the left side of the road, and didn't panic every time there was oncoming traffic. We passed some pretty views, although the visibility wasn't as good as yesterday, and some cute beaches.
Soon we were in Dingle. It was tough finding a place to park, but our hosts had a spot for us. They were very sweet and helped us get settled into their tiny apartment on the water, right in the city. Once checked in, we decided to drive the Slea Head Loop. It's a beautiful drive along the shore of Dingle Peninsula. It's similar to the Ring of Kerry, but narrower and with far fewer tour buses! It had tiny towns, cool places to get out and hike, some ring forts, famine houses, bee hive huts, Star Wars sites, etc. We felt too rushed and tired to explore much, but we did one hike which was spectacularly beautiful from the top and had adorable wildflowers. Unfortunately, I got excited and ran up the trail; running can have some pretty bad effects for me, so by the time we started driving again, I had some inflammation pain and terrible cramps/nausea/hot flashes that made it pretty tough to drive. It soon passed, though, and I was able to enjoy the rest of the drive.
We felt, similarly to Killarney, that next time we would spend more time in Dingle to have time to really explore the peninsula. You can hike the whole loop on Dingle Way, along the water, which would be cool to do sometime! We would also check out the Dingle distillery tours and maybe go on a boat tour.
As soon as we got back to town, we went to dinner at the Boatyard, right by the marina. It was a great atmosphere and Dan was pumped about all of the food. (There were other nice restaurants too.) I decided to try fish, figuring it was probably pretty fresh. By the time I'd finished my meal, I felt woozy, pretty bad malaise, cramps, etc. Granted, I don't know if it was the fish, all the driving, the run up the mountain... but I knew I was going to get worse before it got better. After dinner we walked around and checked out the shops, but after a nice lace/linen shop, I knew I needed to go home. We went back, I got pretty sick, and then promptly felt ready to go again! So we headed back to town in search of live trad music. I'd planned for months to go back to John Benny Moriarty's, but it was one of their only nights with no music! I was pretty bummed, but determined to find something. There was a fair amount of music, and even a world-renowned step dance (with signs like "fastest feet in the world!" and "faster than Usain Bolt"), but everything good was too crowded with tourists.
When we finally headed back towards home after 11pm, we found a guy with a beautiful voice playing great music to an almost empty pub! We got seats and enjoyed four of my favorite songs (including Black is the Color and The Wild Rover) until he packed up and left. So, we went home for some much needed sleep.
