Killarney to Wicklow

Sunday, October 03, 2010

We spent this beautifully sunny day traveling from the southwest to this east coast port, not far south of Dublin.  We again drove through Killarney National Park and the views were quite different on this brilliantly clear morning -- all blues and greens, contrasting with yesterday’s grays and browns. 

We drove through the mountains over the Caha Pass, with its gorgeous views of Bantry Bay and down into Glengarriff and Bantry, pretty towns along the bay.  From there, it was a drive along the south coast and on to Cork, a busy, urban scene along the Lee River.  On then through Waterford to tonight’s stop in Wicklow on the east coast south of Dublin. 

We’ve spent lots of time on the road since our arrival, perhaps too much, but it was a way for us to get some sense of the variety of this relatively small country in a limited time.  Tomorrow, we’ll make our way back to Dublin, with a stop or two along the way.  We’ll spend two nights there and we’re looking forward to more exploration on foot.

This is probably a good place to mention Tom’s amazement at the speed limits here.  Country lanes are routinely posted at 100 km  per hour – over 60 mph.  In addition, 100 kph limits are posted on some of the narrowest winding roads in the country. Tom was hard pressed to do more than 60 kph on some of these.  The other day, he had no sooner expressed incredulity at the high speed limits  when, moving along at a good (legal) clip, we came upon a large heard of cows ambling across the road.  Sheep grazing along the road have also been a common sight as we’ve traveled.  As if driving on the left and being mindful of our surroundings in this time of heightened terror alerts were not challenges enough for us Yanks, we need to beware of oncoming livestock!