Day 19, July 17, 2012

Alright, already! What's with this weather?! Today was not only rainy, it was foggy too. We were hoping the fog would lift but, unfortunately, it didn't the entire day. We are at one of the most beautiful spots in all of Ireland, the Dingle Peninsula, and can't see anything. We are staying here three nights so hopefully the weather and the visibility will improve.

We waited until late in the morning hoping the fog would lift. When it didn't, we set off anyways making our way from Dingle. We stopped at a pottery shop and admired but didn't buy. From there, we went to the Dunbeg Stone Fort. It looked very much like the Staige Stone Fort we had seen yesterday on the Kerry Peninsula but was smaller. It also had earthen ramparts for defence and was much closer to the ocean than the other fort. It also was built about 2500 years ago during the Bronze Age.

Yesterday, we drove on narrow roads further than any previous day. Today, we also had narrow roads. Between the fog, blind corners, walls and bushes on both sides, cyclists, hikers, tour buses, and other cars, it made for some interesting driving. I'm happy to have driven over 2,000 kilometers in Ireland on some of the narrowest roads imaginable without a mishap so far. I'm hoping that trend continues.

We found a nice indoor activity at the west end of the Dingle Peninsula at the Blascaod Center. Here, we learned about people who lived on the Great Blasket Island which is a few miles off the coast. This hardy group of people had lived on the island for hundreds of years until their numbers declined and they finally left the island in 1952. They had a very interesting story to tell about life on this small and rugged island.

By this time, the weather had not improved so we decided to head back to Dingle. We took a long nap, went out to dinner, then came back to our B&B for a friendly game of "Hand and Foot", a card game our family enjoys. That was about the extent of our day. We're hoping for better weather tomorrow. It's ironic that where we live in California, the weather has been extremely hot and dry, while here it's been cool and wet. I'm sure the people here would take cool weather over scorching hot weather any day.