Day 5: Biking around the Dingle Peninsula

The next day dawned with clear skies (or at least, I'm guessing- I wasn't actually awake at dawn. Being the quality of sleep we both got was rather poor and interrupted by the snorer, we seemed to mutually, at some point in our slumber, agree to sleep in a little late. Anyway, it was nice when I actually woke up. Sunny, even.) We were also able to transfer rooms into the house, since many of the guests were part of a school group that left in the morning. I thought the stables were nice for a hostel- the house itself was even better.

The hostel:



By about 11 or so, we were on our way into Dingle to rent bikes. The hostel owner, who turned out to be our driver of the evening before (it was also a family run business- apparently, they converted their old farmhouse into a hostel), suggested we rent bikes out of Foxy John's, which turned out to be a hardware store/bike rentals during the day and a pub by night! (Talk about multipurpose)

Some views of the walk into Dingle and the town:







(Yes, there are palm trees in Ireland. I was surprised, too)





All the signs were in Gaelic. Here's a few:





The bike tour started eventfully. First off, less than two blocks from Foxy John's, I get hit by the door of a car and knocked somewhat off my bike (fortunately, I wasn't going too fast). It was definitely an interesting start to the day and I wondered if it wasn't potentially prophetic and I ought to heed the warning. (I decided to ignore it.) Along the bike ride, we stopped at many of the places mentioned by Rick Steves in his Ireland 2008 book.

A graveyard...



The manor of Lord Ventry, now housing an all-Gaelic girl's boarding school...



These walls were everywhere. Apparently, when the farmers want to move their cattle, they just take down a piece of the wall, drive the cattle through, and put the wall back up.



A nice view (there were lots of them)



The beach near Ventry (Ceann Tra in Gaelic)...The little houses on the far left are actually part of a trailer part where many Irish go on holiday with their kids (all of the Dingle Peninsula is a Gaeltacht, or Gaelic-speaking region, so it's rich with culture)



The beach also had some interesting rock formations. These were directly below the grassy knoll where we ate a bit of a snack (not lunch yet since we still had a ways to go). I ended up leaving my lunch here. Hope the gannets (seagull-like birds with six-foot wingspans who lived around there) liked it :)



Further along, we passed by Dunbeg Fort, an Iron-Age fort, ready to fall into the sea. It was getting late and we were less than halfway, so we didn't stop. The dark stone walls in the very back of the picture is part of the fort. There were also a lot of sheep, all with funny painted marks on them.



Another stunning vista...



The next actual stop we made was at this group of beehive huts/clochans. According to the pamphlet, it's called Cathair na gConchuireach, and the free farmers of the the Early Christian Period lived here. Here's a couple of pictures:







A little further along we passed the Upside-down Bridge. It's truly what it sounds like... A bridge with a stream running over it. Here's Allie crossing:



We soon passed a spectacular cliff view while approaching Slea Head...







It was shortly after this point that we realized we had to stop stopping and taking so many pictures. This was a rather problematic for me, since I spent most of the trip behind the lens of my camera. For example, this day alone I took well over 200 pictures. Not all of them turned out well, since I quickly started trying to bike and take pictures at the same time. Surprisingly, they didn't turn out that bad. Here's one, a perfect example of why I grew to think of Ireland as a Giant's Checkerboard:



The next place we pass by is Dun Chaoin. We've been at this for 16.9 km at this point, and are getting a little tired. Hungry, too. It's also only a third of the way, and there is no way we're getting these bikes back by 8pm. At a rather large hill, we saw this sign:



And a little later:



Some more views from the bike:





The next town we passed through was Baile an Fheirtearaigh (Ballyferriter). We stopped here and got some food (finally...)



Some views while passing through the town:





A fun shot of my shadow chasing Allie on our bikes:



Our last real stop was this old church. It was late at this point and we were both getting a little tired. We had also given up the thought of getting the bikes back by 8pm. We figured since it was a pub, they'd probably accept them later, and just hoped we wouldn't be charged extra.









One last shot:



It was dark by the time we got back, finishing up a 47.5 km bike ride (I hadn't been on a bike in years before this. Not what I would recommend if you, my readers, ever attempt this). But we made it! The pub was in full swing, but they still took our bikes back and didn't charge us extra. We were planning on going to another pub, but decided to just stop at a grocery store instead, since we were both tired. The mile back to the hostel was painful and took awhile. Allie went ahead of me, since she was worried the kitchen would be closing soon (it didn't). I really just wasn't motivated by food at that point. We were in a six bed dorm that night, but we had it to ourselves (I think the hostel owner might have felt a little bad about having us stay in the stables the night before even though it was just fine, and tried to give us a semi-private room if they didn't get too full.) At first, all I wanted to do was lay on my bunk and do nothing, but then the thought of a hot shower motivated me to move.