Friday we left the city of Cork to drive around the western part of Co. Cork. During our drive around west Cork, Shaun and Deborah played us some good Irish tunes (ie. The Saw Doctors “N17” & “I Useta Lover” and The Pogues “Rainy Night in Soho”). We drove on the N71 passing through Bandon, Clonakilty, and Skibbereen. When we got close to Ballydehob we went out on the Mizen Peninsula through Schull and Goleen to the Mizen Head – the most south westerly point of Ireland. We didn’t go out on the Mizen Head – they have it all blocked off and make you pay to go out there, but we checked out the cliffs right on the other side of the fence. Here we had Tayto’s (“The Origional Irish Crisp”) for the first time. We had the cheese and onion flavor which was really good!
I can’t remember when exactly, but sometime before we got to the Mizen head Morgan and I got a shout out on the radio! Deborah had texted in to the station so they said something along the lines of.. “Doborah and Shaun are driving their American friends Katie and Morgan around west Cork today and Kerry tomorrow – we hope they enjoy the most beautiful parts of our country!”. We were completely shocked when we heard it – even Shaun didn’t know she had texted in. It was really thoughtful! Then after this sweet moment, the boys complained about how the girls names were mentioned before the boys.. typical! (haha)
Next we headed inland and north, stopping in Bantry to walk around the farmers market and stretch our legs. Then we headed on the Beara Peninsula on the R572 passing through Adrigole and going all the way to the end at Coomasaharn where we could see the cable car that takes animals and people out to Dursey Island. On the way out to Coomasaharn Shaun had asked a local sheep farmer if we were on the right track (he was doing this part of the drive from memory) and after sheep farmer scared us by telling us we were 50km off track, he laughed and said we just needed to go 5km farther on the road we were on. On the way back from the point we passed the same man who was now hearding his sheep down the road a ways to a different pasture with the help of his sheep dog. We had mentioned to Deborah and Shaun that I wanted to hold a lamb (I really wanted to but doubted we’d get the opportunity) so when we saw him again Shaun asked if I could get a picture with one.. and he let us! After Shaun and Morgan failed to be quick enough to grab one of the lambs (they are really quick and seemed to bounce like rabbits), the nice man grabbed one and passed him over to us. He was really fluffy and cute, but he didn’t smell the best! After we got all got a picture with him we put him down and he ran like the wind to catch back up with the rest of the herd.. bleating all the way! I think we scared him half to deaf… poor little guy! On the way to Kenmare (where we were staying this night) we drove through Eyeries, a cute and colorful little village before passing over into Co. Kerry.
We spent the night in Kenmare at Foley’s and had a delicious sea food dinner – Morgan had sea food pie (pieces of white fish and salmon, mussels, crab meat) and I had the salmon and shrimp. Since this was Good Friday most restaurants closed early and no bars were open, so we went to bed early to rest up for driving around the Ring of Kerry on Saturday.
