Dingle Peninsula then Blennerville near Tralee - 27 April 2023

27 April 2023 - Dingle Peninsula onto near Tralee

Finished blog about 22.30 - and off to bed! For a busy carpark - was surprisingly quiet, and we slept well.

xcweather had 0.1mm of rain due from 10am, and nearly to the minute it started with the wet stuff. It’s been on and off all day, but not enough to be a problem.

Our problem for today was servicing Dave. Virtually nowhere to be found. We probably didn’t need water today - but knew there was nowhere on the Dingle peninsula. There was a place on Searchforsites, a B&B called Douglasha with full moho facilities about 20 miles away - so we pitched up. A lady came out, in a nutshell - after having spent thousands of Euro, the council have closed down the facility because a neighbour complained about possible noise. She was still fuming about it! We asked if it was possible to use a tap, she was more than happy, so about 6 trips later with our collapsible water container and funnel, we topped Dave up and gave her €10 - we were just happy to have water for the next few days!

We’ve been having a few issues with Amazon music, in that some of the downloaded music we can’t play, and have reverted to iTunes. Tintin choose Fleetwood Mac yesterday, today Deacon Blue - going with the oldies!

Despite not having been for a proper ‘walk’ - for the last three days we’ve walked nearly 9,000 steps each day - today - not as good!

I think Tintin has drawn the short straw with the roads again today - in summary - very tiring!

First stop at Inch Strand beach - sure it’s beautiful on a warm, sunny day!

There’s not that much colour yet, apart from so much gorse - which smells lovely too!

Next up - Dingle (Daingean Ui Chuis). Of the peninsula’s 10,000 residents, about 2,000 live in Dingle town. It just has a few streets, lined with ramshackle but gaily painted shops and pubs (lots of pubs!).

We couldn’t park by the marina - paid parking - but looked like mohos weren’t welcome. Tried a Lidl - but signs that if you left and went walking - you’d be fined! So found paid parking with enough space for Dave. Very cheap - 50c for an hour.

By then it was nearly 13.30, so were looking for food! Popped our heads into a bar, but was empty, so nabbed a passerby who recommended the Benner’s Hotel and said he would check on us later. Thinking he was joking we were very surprised when, after about 45 minutes, he came in to make everything was ok for us! We wouldn’t generally think of a hotel to eat - but was good - toasted sandwiches with salad and crisps (and drinks) - €34.

Back to wandering around the colourful shops. The lady in the crystal shop showed us the photos of the Shamrock bowl being presented to Joe Biden last year. Beautiful, really heavy crystal with unusual patterns.

We treated ourselves to an ice cream to share! Was €6 for that little pot! Too touristy 😊

The harbour was built in 1992 on reclaimed land. There was a bronze statue of the beloved bottlenose dolphin called Fungie, who moved into Dingle Harbour in 1983, and was a fixture for 37 years. Last seen in October 2020.

Back on the bus! Drove part of the Slea Head Loop drive - about 30 miles around the peninsula.

There were spectacular scenes over looking the Blasket Islands - think Tintin enjoyed that part of the drive the best - narrow and windy with the fear of meeting traffic the other way!

There are lots of sheep and also grass-fed Friesian (or Holstein) cows. One I hadn’t encountered before is the belted Galloway breed from Scotland - they look like they have a white blanket tossed over them. I just about caught 2 through the window when whizzing past - so we’ve included a photo of a photo from good old Google!

We’re now parked up looking out at the windmill near Tralee.

Tintin was trying some ongoing maintenance to see if he could stop the overhead bed from squeaking and crashing about on the bumpy roads!

Went out to chat to the owner of the 7 week old gorgeous German shepherd cross puppy. Sounds like he trains lots of dogs. He’s only had this one a week - seemed very content to chase Kevin who was attached to his lead. We were chatting in the rain, and I couldn’t get away! Heard about his life in the Navy, submarines at Cobh, his friend was dumping a trailer full of empty bottles - at least 12 black sacks full - let’s hope he’s been storing them for a while! He also said there are so few service places available for motorhomes because they have too many ‘itinerants’. Despite there being hardly any rubbish bins - all the places we’ve visited have been very clean and litter free. There are notices saying fines of up to €3,000 for not clearing up after your dog - they don’t police that one too well!

I’ve decided that our eyes are brilliant at taking in scenery, and I’m sometimes a bit disappointed when I look through the photos at the end of the day. However, I suppose we have panoramic view, whereas our cameras take what is in front of us! Virtually all of my photos were taken when driving - so could be worse!

We didn’t stop off at any paid ‘attractions’ today, as they were mostly a variation of ones from yesterday. Think we both enjoyed yesterday more than today, but the weather played its part too.