Drive from Dingle to Doolin

Our first adventure of the day was to drive the Dingle Peninsula. It's about 30km around, starting and ending in Dingle. Beautiful drive with very narrow roads, so narrow that the tour buses only do it one way (clockwise) and everyone else is advised to follow suit. Bill did the honors driving today, and we still have the side mirrors in place (by some miracles), so all is well. We're even on engine kills and tyre-curbing. ;) 

On the way, we saw a car in a yard jacked up with a metal beer keg - didn't get a picture, but it felt like home. 

Stops along the way included a visit to beehive huts and ring forts, and to a beach. Lovely morning tour!

We grabbed convenience store lunch (delicious fried chicken legs and homemade poundcake) and topped off the tank with some diesel and started making our way toward Doolin via Conner Pass and the Talbert-Killimer Ferry.  Conner Pass was stunning - 360-degree views at the top, water on both sides, sunshine beaming in the distance, clouds misting rain at the top, and, by far, the tiniest of roads we've been on so far. 

We loaded onto a ferry in Tarbert and took the 20-minute ride to Killimer, shorting our drive by a significant margin. First-time ferry experience for Bill, the kids, and me, and we loved it. 

We got to Doolin with ease, meandering through several towns and plenty of roundabouts. I'm now a huge fan of roundabouts - far, far superior in every way to red lights. Roundabouts cost only the expense to create them - no electricity costs to keep them going. Traffics stays in constant flow, so it's more efficient for drivers.  Fewer accidents - we have yet to see a car accident in all the driving we've done. Very impressive. 

(View from inside the hut)

(That's Bill waving to me up at the edge of the cliff)

(Dead Man's Island in the distance, head on the right)

(At Conner Pass, looking east)

Our ferry ride from Tarbert to Killimer

(Doolin Lodge)