breakfast today (we are still at the ballygarry house hotel) works
out a bit better than yesterday: more coffee and tea available, no
being told off for sitting at the wrong table.

today’s program: by bus to the starting point of the pass up to the gap
of dunloe, walk from there over the
gap of dunloe and down
to brandon’s cottage for a cup of tea, followed by a boat trip across
the lakes of killarney to the town of killarney.
we are off at 9:00 on the dot and get to our starting point by 9:50. the
pass road is restricted to horse-drawn coaches, walkers and business and
commercial access. horse-drawn coaches are about €30 per coach each and
apparently in high-demand at times as there are quite a few of them
along with the required horses around. as we start on our walk we
witness two coaches (gigs, really) taking off with the drivers flogging
the horses quite severely several times. guess they lost any potential
customers in our group.
the walk up to the gap of dunloe is what turner and company would call
pittoresque — wild landscape rising up to each side, a succession of
little lakes, a winding road up to the pass. again, mrs d and i bring
up the rear of the pilgrim’s train and are joined today by mrs c. the
higher we get the stronger the wind blows up towards the pass —
fantastic! we are occasionally overtaken by a horse-drawn gig,
sometimes by cars and once or twice by folks on bikes, some more, some
less skilled in the art of cycling. the weather puts on a dramatic
show, but stays dry until we have passed the highest point, the gap of
dunloe. the pass down into the valley on the eastern side reminds me
of the eastern snowdown pass topology: the same north–south valley
formation almost.
after a lunch break just beyond the pass summit we are on our way down
to brandon’s cottage, a self-serve “restaurant” operated on behalf of
the national park. the scenery is still breathtakingly beautiful.
after a coke (me) and a cup of tea (mrs d) along with two slices of
apple pie with cream we enjoy the view until our boats across the lakes
of killarney depart.
the boats turn out to be, err, boats, wooden ones with a little outboard
motor. each boat seating up to 12 people. after a bit of engine trouble
we depart from brandon’s cottage and are on our way across the three
lakes and two rivers.
tranquil is the word that describes the first part of our ride —
tranquil is not the word that i’d choose for the second part. where
the first part was just gliding along on the calm surface of the upper
lake and the connecting river leaving it, once we reach the
three-river-meeting point we first need to pass across a bit of
white-water (necessitating a re-balancing of the boat by having us all
shift forward). from the three-river-meeting point onwards we enjoy a
bit of smooth “sailing” which turns out to lull us into a false sense of
security: once we leave the third lake and enter the last one, the
largest of the three, we literally hit rough sea. the wind is blowing
and has been blowing long enough today to really cause quite a bit of
wave action. after a re-reshuffle (all move towards the back of the
boat) we tackle it stern-on. splash, splash, splash summarises the next
15min as we crash through one wave crest after the other. fun

unfortunately, about half-way down the lake we need to cross the lake to
get to ross castle — meaning we are now moving in parallel to the
waves, also meaning our little boat is rotating back and forth along its
longitudinal axis, fun…
we do make it to shore, and get together, with a cup of tea, to have one
more story told by our resident master story teller: this time it’s
about a blind bagpipe player, and the castle in the lake of killarney.
again, i’m fascinated by her story telling talent and enjoy the story
tremendously.
then it’s back to the hotel again — one photo-op stop to have one
final view across the lakes of killarney — to take a shower, change
into fresh clothes, and dinner at 18:30 today as we are going to visit
the siamsa tíre theater here in
tralee! looking forward to that one!