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 cars1 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!

1. interesting who all has a business or commercial interest here… ↩