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Our trip to Antrim and the Dingle Peninsula, Ireland
April 9-23, 2013

Fenit, teach Dara HTML

Thursday, April 18


Statue of St. Brendan on Fenit Pier:



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Page 11: Fri – Inch Strand, Sammy’s Cafe, An Canteen, Music at John Benny’s.
Page 12: Sat – Dingle, Dinner at Michael & Dara’s, Music at Courthouse.
Page 13: Sun – Cottage, Global Village Restaurant, Dick Mack’s Pub.
Page 14: Mon – Dingle, An Canteen Restaurant, Pack and Return Home.
Page 01: Tue – Prep and Travel to Dublin.
Page 02: Wed – Drive from Dublin to Barbican Gatelodge in Antrim.
Page 03: Thu – Giant’s Causeway.
Page 04: Fri – Bushmills, Dunluce, Waterfall in Glenarm Forest.
Page 05: Sat – Drive from Antrim to Dingle, Murphy’s Pub.
Page 06: Sun – Dingle and Music at Courthouse
Page 07: Mon – Shopping in Dingle.
Page 08: Tue – Loch a'Dúin, Doyle’s Restaurant, Music at Courthouse.
Page 09: Wed – Cottage, An Canteen Restaurant, Michael & John at Mighty Session
Page 10: Thu – Fenit Pier and Bana Beach
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Fenit, teach Dara HTML

Thursday, April 18


We woke up around 9 to clear sunny skies but by the time I went downstairs to take a picture, they had started to cloud over. At 9:30, the sheep were running towards the gate again and there were two cars parked by the shed. We went out to investigate and found Alec and Declan moving the sheep to another pasture to protect the saplings. The little lamb with the bum leg is not hurt, just very young, and there hasn’t been enough grass to help him get strong. How sad.

We stood by the gate talking to Alec for a few minutes but I was really cold and KC wanted to get on the road. Because it had rained so much last night we decided to drive to Fenit, just north of Tralee, check out the castle, the marina and the lighthouse, and walk along Bana Beach. We figured that the beach wouldn’t be any wetter because of last night’s rain whereas the mountain trails would be pretty soggy.

We were on the road at about 11:30 and, although it was very windy, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. We estimated that it would take us an hour each way, giving us 2 hours there before we’d have to leave to be home in time for our 5pm date with Dara. We’ve driven this route a dozen times – it’s the route we take to and from Dublin – so I don’t have many pictures.

The clear sky when we left:



From the road, the pier looked so inviting: a long spit of land with the marina at the end. The lighthouse is on an island, not connected to the marina.
Driving past Fenit:






When we got to Fenit, we were both hungry and had to use the restroom; but, none of the restaurants were open so we drove back the way we came because KC thought we had passed a large one on our way in. We had, The Tankard, and there were cars parked in front so I went in to check it out. It looked very closed but because of the cars, I called out and someone answered.

The Tankard:



The man explained that they were closed, but we could use his restrooms, and then he gave us directions to the closest place where we could get food. It was 6 miles away so we decided to see the marina first, then go get food, then return to the beach. We drove back across the causeway to the pier.

On our way we passed a truck hauling manure and realized what was causing that smell around the marina. It wasn’t fish! Alec had told us that the farmers had been praying for rain so that they could start fertilizing and we’ve certainly had rain.

The manure truck:



When we got back to the pier, it was starting to cloud over, but I bundled up and we walked towards the statue of St. Brendan at the very end. The rocks lining the pier were fairly low and I noticed the spray from the waves – it was still very windy – flying over the rocks onto the pier. I moved as far to the left as I could because I did not want to get wet.

The marina:



Bundled and ready to go (notice the huge cement blocks holding down the boats behind me):



I seemed to be getting wet anyway and was amazed at the size of the waves making that spray when KC said, That isn’t spray, that’s rain! Yes, it had started to rain and now it was POURING! I ran to the base of the stairs leading to the statue, thinking we should get this over with and get back into the warm car, when I saw a beehive hut! I peered into it and it was both too small and too wet so I abandoned that idea.

The old beehive:



Then I saw a REPLICA beehive hut, large enough for both of us, so I ran over to that. We crawled in through the small door and there were two other people taking shelter there already! It was big enough for all of us so we huddled together waiting for the rain to stop. They were very interesting people, locals, who had been to the US many times and were about to visit DC.

Although we enjoyed talking to them, it was really cold, and my legs were getting drenched as I was standing in front of the door. Whoever designed this hut had put the door in the wrong side! The wind comes from the west…why would you put the door on the western side?

Suddenly, the rain stopped (but not the wind), we crawled out of the hut, our hut companions went back to the marina, and we went on to the statue.

The new beehive hut:



I wondered why there would be a statue of St. Brendan here since he started his voyage from Brendan Creek, near Ballyferriter. Apparently, he was from this area. I fought the wind all the way up the stairs, the same wind that was blowing the clothing on the statue. I could never be a sailor.

Barb, barely making it to the statue, hanging on to the railing for dear life:



Statue of St. Brendan at the tip of the Fenit pier:




Proof that I did make it. I’m so bundled, all you can see is my nose:



We were now looking down on the place where in 1922 the Irish Free State landed a ship, the Lady Wicklow, with troops and armored vehicles, to take the town of Tralee and its surroundings. We didn’t know this at the time because KC had not gotten that far into his book. In retrospect he was really happy to have seen it.

The marina:



The lighthouse:



Lifeboats in the marina:



KC told me those lifeboats are designed to right themselves if they flip over. Everyone on board has to strap themselves to their seats so that they’ll be righted, too. Isn’t modern technology wonderful?

The pier is used to load huge cranes, manufactured in Killarney, onto ships for export. John Brown had told us that the roads leading to the pier had been widened and reinforced to support the weight of the cranes as they were being brought to port. We were hoping to see one being loaded but they told us that the next lading date was April 26. Too bad.

Cranes waiting to be loaded:



The dock:



The long pier we had come up:



We walked back down the pier and, finally, we were back in the car, protected from the wind. I ramped up the heat before removing my swaddling.

Returning over the causeway bridge and the mud flats underneath it.




We drove for what seemed like ages before we found the closest place with food, O’Donnell’s in Mounthawk.

O’Donnell’s:



It was large and comfortable with an extensive menu. I didn’t have big expectations for the food but it was decent. I ordered the Baked Salmon which came with diced turnips and a carrot-parsnip puree that was really delicious. KC had their fish and chips and said it was very good (but not as good as Niall’s).

Baked Salmon at O’Donnell’s:



Fish and Chips at O’Donnell’s:



After lunch, we drove back to Fenit, to the small beach next to Bana Strand. As we approached the parking lot, I couldn’t believe there were people golfing in this wind.

Golfers:



Here’s the castle we had hoped to explore. It looks way too far away…taken from the parking area for the beach

Fenit Castle:



Negotiating the rocks leading to the beach:



The beach:







This was a very interesting beach to walk along because of the cliffs rising up from it. We walked to the base of the biggest one we could see and then turned back. I wasn’t too uncomfortable because I was wrapped up in multiple layers, but KC had taken his hat off, so he wouldn’t lose it to the wind, and he was understandably cold.

Back on the road, we ended up behind huge bus and then watched it jockeying past a large tractor before pulling over to let us pass him.

Huge bus passing large farm vehicle:



We drove into Dingle and KC went up to Dingle Crystal to make arrangements to get together with Sean and Liz; then he went to Garvey’s Market to replenish our provisions while I checked in with Michael and Dara. After closing up the shop we went over to The Courthouse to use their Wi-Fi. I showed Dara how to maintain a website while KC cleaned up the email on his iPad and then we went home.

We took Slea Head Drive this time and got some great shots of the Blaskets.

The Blasket Islands from Slea Head Drive:





We were looking forward to our night at home. We got to the cottage at 6:30. KC went up to take a shower and I downloaded today’s pictures. The sun was going down so I snapped a few shots:

Sunset:



KC mentioned that we should probably call our neighbors back home to find out whether our house was under water. WHAT? I had no idea what he was talking about because we had not been watching the news. In fact, I don’t know how he found out about it because there is no Internet in the cottage.

Apparently, Chicago was getting record amounts of rainfall, 5 inches overnight in one case, there was massive flooding and Cook county had been declared a state of emergency. A sinkhole had swallowed 3 cars, 24,000 homes had no electricity, and direction of the river had been reversed to prevent flooding upstream.

A water damage company ranked this as the fifth-worst flood in Chicago History.

Great. We’re 3000 miles from home and our house might be under water.

Our house backs onto the retention pond for our neighborhood and it had flooded 15 years ago when the area got 21 inches of rain in one night. Because of that incident, our house has two sump pumps; and, before we left, we made sure that both pumps were working – the main one and the back-up pump which has a back-up battery in case the electricity goes out – and that our security system was monitoring the area around the sump pit. If water had risen over the edge of the pit, we should have received a phone call from the security company.

This was much less rain than had fallen 15 years ago, and we had not been notified of water overflowing the sump pit, but KC was concerned that water might have seeped in elsewhere in the basement and we were both worried. Not that there was much we could have done but we did discuss our options.

The retention pond behind our house
The cattails around the edge of the pond are totally underwater
The trees around the edge are normally yards away from the water, now they’re in the middle of it:



What this pond normally looks like



It was late afternoon in Illinois so we tried calling but couldn’t get through. I sent a text and Mike responded that while there was lots of water, and more expected, the pond was not yet touching our property lines. His basement was dry so we assumed ours was too. He sent a picture of our sump outlet and it was flowing freely which was good news. We decided to try call again tomorrow when we were in Dingle.

For dinner, I scrambled some of the duck eggs we had bought from Ré Nua. KC had his with ham and nuked potatoes, I had mine with smoked salmon. I forgot to take pictures.

I used the non-stick wok to cook them because it would be easy to clean. We don’t use non-stick pans at home but I do all the dishes there and I will do just about anything in the interest of maintaining our health, including washing dishes with stuck-on eggs. On vacation, KC does the dishes, and I knew he would appreciate the easy clean-up. It wasn’t a health sacrifice because the pan was new and had no scratches. (When it comes to non-stick pans you should buy cheap and buy often. When they develop their first scratch, replace them.)

After dinner, I finished updating the webpage while KC read about the Civil War in Kerry / Easter Uprising.

I went to bed just after midnight and KC came up shortly after. We planned to attempt Cruach Mharthain tomorrow, the hills behind Phil’s house where Ryan’s Daughter was filmed. If it’s too wet, we’ll do Inch Beach.


To continue to the next page, please use the links below.
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Page 11: Fri – Inch Strand, Sammy’s Cafe, An Canteen, Music at John Benny’s.
Page 12: Sat – Dingle, Dinner at Michael & Dara’s, Music at Courthouse.
Page 13: Sun – Cottage, Global Village Restaurant, Dick Mack’s Pub.
Page 14: Mon – Dingle, An Canteen Restaurant, Pack and Return Home.
Page 01: Tue – Prep and Travel to Dublin.
Page 02: Wed – Drive from Dublin to Barbican Gatelodge in Antrim.
Page 03: Thu – Giant’s Causeway.
Page 04: Fri – Bushmills, Dunluce, Waterfall in Glenarm Forest.
Page 05: Sat – Drive from Antrim to Dingle, Murphy’s Pub.
Page 06: Sun – Dingle and Music at Courthouse
Page 07: Mon – Shopping in Dingle.
Page 08: Tue – Loch a'Dúin, Doyle’s Restaurant, Music at Courthouse.
Page 09: Wed – Cottage, An Canteen Restaurant, Michael & John at Mighty Session
Page 10: Thu – Fenit Pier and Bana Beach
Original, all-on-one-page version.


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Last Revised: May 27, 2013
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