The Wild Atlantic Way - Kerry

We continued south on the WAW, pausing at Beale Strand, Ballybunion Beach, round Kerry Head which had very dark dramatic skies, and Ballyheigue Beach. There was a surprising lack of Park 4 the Night spots on this section, so we were glad to finally pull up at Fenit Harbour where we parked on the causeway to the harbour. It was a wet and windy night.

We woke to a brighter morning with nice views to the lighhouse in the bay and views of the hills on the Dingle Peninusla. There were a fair few people swimming in the cold choppy sea - nutters!

We made our way around the bay onto the Dingle Peninsular. We were looking forward to driving up and over the Conor Pass, a single track mountain pass climbing up 410m promising spectacular views (if it's not rainy or foggy). However, as we approached the turn-off we spotted a sign showing a 2 tonne weight restriction - as Lo11y weighs more than double that we thought we'd better comply, but we're sure she would have handled it better than most of the hire cars doing it.

We arrived in Dingle early afternoon, and Colin was determined that we should cycle the Slea Head Loop - a 35 mile loop around the tip of the Dingle Peninsula. We parked up in a motorhome park behind a pub right in the centre of town. The South African owner made us very welcome and said we were their vehicle of the week. It was wet and windy with the forecast not showing any improvement, so we thankfully made the sensible decision to defer the bike ride until the following day and had a gentle afternoon wandering around the town and ate in a nice restaurant, followed up by drinks in 2 lively music bars. The second one, Foxy Johns, doubled up as a hardware store during the day. The number of American tourists in Dingle was noticeable.

It was still pretty breezy the following day with threatening clouds, but we got wrapped up, Colin hired a bike and we set off to cycle the Slea Head Loop. Although we had several moments when the rain started and we thought we were going to get drenched, somehow each time it blew past very quickly and we enjoyed a beautiful ride. There were lots of tourist attractions on the route (if you call holding a baby lamb an attraction). There was a viewpoint for where one of the Star Wars films was shot (The Force Awakens) - wasted on us. We stopped at the Blasket Islands visitor centre which told the story of the community living on the Blasket Islands who were all relocated from the islands in 1953 for safety reasons. We passed by lots of lovely viewpoints and returned in to Dingle skirting the surrounding hills.

Back in Lo11y we drove the loop to give us a different perspective sitting higher up.

We continued on to the next peninsular - the famous Ring Of Kerry. We passed through the colouful town of Killorglin marking the start of the driving route.

We drove straight to a motorhome aire just past the stunning Rossbeigh Strand. It was up a steep narrow lane, but the local community had provided the most fantastic area to park up. There were no facilities but the views were incredible. They operated an honesty payment system whereby we left them €10 in a box. We initially had it all to ourselves but we were joined by a small camper with three Italian girls later on.

The forecast for the following day wasn't looking great, so we hoped our luck would continue for at least some clear intervals where we could appreciate the views. We were also expecting the roads to be busy with hire cars and tourist buses, so were pleasantly surprised it wasn't too bad.

We took a ferry onto Valentia Island which is connected to the mainland by a bridge at the other end of the island.

When we docked at the main town of the island, Knights Town, the sun was shining. By the time we reached the lighthouse, just 10 minutes away, the heavens had opened, but true to form the rain swept through and the sun reappeared for our visit to the lighthouse complex which included going up into the tower, the lighthouse keepers cottage and lovely views. We chatted to the guide over a cup of tea who had lived on the island most of her grown up life, having been born in Tottenham - what a contrast! Not impressed she is a Man Utd fan though.

The rest of the island is very scenic with beautiful views out to the Skellig Islands. Next time we need to make time for the eco tours to these islands where puffins, gannets, dolphins and basking sharks can be seen.

The bridge to the mainland took us to the attractive harbour town of Portmagee, and we continued on to the Kerry Cliffs. We had to pay €5 each to walk up to the cliffs and we weren't expecting them to be that impressive after the Slieve League and Cliffs of Moher, but the rock formations, colours and views were terrific.

The route took us towards Ballinskelligs Bay up and over a pass with wonderful views and down to a pretty beach called St Finians Bay - a good place for a coffee stop. The roads were very narrow and generally we won any face offs with the hire cars, but had more of a challenge with a delivery van.

The beach at Ballinskelligs Bay is in a beautiful setting and shortly after we reached the seaside town of Waterville, famous for Charlie Chaplin making it his regular holiday destination in the 1950's. It didn't look that special to us, but it was drizzling when we passed through.

The road climbed again with picture perfect views of Derrynane Beach and its backdrop. We couldn't believe our luck with the weather this day. We have to admit we had forgotten how beautiful the Ring of Kerry is - or maybe it was just raining too much for us to appreciate 30 years ago?

We reached the village of Sneem which had a lovely motorhome area by the river. Check-in had to be done at Murphys Bar in the village - we knew it was our sort of place. We had a stroll around the village that had shops, bars and restaurants. We walked down to the pier where the community had set up sensory gardens and picnic tables. There was even a 'Have A Rant' station - I had to pull Colin away from this after an hour.

We had a drink in Murphy's Bar, then dinner at a local restaurant before returning to the bar to listen to some good music and finally had an Irish coffee.

The next day our luck ran out with the weather in the morning. We planned to drive the Beara Peninsula which read as less touristy than my the Ring of Kerry and Dingle Peninsula, but still had some nice scenic drives to discover. The southern part of the peninsular is in Co Cork. We stopped for a walk around the attractive little town of Kenmare. It was busy with people completing a triathlon as we arrived.

The peninsula did have a different feel to its neighbours. The WAW route didn't seem to offer the sea views, but the green craggy landscape was nice. We visited Derreen Gardens, a beautiful woodland garden with walking trails weaving through taking visitors to sea views. It has a micro-climate so there are tropical plants to see and it is famous for its rhododendrons, which unfortunately for us had gone past their flowering season.

Leaving here we went up and over the Healy Pass. Built in the 1840's it is known as a famine road, being a scheme to help alleviate the terrible time the Irish were having in the famine period rather than giving them handouts. Already starving, the workers had no choice but to undertake this slave labour. With that in our minds, it made us appreciate even more what are remarkable road it is, with incredible views and the scenery being so different each side of the pass. The first section had wooded, green almost alpine views with the lakes and mountains, then the section heading south went through more barren landscape with the road twisting through like a race track.

We rejoined the WAW on the south side of the peninsular and drove to the main town of Castletownbe. There were dedicated motorhome parking spots by the harbour, but the weather was wet and windy and the town didn't look very enticing, even though other visitors have rated it as a good place to stay. We retraced our route back along the coast and ended up parking up in a golf course that provided motorhome parking and facilities. We had lovely views out to Bere Island and watched mad golfers in the wet and windy conditions.

The next day was our last full day on the WAW. We had arranged to meet an old work colleague (Michael Spillane) of Colin's in Killarney where he lives and commutes to and from London each week.

The weather wasn't great but our route took us through the stunning Killarney National Park. We reached one of the key viewpoints, Ladies View, where Queen Victoria's ladies in waiting liked to visit. It was teeming with rain and the clouds had enveloped the valley. I persuaded Colin to wait 5 minutes to see if it would clear - he thought I was been delusional, but after 10 minutes the view did finally emerge. We continued on to the Torc waterfall which was in full flow after all the rain.

We then called in at Muckross Abbey, a lovely ruined 15th century abbey set in the grounds of Muckross House. There is a beautiful yew tree in the middle of the ruined cloisters.

We then headed into central Killarney and got parked up in an outlet centre car park right in the centre. Killarney is very much the central tourist hub for Kerry and, although not a large place, has lots of shops, bars and restaurants. We had to take shelter in several tourist shops to dodge the rain. We met Michael and headed to a bar to watch his beloved club Arsenal play Liverpool. Having Spurs incur a humiliating defeat against Bournemouth the day before, I was delighted with the result. Michael recommended a place for us to get dinner after he left us, which was fully booked when we called in so we ended up in a pleasant pub that did good pub grub and had some good music on.

Our final full day in Ireland was just about getting across the country to Dublin ready to park up for the night in the port for an early sailing the following morning. Colin was full of cold and we both felt a bit melancholy reflecting on what a fabulous month we've had and how incredibly lucky we've been with the weather.

We had a short break in the town of Cahir which has a well preserved castle where the film Excalibur was shot in the 1980's.

We had another break to the journey in Kilkenny, which also had a well preserved castle which we visited.

Once we reached the outskirts of Dublin it was slow going - we're not sure if it was normal rush hour traffic or the fact it was National Slow Down Day. To make things worse the toll tunnel into the port was closed for an incident which added on even more queuing to reach it. It wasn't the most glamorous park up in the port and certainly wasn't the most peaceful as we listened to containers being stacked all night, but it did mean we only had a few metres to get into the queue for the ferry in the morning.

We're now home after another fantastic trip in Lo11y. We've loved every moment in Ireland - the scenery, sites, people and driving. It will definitely be somewhere we revisit in the future.

We're now having to ramp up our cycling fitness rapidly for a trip to Mallorca with the Hope cycling group at the end of September. Thanks to all who've stuck with us during this trip - you can now have a well earned break.