After a good sleep, the thought of venturing down the mountain wasn't quite as scary. Bill said that he thinks he is getting the hang of driving on their insanely narrow roads....you just have to drive closer to the middle of the road until you see another car coming. Then, you get over and pray that your tires stay on the road.😁
The closest town to where we are is at the head of Kenmare Bay.....it is aptly named Kenmare. 😀 It is classified as a heritage town. Not many towns have that distinction but they are proud of it. Their Heritage Center tells of Kenmare's history and there are also tons of walking paths around the town that give visitors the feel of Ireland. We were happy to walk around the town and just revel in the Irishness of it all. 😊
After Kenmare, we ventured back up the mountain. Yesterday, we saw on the map that there was a road that ran down by the bay. MOST NARROW ROAD YET!
We are incredibly thankful that we didn't meet any cars coming the other way because there literally was not room for them to pass us. This road went in a circle and about half way through, we found a place to pull off so we could walk down to the water. I have to say here that we were so impressed with Katie. She has awful problems with balance and her legs are on the weak side. But she walked down the dirt path by herself. She did hold my hand while we walked on the rocks, but I don't blame her. If I had someone to hold my hand...I would have too. 😉 The sky kept spitting at us so the rocks were on the slippery side. It was also VERY windy so we were all pretty chilled. Then, we looked in the bay and there were 2 people swimming...I didn't feel like I could complain about being cold after that.
Going back to the car, Bill found another shorter path for us to walk up. The only problem was the path was quite a bit steeper. Katie was in front of me and started to fuss. Sometimes, I think her problems are more confidence based. She thinks she can't do something so she can't. Anyway, I told her if she got up the path, I would give her a blackberry (I found a few by the path....they are everywhere here!) That was incentive enough and she did it! We were quite proud...and so was she. Another funny story about Katie...we had just walked up the path and were waiting for Bill to meet us. Another family was walking up another path and Katie kind of shouted, "Hi! This is my mom!" There were 4 family members and she said it to every one of the people. The father of the group (or I assume he was) said, "Nice to meet you mom." It's always nice when you are claimed by your kids.
We were all cold and wet so going back to our rental was the best plan. But, as we were driving, we found a cemetery. Both Bill and I have ancestors from Ireland...although not this part. Both of us have wanted to visit a cemetery so we took this chance. We had quite the conversation with the kids about having respect for the people that were buried there and surprisingly, they were all great! I have a feeling, though, that Vladan is going to have a lot of questions in the near future about death. He told Bill that he would never die and be buried, but we had to tell him that everyone dies. He has had loved ones die, but I think it is really starting to make sense to him. Sorry about that tangent...it happens often with me.
Most of the grave yard was newer, but there was a section of really old markers. I didn't feel right about walking in that part because it was overgrown. I didn't want to inadvertently step on a grave. Like we thought, we didn't find any Rileys (or Reilleys or O'Reilleys) or any Breens. But it was still a very special stop for us.
When we were nearly back to the house, another car had stopped to take some pictures of the gorgeous landscape. There was a nice pull-off so Bill took the chance for us to get a few more pretty pictures. As soon as I got out of the car, I heard a sheep yell at me. He was standing up on the rocks right above our car. I snapped a few pictures of the gourge and he yelled at me the entire time. As I tried to take his picture, he turned his butt to me. LOL! But I was able to get a good picture of him on top of the rock peak.
We also passed the shrine that I spoke about yesterday. It did seem to have a statue of Mary but I also noticed a couple framed pictures (of a young man) inside. I have to wonder if it is for someone who died in an accident there or something.
We didn't find a beach today but that is on our itinerary for tomorrow as well as perhaps finding a castle. (That shouldn't be hard here) And Bill is going to get to go fishing on the lake that is on the other side of the road from where we are staying. He is pretty excited!
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