Day 31: Defeated by Dingle

We rose, breakfasted, and set off moderately early today, finally departing at 9:45 from the Stone Cottage B&B--if you ever do find yourself in a remote hamlet on the far end of the Dingle Peninsula, I would recommend them highly. Very nice, very professional, cooked for us and generally had a great little set up going.

We quickly decided as we walked the first few miles that yes, we would go to Dingle after staying the night in Feohanagh. This took a great weight off our minds, at least, if not our backs, and we walked onwards with a bit more spring in our step. We walked towards and then past Sybil Head, a great outcropping of rock at the far northwest edge of the peninsula.

Sygil Head

We also walked past a lovely secluded beach...

Clogher Beach, a perfect crescent of sand and water

...and these three heads called the Three Sisters...

I instantly developed an unreasonable amount of distaste for the southernmost one

...and all the way to the beach by Smerwick Harbor, where we took a break (and I took a nap) and then walked along that beach and the next one, Wine Strand (harking back to smuggling days) until we reached the edges of the town of Murreagh and walked on to the hamlet of Baile na nGall (Ballynagal, apparently also Ballydavid). We stopped for a nice big late lunch and relaxed for an hour or so, then prepared to head on. We chatted with the waitress for a few minutes and found out that no, there wasn't really any accommodation in Feohanagh but there was here, so we decided to cut the trip early and have a relazing afternoon and evening. Mom discovered that she had lost her windbreaker somewhere along the beach, and now that we didn't have any extra walking to do we went in search of it. We had the great good luck of finding it again and strolled happily back, I with my feet in the water. We returned to the pub and watched a bit of soccer and got some salad and an Irish coffee, which we had both wanted to try. It was delicious, but definitly a sipping drink. I tried to chug the last really quick and found that to be a mistake.

After dinner, Mom went out to enjoy the evening light, and upon showering for a bit I followed her. There was a nice cliff walk that looked out upon the bay, and tonight we got to catch a beautiful sunset.

The sun behind the northeasternmost of the Three Sisters

Sinking behind the waves

I then returned to the pub which at this point was overrun with more youths than I thought lived in the area, all of them dressed like they wanted to get completely sloshed (I think it was someone's eighteenth birthday). Instead of hopping in and sipping at a cider while enjoying the wifi and maybe a bit of the World Cup, I chose instead to get a good night's sleep for tomorrow's new final leg of our Dingle Way experience.