I swear Sarah's hair turned red the moment we landed... the photos are not doctored.
Another busy day in adventure land :) We packed up and left Cork heading north a short drive to the famous Blarney castle. The early birds we are (oddly enough), we arrived as the second car in the lot and had a lot of time to make our way slowly up the shoulder-to-shoulder, spiral staircase to kiss the stone. I don't feel any luckier, though, but to be honest everything has just 'worked out' so far, save a few early hiccups. The weather has been on our side, and we seem to always be in the right place at the right time.
The castle ruins were fun to explore, and we got a great view of the countryside from the top. We walked the gardens up to the victorian house, back through the stables and then back on the road, zig-zagging our way south through some low mountains to the coast.
Our second destination was the Drombeg stone circle. Created over 4000 years ago as a calendar to mark the winter solstice, the area adjacent to the circle also contains the ruins of a hut and kitchen building from the same era. The kitchen still houses a trough that was filled with water and heated rocks to boil meat, so apparently grey food has been the norm in the british isles for some time ;) The well itself still works and we couldn't help but take a drink.
Our goal along this 'West Cork' zone is whale and dolphin watching, so with that in mind we stopped at a tourist information centre in Skibbereen where a nice old lady was more than happy to tell us all about how Canada saved the Irish during the great famine, many times over. As it turns out the whale expedition we planned from the start sets off in Baltimore, another 15 minutes south, and we soon arrived in our first real coastal, fishing community. A few very old B&Bs didn't have much to offer but the nice girl at the Waterfront guest house gave us the best suite in the hotel for the bare minimum price as we're pretty sure that we're the ONLY guests in town tonight.
The view from the room is fantastic and Sarah is thrilled to have a bath tub rather than a tiny shower! The corner room looks over the fishing quay and castle across the street, and all down the coast to 'beacon point' which we had to check out shortly after checking in. The photos are great but the experience of standing on the cliffs is hard to replicate.
As we type this we're finishing off a pint in the pub below our hotel. The sun is down, and we're excited about whale watching in the morning as long as the weather isn't too bad!
By far the nicest place so far. We're fairly certain we're going to book a second night :)
Cheers!
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