Trip for Trash #3: Ireland--Driving the Ring of Kerry

I get easily and desperately carsick. So, as long as health and decency allows, I'm the Designated Driver.

Driving around Ireland's famed Ring of Kerry, I was challenged to put to use all of my past driving experiences...

from praying my way along snaky Highway 1 on a teenage solo venture to Stinson Beach...

Thanks for the pic, Cindy Adkins

... to yelping and cursing my way across hedgerow-bound Cornwall last summer.


Toyota vs. Hoveround: There can be only 1 Master of the Hedgerow
(spoiler--it was the old guy)

The value of all past driving challenges became clear the moment I turned on to the N70 at Tralee. Hedgerows, cliffs, one-lane "highways," blind curves and intersections...The Ring has it all.

On the other hand, every agony of the road was rewarded with an image (and now a memory) like no other.

One lane highway dead-ends at this ruined keep at the tip of a finger of rock.


"I am the LORD of all I see! Oh, uh, well, you should see it on a sunny day."

The protocol when the car comes at you from the other direction?
Back up until you can get out of the other's way. (I panicked and made the Irishman back up instead)

Neolithic stone structure, just to the left of the endless lane above, and therefore worth exiting the highway.

A grass-and-shrub covered hedgerow ten inches to the left of the passenger's side + a sheer cliff on the driver's side = time for a photo break!

A good way to release tension while driving the N70?
Pull over and yell "BAAAA!" at the tiny dots of sheep in the distance until you relax.

I cannot emphasize enough how glad I was to drive the Ring of Kerry during Low Tourist Season.
We had this beach all to ourselves.

The most honest road signs in the world can be found on the Ring of Kerry



But just look where the road took us: The Cliffs of Kerry.



Another view of the Cliffs of Kerry

This is totally reasonable advice

 Every time I stopped the car to catch my breath, I was both relieved and delighted.

This stone structure is just hanging out at the side of a parking lot.

We were hours late going anywhere because we did the right thing and followed every interesting road sign that took us off the beaten path.

 



Staigue Ring Fort, in Sneem (bless you!)

Inside Staigue Fort: staircases in the walls...leading to what?

 Driver's fatigue be damned, we stopped again and again, discovering the tucked away and highly defensible Neolithic past of the Emerald Isle.



I have no idea what the name of this park is, but it's feckin brilliant!
Pictured here, a model of an ancient Crannog, or artificial island home. Looks like it's elevating, right?

Same brilliant park...the sign says what it does; does what it says

The Ring of Kerry wiped me out, but the drive was absolutely worthwhile. And in the end, I got used to the steps of driving on the wrong side of the road (on the wrong side of the car, with a stick shift in the wrong hand), just like Ginger Rogers got used to doing the same steps as Fred Astaire--only backward and in heels.

Sure, she's smiling here, but imagine the rehearsals.

Copyright 2015, Tanya Monier