Day 15. Dawdling around Dingle.

The has been an interesting trip for us. We are the types who like to fully investigate area's we visit, and this trip has not allowed us to do that in any shape or form. Ireland, or at least its coastline is enormous. 3 weeks is pretty decent length of time for a holiday but I really do think you could spend 3 months doing this same journey and still not see it all, and also if you had 3 months I would expect you would at some point hit some better weather, we have been rather unfortunate in that respect, that said, we still haven't needed to put on the waterproof trousers but that is down to the fact we have spent so much time driving. We need to be back in Larne 1 week today, so will manage the Ring of Kerry, and the most southerly point, and maybe a trip to Clonakilty or Cork en route home. However, I feel we have missed a lot out, and have really just scratched the surface and not done justice any particular area. I have been exploring Scotland for for probably 25 years or more, and still find new corners that I like so I doubt we will ever know all of Ireland. BUT, never mind, we set off with intention of travelling down the west coast and we will achieve that. Its a truly spectacular coastline, easily a match for Scotland but very different particularly in the amount of population, and houses and buildings and farmland that are on most pieces of land. I am glad Scotland is not like Ireland.
Anyway, back to today. Dingle, we had torrential rain and strong wind again through the night at Anchor Campsite near Castlegregory, but it dried up at breakfast time. So the boys got out and had a play in the park at the site, and we had a wander onto the beach, its a stunning stretch of sand just over the dunes. You could walk for miles along here if you had the time and it wasn't blowing a hoolie, trouble is the wind whips the sand up and stings the boys legs if they have shorts on, or their faces if its bad. I remember this from my childhood days walking from Yellow Craig's to North Berwick with my family, it was fine going, but getting back was murder....lol.
The wind wasn't so bad today, but a huge big black cloud arrived out the blue and gave us a right good soaking. Back to the van and time to move. We headed up to Brandon Point for the views and a bit of lunch, it a cracking viewpoint and the twitchers were out again with their binoculars and  telescopes. I also wanted to check out the parking arrangement for Brandon Mountain, one of Ireland's 3000 feet peaks, this we did, the parking area is at the end of a narrow single track road, that's very steep at the end, We failed on the first attempt to get around the last bend but once I knew where the road was going and got a better run at it Bessie made it up and around the last steep corner. There's room for about 8 cars here, our van would be pushing it a bit in this wee carpark. Anyway, the hill was shrouded in cloud and I wasn't planning on climbing it today anyway. One day, I will as it looks superb.
We headed back and wanted to head to Dingle, however, the direct route over The Conor Pass has a weight limit of 2 tonnes on it. There also a height restriction on it due (I think) to overhanging rock faces. I read a few reports of 6 metre vans getting over it OK, and watched a video, but we have the bulge on the top and decided discretion was the better part of valour and chose not to attempt it and risk a sticky and embarrassing situation if we couldn't get through it, so it was the long road to Dingle for us. Dingle was bustling with people, its clearly very touristy and its clear why, its a lovely place. We had looked at possible eating out here tonight but there's no campsite, and its very, very  expensive. We did however book onto a boat trip and headed out to into Dingle Bay where there is a fairly resident dolphin called Fungie, it was a good short trip for the boys and Fungie (Fun Guy) was spotted and did a few passes of the boat. It wasn't the best trip we have done, but was OK for an hour. Callum was shown the wheel house and once again steered the boat out in a nice straight line, maybe a maritime career for him in the future is a possibility, lol. After the boat trip, we had fish and chips at the harbour and then headed out west to our chosen parking spot, tonight we are parked at the most westerly point of Ireland on the Dingle Peninsula looking out over the Blasket Island. Joyce got the boys all bedded while I went out and took some photos as the sun went down. We can here the waves crashing on the beautiful sandy beach below us, I am sure some time will be spent down there tomorrow.
Its been our shortest driving day, but sometime you just got to slooooow down a bit and take it all in.