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Happy Valley
Kenmare - The Rainbow's EndKenmare
Kenmare is a picture perfect touristy town where we stayed after driving around the Ring of Kerry and before driving around the Beara Peninsula. It's an ideal place to stay if you are planning on doing one or both of those drives although a little on the expensive side due to so many people having the Ring of Kerry on their Irish itinerary.
From Kenmare, we headed to Glengarriff, about 13 miles south, to see Ilnacullin, the fabulous botanic garden on Garnish Island. We did this right when the ferry started running and had the island all to ourselves with the exception of one other couple.
After Glengarriff, we drove on towards Adrigole where we followed the signs for Healy Pass, a twisty nausea inducing road with a "thank God we survived that" statue of the Virgin Mary at the top, the only thing crazier than driving it is riding up it on your bicycle, my muscles groaned just looking at the two men we saw doing that. After descending, we followed the Ring of Beara signs and drove this insanely narrow loop between Ardgroom and Eyeries where I was dismayed to find no open restaurants but at least they were thoughtful enough to have public toilets otherwise I'd have been flashing some sheep.
From Eyeries, we continued following the signs for the Ring of Beara, I think by this time we were getting a bit tired of being in the car and we didn't make a stop except to get gas and a disturbingly unhealthly lunch of potato chips and soda in Glengarriff before driving to our destination for the evening, Blarney.
