Today we took a tour around The Ring Of Kerry, a (very!) scenic loop road along the coast to the west of Killarney.
The views are extraordinary and (once again) the weather was beautiful. We were on a small group tour in a minibus with a charming guide and everything was great as we drove along, stopping now and then and enjoying the vistas.
In time we arrived at Port McGee, and the Skellig Island visitors center. These are two large rocky islands 12 km off the western coast of Ireland with a rich history and famously were used for filming for episodes 7 and 8 of the Star Wars series.
Part of our tour included a boat trip around (but not actually to) the islands. There had been some doubt if this would happen since the sea was rough, but by the time we arrived the captain had decided to go so on board we went!
Here we are just before setting out for the cruise that ended up taking three hours.
And here we are just offshore from Skellig Michael:
Yep, I’m flat out!
Here’s the story: the sea was rough, the boat was pitching like crazy and not too far after we left the inlet and entered the open ocean I got by far the worst motion sickness I’ve ever experienced. This got progressively worse until I basically passed out and remained on my back for the remainder of the trip, including all the time at the islands!
This means I didn’t get to see the steps carved by monks hundreds of years ago, or the monastery, or the remains of the old lighthouse or even the spot Luke was standing when Rey hands him his light saber! But KLS did, and she got some great photos to show me 🙂
The boat also took us to the other Skellig, which is a marine bird sanctuary, currently housing 50,000 gannets.
I was lucid here and got to see a bit from my prone position! KLS said I was joking a bit, although I don’t recall 🙂
By the way I was hardly the only one that got sick on the boat. In fact 7 of the 9 of us did, including KLS! Almost everyone was carrying (full) sick bags by the end, but I guess I was the only one frail enough to collapse!
At any rate eventually we returned to dry land and within a few minutes I was fine. The tour continued for a few hours back to Killarney and was just as great as it had started.
That’s a local with his pet mountain goat in Sneem. He was a placid handsome beast for us but we heard he sometimes goes almost uncontrollably berserk!
It was a long day but a good one. The Ring Of Kerry is every bit as scenic as you may have heard and surely a highlight of any trip to Ireland. However, you may want to skip the Skellig cruise if there’s even a hint of rough seas 😉
We’re glad you both recovered quickly!!
The scenery is lovely. Enjoying the blog very much.
Not good about the seasickness. Glad you both recovered. The scenery is splendid. Look forward to the next blog.