Ireland #11 Sheep's Head and more

After Druid's View, we were off to our next destination,

Sheep's Head

It seems that no matter where we drove, 

we saw beautiful views.

Here are some along the drive.

That's Michael up on top of this huge rocky hill.

We stopped to take pictures and Michael took off 

to climb to the top and see the view.

You never know what's going to be around the next bend.

  One minute you'll be seeing mountains and rock,

the next there is water!

The roads got pretty narrow, windy and crazy at times,

but now Dave was driving like a pro.

When he saw this sight, he had to pull over into a little space

at the side of the road.

He was so excited to take some pictures, he pulled over

where he could, not thinking about how I would get out of the car.

He took off on a run to shoot some pictures,

not realizing that there was a proper pull off only about 50 feet ahead.

Since I was on the side of the car away from the road,

which we usually think of as the drivers side, I was up against 

the foliage.  I could only open my door part way, so 

this is the picture I got.

Nice of the roof of the car, isn't it?

He did come back and move the car ahead a little so 

I could actually get all the way out and go take pictures.

And below you see what I shot.

Well worth the wait.

And YES!  the water really is that blue.

It's all so clean and beautiful!

It never ceases to amaze me just how far you can see.

The houses looked so small in the distance.

We continued on and found, you guessed it, more 

beautiful sights.

Gotta have that selfie!

Another thing about Ireland is that you never know 

about the weather.
In the Buffalo, NY area it's always joked that if you 

don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes, it will change.

That isn't so true in Buffalo, but it really is that way in Ireland.

One minute you have this beautiful sight, with nice sun

then it starts to cloud over.

Here come Ed and Roxie back from some exploring and

the sky is starting to get threatening.

What happened to all that bright sunshine?

Still beautiful, but we were heading out pretty quick.

It was getting windy and the rain started just after

we got into the car and on our way.

But it didn't last long.  

This is so typical, sunny, cloudy, rain starts and comes

down pretty heavy and suddenly, it's gone and 

the sun is out again.

Finally, we arrived at Sheep's Head!

I've mentioned before that I have fibromyalgia,

and that walking distance sometimes is a challenge,

but I didn't want to let that stop me from going to see this lighthouse.

From the number of people there, I figured it must be worth the hike.

So along with the others, I headed out.

Roxie and Ed quickly went ahead of us.

I was a bit slower and here is the reason why.

This was no typical hike for me, 

the trails were really just paths up, over and around

rocks.  Some were just ruts in the dirt.

There were a lot of pretty difficult places to maneuver.

This is looking back where I came from.

And ahead to where I was going.

These were the easier spots too.

I really couldn't take pictures at many of the tougher spots,

I really had to concentrate on climbing.

Here is my Sheep's Head I'm proud of myself  selfie.

We went quite a ways and finally asked some people on their

way back, how far to the light house?

They weren't helpful at all, just said

"I'll just say it's down hill"

What? They weren't Irish that's for sure, the Irish wouldn't be like that.

Then we asked a family how far it was and they told us 

"Another half hour or more."

Another couple told us that it was definitely another half hour

or more of a hike and they didn't feel it would be 

worth the trip for me.  They said go to the top of the rise and see what I thought.

At the top of the rise, I could see more of the same terrain 

and knew I didn't want to go farther than that.

Dave and Jane went on and Michael and I stopped to rest.

We sat there and had a nice talk.

Ed and Roxie came past and said it wasn't all that

great, so it was a good thing I didn't go all the way.

Then Michael and I headed back the way we came.

Was I disappointed that I couldn't do the whole hike?

Hmmmm, well, just a little bit.

But when I look at what I had done, 

I was happy and really thrilled with how far

I had gone. My physical therapist, Sue, would be so

proud of what I had accomplished!

Later when we talked about the day, we figured that I had gone 

about 1.25 miles out and 1.25 miles back.

2.5 miles total!

Now, for me, that was huge! 

I will say that the last few hundred feet back to the car

were the toughest.  I wasn't sure I was going to make it,

BUT I DID!!!!

Here are a few pictures from that hike.

Definitely worth it, don't you think?!?!

Once we left Sheep's Head 

we stopped to pick up some picnic supplies

to have a very late lunch along the way.

I found this across from the little grocery store while

I waited for them to come back to the car.

I originally went to take a picture of the flowers,

then I saw the BAAAR on the wall.

That's a little sheep's head next to it.

Love it!

We found a playground with a picnic table 

for our picnic.

After a quick bite to eat and a trip down the slide

for Jane, we were off to our next B&B

Flowers of the Day 

I found these berries when we stopped alongside the 

road to take pictures.  I know they aren't flowers, but 

I thought they were pretty too.

The berries and 2 pictures of flowers below, were found where

Dave had abandoned me, unable to get out of the car.

These were found when we stopped to take pictures

on the way to Sheep's Head.

These last 2 pictures were along the hike.

So pretty!

This, for me, was one of our longest days and it still 

wasn't over. We headed on to our B&B

The Kilcatten Lodge

which ended up being our favorite of the trip.

Once we had checked in, we drove in to

Kinsale and had a nice dinner.

More about Kinsale and

Kilcatten Lodge in my next post.

Thanks for coming and sticking with me all the way to the

end of this post. 

See you next time!