The Ring of Kerry

We made it! All 110 miles!

Emily and I started early Thursday morning by catching the 7 AM train to Killarney. Once we arrived, we had a high protein breakfast and then picked up our bikes. We got a kick out of the guy renting a bike in front of us. Here we were thinking about our daunting 110 mile, 4 day bike ahead of us and when the foreign guy in front of us rented his bike, the salesman asked where he was biking to. He casually said, 'The Ring of Kerry'. The salesman said, 'Thats 110 miles. You would have had to have trained for months to be able to do that in a day. And you only rented the bike for the day- we close at 6 PM!' Off the guy went (in his jeans) and said 'Amateurs!' (We later found out that he returned at 3:30 that afternoon and said 'I did it!'... no telling where he actually went!)

The first day was tough. We biked 40 miles- Killarney to Kenmare to Sneem. There was one huge hill called 'Moll's Gap' pretty early on. I told Emily, this is where I started to regret my decision! My bike was in its absolute lowest gears and I wasn't getting anywhere very fast. After four hours, we made it to Sneem- exhausted! A man outside a restaurant said to us, 'I'm glad to see you two made it. You looked like you were struggling up Moll's Gap!' (Yes, yes, we were!) We stayed at the nicest B&B in Sneem owned by the sweetest lady. Right away she offered us tea and 'biscuits' (cookies) and really was extremely hospitable.

Getting back on the bike the next morning was TOUGH. Our bottoms were not happy! We had a short day and biked on to Waterville. We passed the most gorgeous views along the way. Most of this trek was along a coastal road so we could see the beautiful blue water as we were biking. After playing with our B&B owner's puppies for about 2 hours, we crashed and took a 2 hour nap! This brought us to dinner time. Emily decided we should dress down to go out to eat since we had packed so few clothes. I ended up wearing the same outfit to dinner as I did to bed as I did the next day. Don't judge me!!

Saturday we biked a long trek from Waterville to Glenbeigh. We joked that this was our 'uphill' day because looking at a map, we were going mostly north (thus it looked like we'd be going all uphill). It really wasn't so bad though. At one point, we decided to follow signs off our route to the Beach of Kells. We started about a two mile STRAIGHT downhill descent and quickly started regretting our decision (we would have to eventually climb back up those hills!!) Our time on the beach was worth the tough climb out. It was undescribably beautiful. I'm lucky I can't post pictures in a way because they really wouldn't do it justice. All along the rest of our trip, Emily was saying how she needed to find a single farmer to marry for his scenic view! Between the green grass, the blue sky, and the mountains in the distance, its really the perfect combination.

This morning was one of our toughest days. After biking Glenbeigh back to Killarney, we decided to also try the Gap of Dunloe. This added about 20 miles onto our other 110 miles. It was worth it in the end, but the Gap of Dunloe has hills in it that I guarantee would challenge and possibly defeat Lance Armstrong. We were completely maxed out. By the time we cycled into Killarney to turn in our bikes, we were EXHAUSTED. I don't know if I will be able to move tomorrow, but the experience was totally worth it. I kept thinking to myself 'this just can't be real'. God sure did bless the country of Ireland!