Yea for Ireland.  The resolution passed!!

When we left our lovely bed-and-breakfast this morning, we went exactly sure what the weather was going to be. We could see clouds over the hills in the distance. There were some great views of the ocean on the side of the house.

On the way to the trail we passed by a home that created a flower garden in the old stone house that was in front of their house.   It was absolutely lovely. How creative people can be.

I took this photo of Mary and Josephine walking up the bi-road ( A road that is designed for two-way traffic) to show you just how narrow these roads are.  Cars actually pass each other on these roads.  So how can you tell an Irish person driving on the road from a tourist.  The Irish people pass each other without even hesitating and the tourists have to stop and try to pull over so the other car go by them. Anyway, we walked up, and up, and up, and up, and up, and up, and up, and up, and up, this road in the morning.

The weather was really beautiful today. We didn’t have any rain at all.   We actually had sunshine.  Here are just a few views for today.

I was told the cows that we saw In the distance were actually cows that were brought here from the Netherlands.

Of course, I had to pay attention to the bees on the flowers again.

We passed by the  Enlighten River.

For most of the day Mary  and I walk in silence and met up with each other to rest and/or take photos.  It is so peaceful to just walk, look at the views and keep walking.  That’s what makes it like the Camino. What’s not like the Camino is that we really don’t see any other people or at least only a few.  And we don’t pass through villages.

We did walk down the side road to the Inch Strand.  Inch comes from the Irish word “Inis”  which means an island.  It is a 5 km (3 miles) long stretch of sandy beach and sand dunes.  I still couldn’t resist taking pictures of sheep on the way down.

We stopped for lunch at the cafe next to Sammy’s dive shop.  This is only the second time that we have had a place for lunch along the way  The following pictures are in attempt to film the beach after we walked up the hill again.   You can see the hills from the  Kerry Way in the distance. They seem to be all covered in clouds just the way they where when we walked them.   By the way, today’s walk is another  part of the Irish Camino.

As we started up another uphill grassy patch and we were just looking at a very black cow with a white face, a woman got out of her car and came running up to us to offer us a ride.  She said that the hill was very long and she would drive us on the road. We declined the ride. Mary took a picture of her with me.  I forgot to ask her name so we  just called her “Kindness.”

Well, she was right that the walk uphill was long and sometimes muddy, but I am glad that we did it.

The distant green hills are so worth seeing. I can’t seem to get enough of them.

We arrived at The Old Anchor Inn by 4:00 today.  The 12 miles we did today with only 1300 feet of elevation gain sure felt longer.  We relaxed for a couple of hours and had a delicious dinner at the Old Anchor while it rains outside.

Annascaul was the birthplace of the Antarctic explorer, Tom Crean and he was nicknamed the “Irish Giant.”  He was part of the major British expeditions to Antarctica at the beginning of the 20th century.  Crean was an important member of Ernest Shackleton’s failed Endurance Expedition (1914 -1916) recognized as a heroic feat of endurance.   During the expedition,  Crean  was selected for the epic open boat journey over 1500 km  (920 miles)  of open Antarctica ocean, considered one of the greatest small boat journeys ever accomplished.  After his retirement from the merchant navy, Tom Crean settled in his home village of Annascual and opened the South Pole Inn, which is as much a museum as a pub.  After dinner we will go there to see the pub.  And then next January – off to Antarctica.

Yea again for the wonderful Irish people.  The resolution passed.  What a historic day!  I am so happy to be in Ireland when this resolution passed by 61% margin.