Wednesday, June 21st

After picking up our rental car, we headed west out of Dublin to Tralee, a roughly 3.5 hour drive via N7 to M7 to N21, all tree-lined like those on our East Coast!  When there was a gap in the trees, we could see green pastures, home to sheep, cows & horses, surrounded by low rock walls in a patchwork of grasses!  We parked our car at the train station in Tralee for 9 Euro for a week and walked into the town center for lunch!  Leaving town, we wended our way through narrow streets lined by quaint houses and alongside a canal until the town of Blennerville where we mistakenly missed the trail!  Instead, we walked dangerously along the narrow, heavy trafficked highway where the posted speed was 100 km/hr!  The shoulder at times nearly disappeared forcing us to either cross the highway where the shoulder was wider or walk along an overgrown rock wall!  Having risked our lives for several miles, we stopped at Keanes restaurant & B&B to reassess our options!  I googled this section of the trail and discovered our mistake!  The proprietor gave us directions to rejoin the trail and we were soon on the right path well away from traffic and civilization!  Many miles later we spied our hotel, Railway Lodge, down the hill just on the other side of the highway!  We made a beeline to the hotel, which took us through uneven thick wet bog resulting in wet shoes & socks and a scratch or two!  The hotel was self-check in…thankfully the instruction binder in our room gave helpful information about transportation to & eateries in the nearest town of Camp, about 2 kms away!  To catch the local bus, we stood out in front of our hotel and hailed the passing bus, which stopped in the middle of the highway and waited until we crossed the busy highway & got on the bus - definite heart-pounding!  The bus dropped us off at Junction Bar where we had drinks & dinner overlooking the beautiful, placid Tralee Bay!  We asked whether the weather is always like this, to which the bartender said “yes, always” dripping with sarcasm!  We happily took a taxi safely back to the hotel for a peaceful night’s sleep to the sound of gentle waves!