"In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light" - Mahatma Gandhi

Greetings from the Ring of Kerry! We're officially out on the road now, but we've managed to find internet at a local library in the small town of Cahersiveen.

Over the last two days, we've passed through some incredibly spiritual places. The first was Ballaghisheen Pass, which can only be described as an enormous bowl of a valley.



Passing through it on bike, with no other traffic for miles, makes you feel so incredibly small. The silence, as it mingled with some low clouds, was almost oppresive.



The next place is Skellig Michael, which is a rock jutting out of the ocean 12 km from shore, only accesible by local fisherman's boats. As we approached through the swelling waves in our 25' vessel, it slowly emerged out of the fog. Imposing. Following the initial shock of the appearance out of the fog and the sketchy disembarkment from the boat, we had a climb up 600 stone steps initially laid down almost 1500 years ago by monks seeking solitude in this VERY secluded hinterland.

The monastery at the top could only be described as eerie, like (we would find) many of the spots here in Ireland. We heard one of our fellow travellers refer to it as "the Machu Picchu of Ireland". If eerie isolation for the purposes of contemplation is what these monks were after, then we couldn't imagine a better spot. We couldn't even figure out how they got here in that day and age, or what they ate while they lived here! Amazingly, the settlement was in full operation for about 600 years.





The Skellig Rocks, in addition to being a geological curiosity and historical monument, are also a bird sanctuary. Of the many seabirds there, possibly the most interesting were the puffins. Puffins! The island was covered in them! Monika took about 7314 pictures of them! "Like flying penguins," she called them. Not exactly the most graceful birds. I watched one try to land on a step. It basically just slammed into the side of it, though, and slid down. It kept flapping its wings for about 10 more seconds, maybe thinking it could still recover, until it finally gave up and flopped down into the flower bush below.



The Small Skellig is the breeding ground for garnets, and they flock to it by the thousands. In the photo on the left, the white that seems to coat the cliff like icing is actually flocks of the bird.

"It's Ireland, we can have four seasons in one day." - Old Man O'Sullivan (the nice man who rented us our bikes)



Today the weather was much nicer. We did our first tour today, covering 50 km which included the Gap of Dunloe. The Gap is basically a valley pass among the mountains south-west of Killarney. Despite Monika's belief that riding through a valley should be pretty flat, there was a surprising amount of climbing!



We had plenty of sun at first, then suffered through a quick chilly shower, and later through winds that were blowing at approximately 1903 km/h. These photos are shots of some of the scenery from the Gap. Afterwards, we cycled our way (downhill) into the national park, which also had some beautiful views as well as some very friendly wildlife.



Here's a deer that I thought was gonna bolt as soon as I got within 10 m, but he was very content to just stand right next to me and keep munching on his oh-so-green Irish grass.Other wildlife encountered in the park included all sorts of birds, a goat, a chipmunk, and, yes Monika, even some sheep. ("Yey, sheep!!" - Monika)



So this will be our last blog probably for at least 5 days. We are hoping to embark, weather-permitting, on our cycle-tour of the Ring of Kerry tomorrow. Make sure to check back after that, as those photos promise to be spectacular!

"It always rains on tents. Rainstorms will travel thousands of miles, against prevailing winds for the opportunity to rain on a tent." - Dave Barry



So today was our first official venture into cycle-touring. According to locals, it was also one of the worst days of rain they've seen here in years.

Either way, after spending last night in a hostel, we spent today figuring out everything we'd need to start travelling self-sustained by bike. We got our bikes, helmets, pannier bags, and some food, and set out to find a campground. We also made some unplanned purchases: tarp (essential), and waterproof cycling pants (even more essential). When we arrived at a camping and caravan park, and asked for a campsite the reponse was "oh, you're brave". But the site operator even found us a piece of ground that wasn't too wet, so we pitched our tent and have been going through our gear to figure out if there's anything else we might need before setting off too far from the main local town, Killarney.

Tomorrow, the forecast calls for 'showers' only, which is apparently a much better sign than the 'rain' they forecast for today. So we're hoping to get our first bit of real touring in (as opposed to just riding back and forth between the town and the campsite). Stay tuned...

As our plane descended below the clouds upon our final approach to Cork, we caught our first glimpse of Ireland. Irregularly shaped plots coated the softly rolling countryside like the patchwork of some vast quilt. This land was indeed green, in fact each farm seemed to advertise its own particularly unique shade of it. The Atlantic, off to the south of this part of the island, was reasonably calm. The waves betrayed no signs of white-caps until they broke into foam along the sheer brown stone cliffs of the coast.

"I hope we see sheep," Monika cut in. "I think, as long as we see some really white sheep on the side of a really green hill, I'll be happy".

By this time, we were finishing our descent and the pilot jerked the plane down for a particularly rough touchdown. Passengers exchanged furtive glances, some sharing nervous chuckles which seemed to communicate thoughts like 'hehe... ok, I wasn't the only one to think that was little much..." Within a moment, our faithful pilot chimed in in that characteristic drolling voice that I swear aircraft crews all around the world must practice: "Lllladies and gentlemen, in case you hadn't noticed, we've landed in Cork". That broke the tension, and we all shared in a hearty laugh.