Day 21: Killarney to Caha Pass. 28 miles, 808 miles total.


As of that morning Wildcamping-7 nights, Campgrounds-6 nights, Youth Hostels-2 nights, Hotels-5 nights. 20-nights total.

Day 21 would be the shortest riding day of the tour, also one where I didn't take enough photos. I think I got co-opted by the scenery, as seen here looking back towards Killarney and Upper Loch Lein.





This was taken from Moll's Gap, coming up and going away. There was a restaurant there I shoulda got a photo of. And plot forshadowing; I met a retired German couple there, touring on bikes and headed for Cherbourg like me. They were going to take the ferry from Rossclare, they didn't know about the ferry from Cobh.





Likewise no photos of the town of Kenmare, a bustling picturesque old tourist town at the top of Kenmare Bay.

There I saw a sign for a wildlife cruise of Kenmare Bay, leaving in about two hours, so I hung around and somehow the only photos I got of town was of the dock from the cruise boat.



So far as wildlife, the views were a tad underwhelming, the real focus being a resting point for a group of bored harbor seals....



My motive for going was a chance to see an eagle, but it turned out I missed them here too by about two weeks. I did see an Arctic tern, the best bird of the trip (way too far out for a pic). This area hosts the southern-most breeding colony of that bird, and to understand why they breed there at all one has to consider just how far north the British Isles really are and then how much the moderate climate owes to the Gulf Stream.

What I was really looking at; the amazing interplay of sky, landscape and water....