Missed the kayak Olympic qualifiers so I did this in Kenmare instead
So as you may have noticed there wasn’t an update yesterday, but we’re back today!
Yesterday during the day we really didn’t do that much, and considering we were hanging out at the Airbnb in the morning, and went back to explore more of Dingle during the day (which you’ve seen before!) I decided to not bother with taking any clips and photos and just have a chill day.
The evening of the 27th, however, was most definitely eventful, and also the reason we started the day relatively late. With our evening plans, we weren’t expecting to be able to go to bed until at least 1am the next day. And that was because we were going nighttime kayaking! The tour left from just out of Kenmare, which is around an hour from our cottage, so it made the whole thing a 6 hour round trip. We got into Kenmare around 6:30pm, had a wander around the town and had a look in a few shops before getting some food from a pub I’d say around 7:30pm. From there we headed out to the pier, as the tour started at 9pm. I was already so tired by then, and to think I had to be awake for another 5 hours was very daunting! We found the pier no problems, and got fitted with our kayaking gear. This included a waterproof sort of skirt which hooked around the outside of the kayak to stop any water from dripping on you, and a rain jacket. Honestly, we all looked completely ridiculous, but it was a good ice breaker for the group. Soon we were off, and had a couple of minutes just around Kenmare Bay, getting our bearings and making sure we knew how to steer the kayaks.
Our main guide, Jamie, was wonderful, I love it when you do tours with people who clearly love what they do and just want to share their passion with as many people as they can. Turns out he was born in Scotland, btu used to do guiding in both Nepal and Uganda, before coming to Ireland to start his own kayaking business. We learnt so much about the bay itself, both historically and mythologically from Irish guide Roan. It was also amazing to spend some quiet moments in the bay as the night progressed and just take in our surroundings. The weather was absolutely stunning for us, not a cloud in the sky, not a breath of wind. Having moments of stillness within the chaos of a road trip was really nice, I’m going to try to find more of these going forward. The sky was so clear, the stars were so bright later in the evening. Though it was discomforting not being able to find the Southern Cross.
Right at 11pm when the sun was finally completely set, we started to be able to see the bioluminescence of the plankton in the bay as well, which was most of the reason why we wanted to do the night tour instead of one during the day. It’s different to seeing the glow of fireflies, plankton don’t illuminate unless the water around them is disrupted. This meant it was only around our kayaks and paddles that we actually saw it. It also wasn’t quite like light, more like bright sparkles in the water. As it got darker the sparkles got brighter, and if you dipped the end of a paddle in the water as you went, you got a gorgeous trail of light behind you. It was so magical, I didn’t end up doing much paddling at the end, I just wanted to watch the water. It was almost even more special that it wouldn’t show up on a phone camera. I had to be completely absorbed in the moment knowing I wouldn’t be able to look back on it later.
We made our way back to the pier by around 11:30pm, and by the time we got all our gear back and kayaks put away, we had passed midnight. I knew it was really late when we were driving back to our Airbnb and I started getting notifications from people back in Perth starting the day. I was expecting to crash right as we got back, but I think my body clock was so messed up it just thought ok right it’s the next day let’s go. Honestly I don’t think I was able to go to sleep until after 2am, but I know I slept well because my alarm actually woke me up at 9am. I probably ended up getting 6.5-7 hours of sleep, which isn’t actually that bad, but I really could’ve done with a couple of hours more.
But that wasn’t an option unfortunately, because today we set off from Dingle to Limerick! Only half an hour out of Dingle was Tralee, where we found a cute café to have breakfast (and caffeine). I was elated to find that they had waffles AND iced lattes on offer, which was a welcome surprise from the Irish breakfasts and lattes. Though both are yummy, I haven’t had a sweet breakfast for a good couple of months, so it just hit the spot. I also really liked the small amount of Tralee that we saw. The café had al-fresco dining onto the street and the sun was so lovely all the locals were out and about. Immaculate vibes. Unfortunately the coffee was very much below average, and I wouldn’t call myself a coffee snob by any means. I am looking forward to being back in one spot for longer periods of time so I can justify buying some oat milk and making a yummy one!
After brekkie we continued onto Limerick. The drive today wasn’t long, nor complex. We stuck to the major roads and only took a couple of detours, the major one to be able to go along the coast of the peninsula. It was only 10 or so minutes later, and honestly it just felt weird to say that the drive for the day was 1.5 hours. There wasn’t too much to stop and look at on the way, which I wasn’t too annoyed about considering the lack of sleep, I was looking forward to having some downtime at our next Airbnb.
Arriving in Limerick my first impressions are it’s what I expected Dublin to be. It’s a much bigger town than I expected, especially because now we’re so close to Galway we didn’t expect such a major town, but here we are. To be fair we didn’t do a lot of research on Limerick as a place, so I’m not surprised we’ve been wrong, but I guess being in very small towns for the last week we’ve just expected that’s what’s going to happen. I forget Ireland has cities! We haven’t done much exploring yet, I think downtime was very necessary this afternoon, but I think we’ll head out into town tonight for dinner and get some of the vibes of the area. Tomorrow I’m not sure how much time and exploring we’ll actually do within the town, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of interest on first glance, but we’re hoping on being able to see the Cliffs of Moher on a day trip. We’ll see how it goes!
For now I’m on an insanely comfy couch at our lovely Airbnb apartment in Limerick, watching the Gaelic football final and the Australian women’s rugby and checking out what’s in the area. Some downtime finally!
See you tomorrow!
Currently MIA,
Lauren x
