County Kerry

After our three days in County Cork we travelled the 100Km or so north to County Kerry. We hired a house for the week in Glenbeigh which is a little town on the southern side of Dingle Bay. It's on the Ring of Kerry and there are lots of walks to do and scenic places to visit.

We did a walk around Curra Hill to Rossbeigh.

 

Ireland is renowned for its heather

and donkeys.

 

It was neat having my two children with me on Fathers' Day. 

Later in the week we decided we would try and get to the top of the hill. It's a steep climb up initially but we got good views back to Glenbeigh and I got this long range shot of our house.

We got to what we thought was the top

only to discover that the path went ever upwards.

 Finally we reached the 275 metre summit

 and took the obligatory selfie.

We had pretty good weather for most of the time in Ireland, certainly better than in England and Wales. However on our last full day there it absolutely bucketed down. We drove around the Iveragh Peninsular and had great fun ploughing through the sodden roads. It wasn't a good day for photography though. However to give an idea of how much rain there was, here is the bridge over the Behy early in the week

and after the rain had fallen.

County Cork

I promised Jenny I would post some photos from the last stage of our recent trip. These cover our ten days in Ireland and the first lot are from County Cork. We took Noreen's mother back to Drimoleague where she spent her childhood. We called in to her old local and by wonderful happenstance the only other customer was her long-lost second cousin Denny.

We spent a couple of days with him and his wife who were very hospitable and took us around Kathy's old haunts. This is overlooking the old family farm land.

There is no farmhouse on the site any more but we were able to go in the barn that Noreen's great grandfather built.

Many stories were told and were lapped up by the young people. This bridge is famous in Keane family folklore -

from here Noreen's father poached salmon and sold them to the posh hotel in town for £5 each. Before we took her in on this trip Kathy had never set foot inside the hotel. Nowadays they do a very nice lunch menu.

It was a good place to pick blackberries.

We also visited the site of the old school that Kathy attended. It was demolished in the 60s but the grounds are still there. Kathy remembers having her lunch on this rock in the middle of the stream.

The imposing ruins of Castledonovan are nearby.

Jenny was allowed to drive Denny's ride on grass mower. As you can see she greatly enjoyed the experience.

Lastly, I was tickled by this poster advertising sheep racing. I thought New Zealand had cornered the market in kitsch sheep activities but obviously not. Don't you love the jockeys?

England

Alternative title - walks in Devonshire, as all these photos are from the county of my birth. Firstly a shot from high on Exmoor looking across to the north Devon coast and with Dartmoor away in the distance.

The little town of Lynmouth with its river  

leading out to the sea through a small harbour.

It is connected to Lynton by a water powered funicular railway.

This sign caught my eye -

and here is an example of a Dangerous Seagull - note those evil eyes, ferocious beak and dangling feet looking for mischief to perform.

This a non-dangerous hotel. the Hunters Inn in the Heddon Valley.

After a very pleasant lunch and partaking of some of the excellent local beer, we walked down to the coast with Noreen's brother, sister-in-law and their two dogs.

It had been fairly wet so the river was quite full.

After passing through woodland the river has cut a gorge through to the sea.

It's a rocky coast with views across the Bristol Channel to Wales.

This is me posing and trying not to fall into the water!

Wales

We stayed in a wonderfully rustic cabin at the Penlan Holiday Village. The ladies made a cake

for Gill's birthday party in Maenclochog.

Nearby is the abandoned slate quarry at Rosebush.

We explored when the rain cleared on a wet blustery day.

Nearby is the magical garden of Dyffryn Fernant. Noreen found some of her favourite lacecap hydrangeas (or possibly hydrangeae if we're being pedantic).

We walked part of the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path from Abercastle to Trefin.

There was a short side trip to Carreg Samson, a 5000 year old Neolithic burial chamber.

The views were spectacular. This is looking north across the entrance to Abercastle Harbour.

This lovely cove would only be accessible by bird or boat.

 We refuelled after the walk with Fish and Chips at Porthgain.

Singapore

As promised, here is the first detailed post on our recent trip. We had a stopover in Singapore both on the way out and back, spending two nights each time at the Crowne Plaza hotel at the airport.

We made good use of the very efficient public transport system and did a brief tiki tour around the city. This is the Merlion statue with the impressive Marina Bay Sands hotel and casino across the river.

We spent several hours at the Botanic Gardens and could have stayed there a lot longer if we had had the time. Being in the tropics, the vegetation is lush.

They are renowned for their orchids. My botanical knowledge is sadly lacking – but I’m sure that some of these are orchids. Others probably aren’t.

 

 

 

 

 

While we had lunch in the restaurant (pictured in the earlier post) there was a tremendous thunder storm. As is typical in the tropics it was soon over and we ventured out to discover this lovely lizard looking for food. It was a hefty size, about 60 cm. long I would guess. 

Lastly, no visit to Singapore is complete without sampling a Singapore Sling at Raffles (I had the beer).