Ring of Kerry - 3 days of cycling and sheeps
What to do in Ireland when you have 3 days off and evey flight is too expensive?
My suggestion is: explore!
Ireland is a great place to get lost in the nature, enjoy the green of the grass and the blue of the sea.
This time we picked Ring of Kerry and, for the first time, we decided to explore by BIKE.
The Ring of Kerry, according to the Wild Atlantic Way Website, can be done in 3 to 5 days by bike.
Here is what we manage to do in 3 days (it can easily accomodate also a 4 days tour due to the lenght of the Day 2 piece)
Take a train from Dublin to Killarney with Irish Rail - not cheap but definitely convenient. We reached Killarney at about midnight and we went straight to the Sugan B&B, nothing fancy but it served the purpose of a good night sleep.
We rented the bikes from O’Sullivan Cycle - great quality, bags included and good price.
We then started biking towards are first stop, Cahersiveen.
The initial part of the ring is into Killarney National Park and we take at first the wrong way (of course...). However, this allows us to discover Ross Castle, an enchanted corner of the park, and meet some new friends: a herd of deers, quitely observing us as curious about human as we are about them.
We then continue thoughout a Golf park and on then on the official Ring towards Rossbeigh Strand.
Often you would cycle on the normal car road, but look out for the “bike path” indications: they lead you to bike ways that are safer and more enjoyable then the car way.
We reach Cahersiveen around 4, after 6 hours biking.
We stay at San Antoine B&B - a charming family-run B&B just at the end of the town.
The room is huge and clean, the owner is very nice and gives us valid suggestions both for the evening and the day after.
We get a pint at Mike Murt's, the oldest-looking pub I’ve ever seen, and an honest burger at Frank’s Corner.
After the first day we are very tired, but also proud: it is our first attempt of bikepacking and we successfully completed our first day.
We don’t know yet that the part of the Ring done on Day 1 is the flattest...
After a restoring sleep and a fat breakfast, we jump back on our bikes.
The initial plan is to follow the Ring of Kerry, cutting down from Cahersiveen to Waterville, but the owner of the B&B strongly suggests us to do a small deviation and head to Valentia Island and the Skellig Ring. “You’d be only adding 15 miles and it is really worth it” he says.
So, we decide to follow his suggestion.
We head towards Valentia Island - it can be reached with a short ferry trip from Cahersiveen and then it is linked to the Skelling Ring through a bridge on the other side of the island.
The suggested way is undoubtly beautiful: we get amazing views onto Skelling Island, we climb Kerry’s cliffs (and yes, they are steep - we had to jump off the bikes), we get to taste local chocolate production at Skelling Chocolate Factory, we run down the same cliffs at about 40km/h.
However, the deviation adds around 40 km to our planned route.
We finally reach our B&B, right outside Sneem, around 4 pm - and we are litterally dead...
Luckily Miranda, our amazing host, can arrange in no time a taxi drive to Sneem town to get some dinner.
By the way, Miranda has 3 dogs and 2 horses as pets...
After the long ride of Day 2, when we notice that we have only 46 km in front of us, we are relieved and conviced it will be an easy ride.
The last 46 km bring us towards few peaks and then back again into Killarney National Park.
The way is going partially up but it is not extremelly steep, and it is empty from cars for most of the time.
We really feel like we are riding through the Lord of the Ring scenaries.
We reach again Killarney around 2 pm - after few stops at the great view points along the way (like Molls Gap or Ladies’ View)
In total, we cycle for 207.5 km, which makes me very proud of my cycling skills.