Dingle Way - day 1 - Tralee to Camp

We left our Airbnb and headed to the other end of town to find the starting point for the Dingle Way. The initial few days also are called the Kerry Camino as people trekked this way to head to mainland Europe to get to Santiago de Campostella in Spain. Tralee seems like a nice town, particularly around the old center. Today there was a race taking place near the market. We saw bikers and rowers on the canal that runs into town. The rowers appeared to be high school students practicing.

The first few miles of our 12.75 were fairly level and paved: town sidewalks, the path along the canal, and some country roads. Eventually we made our way to a path on a hillside and were back on rocky, muddy, sometimes water filled surface. We were back with the sheep and cows, and all of their droppings. No gates on this trail but lots of stiles to climb over.

Fortunately, while it was cool when we started (49 deg), it was dry with the chance of rain not picking up until mid afternoon. It was a beautiful day for hiking. Evidently, the past week had been very wet. We managed to get to our B&B before the rain, which didn't come until late afternoon. For almost the entire day we had views of the water, first the bay and then the open Atlantic. It was a very exposed walk so grateful for the weather.

The Dingle Way is a loop and the last day overlaps part of the first day so we countered a number of hikers finishing up. We only saw a dutch couple, Dick and Josine going our way.

We stopped at the local bar/restaurant right across from our B&B before checking in to have a pint and watch the ocean. The Guinness tastes better here after my 2 day sampling. We were the first to arrive at the b&b and were greeted by the proprietor, John Doyle. The only room he could give us when I booked was a 2 room suite, fully equipped, with views of the ocean. I could live here. John said he was expected 22 people for the night - all hikers, I believe. This Camp Junction B&B is absolutely beautiful and the breakfast we had was made to order and fantastic.

Around 6:00, we went down for dinner across the road. The food (and beer) was good. We did meet a couple other hikers, including a couple from North Carolina whose luggage had gotten lost with the airline. They spent the morning shopping for essential clothing. After dinner, we went a short piece down the road to a small pub, the Railway Tavern. John said we should check it out, not many like it left. We ended up with there being 8 hikers as the only patrons. The Dutch couple, the North Carolina couple, and 2 women from British Columbia. The bartender was 18 year old Orlagh, a college student who didn't drink. She was serious about playing Gaelic football so she avoided alcohol. She had been working at the bar for about 5 years. A very nice girl, talkative.

A few other bits:
- I omitted bogs from the descriptions of the trail. At one point, one of my poles sunk about 15 inches into the ground.
- blackberries: we have seen them in all our treks this trip, mostly as part of a hedge row. Today they were especially good.Read more