location: Dunquin to Feohanaghdistance: 15.9 miles
entertainment: A Wise Man's Fear, a cow peering over the pasture fence onto the beach, children running in and out of the pub for snacks on a break from the beach
sights: Smerwick Bay, the Three Sisters, Mount Brandon
lodging: An Riasc
dining: a pub in Ballydavid and The Old Pier Restaurant
route: today's walk was relatively flat compared to the leg from Dingle to Dunquin. we climbed down the hill, past the restaurant we'd eaten at the night before, along narrow country roads for quite some time. past a golf course and clumps of houses. we stopped into one of the ubiquitous, touristy pottery shops along the road to investigate their wares. it was still early enough that no buses had pulled in on the loop around the peninsula and we picked out a pair of mismatched mugs to have shipped home.
much of the day had us following the edge of Smerwick Bay, mostly along beaches dotted with families on some type of holiday. craggy sections of the beach had us climbing up into dis-used and ill-marked pastures and eventually through a clearly beach-holiday-oriented village called Ballydavid. after asking at the local shop about a place to get lunch, we settled down at one of the two pups in town -- the one that offered something approaching lunch. it only did so because they'd worked out an agreement with the restaurant next door. they seemed rather ... perplexed? perturbed? that I asked for something that didn't include any meat. a grandfatherly-looking guy came in with about five kids, ranging in age from about 10 down to two, taking a break from the heat of the beach and enjoying a snack.we'd opted to have one of our two bags transported, but even with the lightened load the heat was draining and we powered through our water without difficulty. switching the weight between us helped the day from getting too long and gave us a great idea for preferred transport methods for the future.
after a nice long rest, it was off the beach and onto clifftops to round out Smerwick Bay and head towards our B&B which wasn't quite in a town, proper, more in a valley dotted by a collection of houses, a pub, and a school. the B&B was very welcoming, very comfortable, and our room had impressive views of the bay, the Three Sisters, and of Mount Brandon.evening: our B&B offered evening meals, but we figured we could find something nearby for dinner. we did, but if we'd known how far back up the road it was, we might have reconsidered. but given how pleasant and delectable our dining experience was, perhaps not.
from the pub on the main road to Dingle, we were directed back up the hill by one of the bar patrons -- the proprietor couldn't think of anyplace with food within walking distance, and for a moment we feared a dull dinner of nuts and whatever remaining morsels we could find in our packs.
The Old Pier Restaurant, however, turned out to provide us with one of the best meals of the trip and one of the more entertaining proprietors. he greeted and seated us in ratty jeans and a t-shirt, all the while asking not to mention is presence to his "boss." he returned about fifteen minutes later in black slacks, black shirt, and apron, and continued to wait on several tables for the course of dinner, including a table of two older couples, an American couple returned to the restaurant after a previous vacation, and a family of six or eight celebrating a birthday of one of the daughters. (she was mortified when they brought out a cake and sang to her at the end of dinner.) the food was fantastic; we'd tried fried brie with cranberries in Dingle but it was a weak, dismal cousin to the scrumptious version we ate the other side of the peninsula. I don't even remember what I ate, but one course involved melon with a mint garnish. and some kind of spectacular, shared dessert. we nearly rolled back to the B&B and had a wonderful night's sleep as a result. good fuel for climbing over Mount Brandon the following day!
