Sandy Beaches & Rip Tides

Yesterday I sent a photo to my sister from a beach that I has just swam from, and she replied ‘Wow, I never thought Ireland was like that!’ And if I am honest neither did I, as I have already written every beach we come across is jaw dropping. I thought we’d seen the best one but in the last 4 days we have seen one after another, so I am dedicating this blog to those beaches and believe me we are still only scratching the surface of coastline.

After spending 2 nights in Killarney where I got to do some much-needed laundry in industrial sized machines that set me back a small fortune we got the chance to meet up with Niamh’s parents who were in the area. We all we went for a lovely 8 mile walk around Muckross Lake right in the centre of the National Park. The Irish when they can, have some great public footpaths – suitable for walking, cycling, wheelchairs and buggies and Killarney National Park has plenty.

Len and Anne persuaded us to ignore the weather warnings and to head to their favourite spot in Kerry – Caherdaniel, where some say has the best beach in Ireland….Derrynane Beach is on the 111 mile long drive of the Ring of Kerry, a most beautiful and extremely popular tourist route with rugged coastlines and rural seaside villages.

Unfortunately, the weather was as forecast- heavy downpours and pretty gusty winds but we decided to stay one night at Wavecrest, which is an outstanding site with very individual pitches looking out onto the wild Atlantic sea. We donned our waterproofs and decided to walk to nearby (turned out 2.5 miles) Reen Beach which was the first of the golden sands and blue waters that we were to see over the next 4 days, and I vowed then that I must always bring my swimmers!

A blustery night spent in our wind-shaken van with rain hammering down and the sound of the sea crashing against the rocks – and I had some thoughts going around my head in the dead of night about motorhomes floating or sinking but we were actually very cosy and got stuck into the latest jigsaw.

Derrynane House was home to Daniel O’Connell, ‘The Liberator’ and father of the Irish Independence Movement. It is now a National Monument and is part of 320-acre national historic park having some beautifully landscaped gardens, nature coastal trails, coves, bays and beaches for swimming, surfing and other water sports. With its size I expect in the summer it never looks crowded like Bournemouth Beach!

Bob got out his metal detector – he has previously spent a few hours scouring the beaches for old relics but mostly finds euros, admittedly he has found enough to pay for a pitch for the night or a few beers.. I alternatively swam in a calm shallow bay followed by a beach walk along the surf sands with George.

We moved on that night driving around the Kerry Ring and wild camped for a couple of nights.

The first stop was between a golf club and a pub on the sea front near Waterville a spot we found on the Park4Night app. Turned out that we ended up next to another Moho exactly the same as ours – even the same age. WE got chatting to the couple, Peter and Jane from Tenby and we agreed to swim together the next morning. Well, this swim almost turned out to be my last!! I have now learnt that I need to check the sea for rip currents! We have had a lot of rain and wind so the sea was quite rough and churned up, but little did I realise that there were sudden dips in the sea causing undercurrents and during my swim the waves pulled me under, it was pretty hard to make my way back to the beach as it kept pulling me back and my feet slipped on the stones underneath. I was lucky to have Peter close by and we both got back safely but it did give me a shock and I have learnt to be more respectful of the sea and the weather.

 Next stop was off the beaten track to Rossbeigh Beach. Sadly, this beach was in the news earlier in the week when a young teenager Jack de Bromhead son of prominent horse trainer died after a tragic accident during a horse beach race. Horse racing on the beach is popular in this part of Ireland due to the very low tides and long white sand beaches. We paid tribute to the memorial they set up along the beach for poor Jack who at 13 was already a well-known jockey in Irish horse-racing world.

Our spot that night was high up in the village in an Aire overlooking the Atlantic – no one else around and a breath-taking view of mountains, sea and long beaches.

We’ve now headed into Dingle peninsular the last part of County Kerry before we hit County Limerick and Clare. Ireland has 4 provinces, Munster, Connaught, Ulster and Leinster and 32 counties. As we are sticking to the coast, we will not get to visit all the counties and may not visit the province of Leinster as we are due to leave Ireland via Belfast. I am loving learning about the geography of this special island and I have read a couple of interesting books along the way to that delves into the history of druids and Celts.

Dingle is ringed by sandy beaches and has the longest beach in Ireland 7.5km of white sand at Stradbally Beach with the nearest town called Castlegregory after a castle of the same name. We stopped for a night parking up at a small site at the back of a pub in Cloghane for a dip in Cappagh Beach before heading to the Maharees home of Stradbally Beach.  

Maharees is a 5km long tombolo jutting out into the Atlantic surrounded by white sand and dunes.  I guess you could compare it to Sandbanks spit and Studland without the houses or tourists and some would say the weather…. but they are blue flag beaches with great swells for all types of water sports.

The weather now is cooler, but we are still in shorts and not at all cold at night, with the recent rain we have got wet and learnt that we don’t do 2 wet walks in one day as then both your pairs of shoes are wet. Luckily a very kindly campsite owner gave us some newspapers for drying our shoes. An abundance of wet clothes is not ideal in a Moho along with a damp dog!

It is surprising how quickly we have got used to living in small spaces…. it’s been 5 weeks since we started, and we have fallen into some kind of routine, we each have our own jobs when moving to another site – luckily mine is not the toilet cassette!