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The day dawned breezy but sunny and warm. We had quite a trek ahead of us today as we planned to take a small ferry  across to Cape Clear Island. This is the most southerly part of Ireland. Accordingly we set off fairly early (does 09:00 count as early?) and headed off down the N71. We tried to make good time with regular short stops, you know the pattern by now. We stopped at Ross Carber to eat at a picnic table in the bay. It was sunny but the sea breeze meant we were reluctant to stay too long. After Skibbereen the road to Baltimore was awful. Our first real taste of how poor some roads in Ireland are, and made worse by the incredible density of traffic. I had to look at the map twice to convince myself that we weren't heading for a major city.
Where were all these people going? All was revealed when we arrived at Baltimore.

The harbour was mobbed, a pipe band played and over 1000 tourists milled around. 
In due course a small ferry boat arrived and we bobbed over the ocean waves to the Island.
This is a small rocky outcrop from the sea with the most unbelievably steep roads cut in to the rock face. The hostel is a small stone built building in the south harbour. Idyllic, beautiful, use whatever words you like but they will not be enough to describe the location.
Alan and Trevor made the meal tonight with a Mexican theme. Complete with Tequila Slammers. Alan had brought a whole bottle of Tequila and some little plastic glasses with LEDs in the base which flash when you slam the glass down. It's this attention to detail which makes Trevor and Alan the best hostel cooks in the world.

In such a remote location you'd normally expect us to have a quiet night in. However this location is so perfect there's a  pub just ten minutes walk up the hill. That's where we went to end a perfect day.

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I awoke in the morning to the sound of someone having a shower. But why were they doing this in the dorm? No, it wasn't a shower, it was raining. Either that or we were at 10,000 metres and surrounded by cloud.

The ferry crossing back to Baltimore was pretty rough, I found leaning over the rail helped, you get the picture! When we reached Skibbereen it was still raining so we went in to Fields teashop which was connected to a supermarket. Alan got pretty excited when he saw Carol Vorderman with her children in the supermarket. Bert and Trevor then had a sudden need to buy things which were available in the supermarket too so that left me on my own with a large pot of tea.
When the celebrity watchers returned we trudged out in to the street and navigated a surprisingly hilly N71 North to Bantry. I think there may have been views at the summit but they were lost to us in the general mist / cloud thing that was going on.
Bert and I did the shopping here and of course we hit a tea room again. Eventually we had to push on but the rain had topped by the time we reached Murphy's Independent Hostel, Glengarriff.

When we arrived we had all looked at each other, no one said it but we all thought 'Oh no!' The place was like a dump, no really I mean it. Old fridges and bicycles lying around rusting, rotting fruit in wooden boxes. If the outside of the hostel was like this then what would the inside be like? As it happens the inside was much better, not the cleanest place we've been but acceptable. Just don't look out the windows and you're OK.
Bert and I cooked. The starter was celery soup with warm bread then the main course, Irish stew with home made  dumplings and new potatoes. To finish muffins with custard and the whole meal washed down with Guinness.

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When we woke the sky was mostly blue with only a little broken cloud. We took a photo as we so often do, but the photo we took was from the front of the hostel, the scene at the back was not a pretty sight. Then we took to our heels along the R road to Adrigole.
From Adrigole we took the winding road up to Healy Pass, the most magnificent pass I have ever climbed. The road twists this way and that but always the gradient is sensible. There is a bridge at the summit and you pass almost directly under it when you are still 800m by road from it, (and 100m below it). You are able to see the view in every direction as you climb without any twisting of your head, the man who designed it was a genius. There is a small shop at the summit where ice creams are available.

The view to the north from here is breathtaking, with Kenmare Bay below and MacGillycuddy's Reeks on the horizon. 

The sun continued to shine as we made our descent to the sea, we stopped for a pint of Guinness at a harbour pub near Bunaw. 
Bert almost fell asleep on the harbour wall, perhaps he did? The water was lapping gently against the harbour wall, the sun was burning down, the Guinness was cool and there was not a breath of wind. Just look at the photo.

Alan and I sent text messages to Tucker describing the scene, Tucker was at work at the time, some would call this cruel.
It was nearly 15:00 when we left so Bert and Alan put on a burst of speed and we reached Kenmare by 16:10. This was a busy place full of tourists, Alan and Trevor did the shopping while Bert and I lounged in a park near the centre of town. Now every one has seen signs which say 'No Dumping', they're usually in lay-bys or down side roads. Well for the first time ever, I saw a 'No Dumping' sign fixed to the side of the public toilets, well it made me laugh.
Once the shopping was complete we resumed our journey exploring the great N71 and made the long ascent up to Moll's Gap. Spectacular scenery and far below us in the valley we could see the road to the hostel. It took much longer than I expected to get down to the valley floor, partly due to the almost non existent road surface. 

After going down so far we then of course had to climb back up in the Black Valley to reach the beautiful hostel. We were  completely surrounded on all four sides by mountains, at night it was totally quiet and still.
Trevor and Alan went daft with the cooking tonight. There was cooked cold rice which was pressed in to a bowl then turned out on a plate with fancy stuff on top.. It was a cross between Nouvelle Cuisine and Cordon Bleu cooking, magnificent!