June 12, 2025
Kenmare to Killorglin
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Things continue to look up. We had a good sleep. After commenting a day or two ago that Irish hotels always have a tea kettle and cups in the room, Davitt’s did not and we had to pull out our portable kettle and drink tea out of the water glasses.
We went down for another made to-order breakfast at 9 am. I had vegan avo(cado) toast with chickpeas and Dave had the mini-Irish - which wasn’t that mini:
The pots of tea continue to be a highlight for me on the food front, as do soda and brown breads.
It was another really good route and the forecast had low risk of rain so we were feeling quite cheerful as we made our way to our bikes which were crammed under the servants' stairs!
Our first stop was 1 km away where we were on the lookout for another three-pronged adapter. We had prepared for Irish electrical outlets by bringing three adapters: (one for each of us for our electronics and an extra, because we always lose adapters). We had forgotten that our e-bike battery chargers (purchased in Europe) would need adapters as well. The e-bike batteries charge really slowly so it’s inconvenient to have to fuss with it every night. For two weeks we have been limping along on three adapters. Sometimes the hotel will loan us one, if we remember to ask. The charging routine, both for our phones, tablets, bike batteries, and miscellaneous electrical gear is a bit of a process. It’s mostly Dave’s task, with a little unappreciated input from me, and after some major fussing around in our room last night we decided we really needed another Irish/British adapter. I researched this and found a pharmacy that allegedly had them and we rode out there first thing today. Dave didn’t even need to go into the pharmacy as the phone store next door had them.
So - we now have four, but given our penchant for attrition it remains to be seen how long we will have them. (So far, we have lost two adaptors in Europe, for which I take full responsibility). The issue is aggravated here in Ireland because there are not very many outlets in Irish hotel rooms, so we find ourselves spending a fair amount of time in the afternoon and evening unplugging lamps and tv’s and shifting cords and chargers around the room. It all gets done, just not quickly.
The ride out of Kenmare was great and we had a fun climb over Moll’s Gap which was cloudy but rainfree.
At the top though for the descent into the Black Valley it started to rain in that typical Irish way: a steady drizzle. We donned our booties and adjusted our hoods (mine inside my helmet this time!) The road was great with no traffic but it was cold. It stopped raining at the bottom and then the rest of the day was A plus. It started to brighten up enough so we could see how pretty the Black Valley was.
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As we approached the Gap of Dunloe we started to see more tourists. Horse-drawn carriage rides were obviously a thing here as we passed a number of carriages over the next 15 km. The only downside to this was the resulting horse manure which added a layer of slickness to the already wet roads. Later when we descended we had to carefully pick our way around it, bringing back bad memories to Dave. He broke his scapula in a bike crash in Denver a few years ago after slipping on some goose poop.
We climbed up a beautiful ridge and during the entire climb we could see the whole valley below.
After the Gap of Dunloe we found an awesome pub, Kate Kearney’s, and split a pint of local IPA and a bowl of carrot coriander soup with bread, this soup combination obviously being in vogue at present. It was a touristy but pleasant stop and as we were kitting up for the last 15 km push, we met a crew of North Dakotans on a tour with their University’s Alumni Association. This made me very glad I was traveling by bicycle rather than on a tour bus!
The last 15 km was a breeze and we cruised into the village of Killorglin right at 3 pm. Our accommodations that night were at the Kingston Boutique Townhouse, which sounds fancier than it was. It was a few rooms attached to a traditional pub, but the rooms and bathrooms were pretty modern. Our room was down a hall marked for rooms 201 to 207, but we had room 208. Due to the inaccurate signage it took us forever to find our room and we wandered down three hallways and stairways before we finding our room.
The room was very small with no windows but it had a large skylight which Dave managed to open.
We learned later during the dinner hour that we were above the kitchen and could smell the pizza and everything else being prepared. In the middle of the night it started to rain, so water started pouring in on my side of the bed through the open skylight. I had to nudge Dave awake and he managed to close the skylight, but we lost the use of one (now soggy) blanket.
(Dave here: It was clear to me that this room was an afterthought for the hotel, as evidenced by the fact that the signs for directing guests to their rooms only went as high as 207 and we were in 208. I think it was formerly a utility closet that someone thought could be converted and rented. As Jill noted, there were no windows and when we were forced to close the solitary skylight, the room became stuffy and the odors from the kitchen below us lingered unpleasantly. I was singularly unimpressed.)
What can I say: not my most successful accommodation selection! Dave’s theory is that when you book through booking.com you get the worst room. I think that is true sometimes. The problem is that booking directly with hotels is just so much fussier and harder to keep track of when you are making a lot of arrangements. The standardized way booking.com handles details is much easier for me to manage. It’s a bit like Amazon and Airbnb: You’d rather not use the service but it becomes pretty hard to avoid it.
The pizza and salad we had in the crowded pub was delicious although I declined to try the pizza special of black pudding pizza!
Irish pubs are the social center of these small towns and the food quality and diversity has uniformly exceeded our expectations. Dave had a nice chat with the bar tender and enjoyed a wee dram of Yellow Spot 12 year old whiskey.
Today's ride: 43 km (27 miles)
Total: 1,461 km (907 miles)
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