The midges came back with the sunrise so we left pretty promptly on Wednesday morning. We drove to Gour Viewpoint via Castletownbere, which is a sweet harbour town that had its own van parking spots (P4N#90963). It’s a working harbour and famous, apparently, for MacCarthy’s Bar ( name of a novel by Pete McCarthy) and it also had a garage that Maria and Jane needed to call into.

We then drove onto the Ballagh Bay Cable Car to get over to Dursley Island. Unfortunately, the 1960s cable car had a mechanical fault and stopped working just before we arrived. It was a shame as it had been a long drive down narrow lanes.

We decided to move on to find a spot for lunch and stopped at Ballydonegan beach. Beautiful place where the sand is actually made from crushed quartz from the nearby copper mines.

The copper mine industry in nearby Allihies in the 1700s was one of the biggest in Europe at the time. The Copper Mine Museum in this brightly coloured town was very informative and you could then walk on trails to some of the ruined mines. Very evocative.

We then headed back towards Castletownbere via Dooneen and Travara Beach as our night stop was Berehaven Golf Club (P4N:79035).

They had set up an aire in the Golf Club car park with all the facilities and they even leave the club house open at night so you can use the showers and toilets. There’s an honesty box to pay the €25 nightly fee. They even encourage campers. We did learn from a regular visitor that the club got a grant to make the track to the club a proper road on the understanding they developed the camping side. Great facility and lovely golf club. We ate in the van again as the restaurant at the club is only open at weekends.

The next morning, Thursday May 7th, we played 9 challenging holes with some stunning views over to Bere Island.

After availing ourselves of another shower (get them whilst you can) we set off at around 14.00 to tour the north side of the Beara Peninsula. We went in search of Cuas Pier caves that involved very narrow lanes with few passing places but sadly didn’t find them. We stopped for lunch at Killmackillogue Discovery Point with views over to the Kerry Peninsula. Later we spent a very pleasant hour or so in Kenmare with its pretty houses and tourist shops before making our way towards Moll’s Gap, high up in the hills.

Our stopover for the night was a large lay-by off a road near to the Gap overlooking Lough Barfinnihy. (P4N#406844). We arrived around 18.00 and there was only a couple of spots left as a number of cars were parked there for fishing in the lake. They left before dusk and several more vans arrived. A pretty, remote spot but again the midges descended!

Miles since last blog: 102

Miles this trip: 825