Beara

What can I say about our stay on the Beara Peninsula? It couldn't be more different from Amsterdam. 4 and a half hours is a long drive, but it is so worth it. And then when you're there, there are 4 different roads to get to the pub and the one that Google Map chooses is the one-track road that goes up and down a mountain!

Deb and I had a wonderful time out on Beara. The weather was beautiful, the light amazing, the scenery spectacular. On our first morning in our AirBnB, I woke up at 7 am to find Deb painting the view from our porch. It was that kind of a place. The birds were singing, the cows in the field across the road were watching Deb. Heaven.

We drove crazy roads, sketched everywhere we stopped, and we stopped at every bend with enough space to pull over. We went to a pottery with nobody there - just an honesty box if you wanted to buy anything. And we sketched. There was a wedding in Eyeries - the dog groomer marrying the plumber, quite the event! In the evening, we went back to the same pub, and ended up driving up and down boreens on the side of another mountain!

The next day, the sun wasn't shining but the light was still strong. We drove the Healy Pass, a piece of cake compared to the road to the pub. After a short break in Castletownbere, where the light hitting the sea was otherworldly, we drove back to Eyeries and sketched some more! At that stage, my back was twinging and we spent a quiet afternoon at our AirBnB, painting some more!

It's hard to describe the feeling of our stay. Rain or shine, the West is always achingly beautiful. And Beara has a wilderness about it that makes my heart skip a beat. So different from the Dingle Peninsula, with its peaceful landscape and fabulous beaches. But a special place that will always stay with me.

After 3 nights, it was time to drive back to Dublin. It was raining anyway. And thank god for a heated car seat!