Day trip to Dunloe

"Would you be interested I a day trip to Dunloe?", our innkeeper Mary asked yesterday when we discovered that after a small change of plans that we would have all of Saturday free. "It involves a small boat ride across the lakes and a pony and cart ride through the gap." 

Without hesitation, not knowing how long it would take, or even what "the gap" was, I said "Sure!" I explained to Mike what little I knew about the trip and he agreed. So Mary booked our day trip, and we were picked up this morning in a cute little vintage bus which took us to a dock. We got into a boat with about ten other folks---a group of young people, and a small family from Arizona. We were blessed with good weather the whole way. We boarded the boat at 11:00 a.m.

The boat departed from near Ross Castle.

I'm ready for an adventure!

Approaching a wishing bridge near The Meeting of the Waters...

Going under the wishing bridge

Our driver and the Arizona parents...

As you can see, we headed off across the first lake...and then a second...and then a third!!! In between the first two lakes, we had to get off the boat and walk across a teeny island to meet the boat on the other side. But then, not even a full minute after setting off again, we had to get off once more and walk around to another new spot to get back in the boat. Mike had to stay in to help the boat driver. I think it had something to do with the depth of the water. 

Our first hop off spot...

Waiting for our driver to finish his ice cream...LOL

There's Mike in the middle of the boat...

Back on and away we go again!

We saw lots of birds, sheep, and they said salmon and black eel are in those waters, but I couldn't see them. When I heard "eel" all I could thi about was The Princess Bride!

Approaching our final boat stop..."the gap" is coming up next. We ate lunch at that little white cottage.

Almost two hours after we began our journey, we finally docked at a place where there is a cottage with lunch and beverages. We pretty much felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. It was awesome. We were not done, though! Next, we had a choice...we could walk seven miles through the gap (half of it was uphill), or we could hire a pony and trap to carry us the seven miles to where our bus would pick us up to take us back to the B&B. 

On the other side of that bridge are the ponies and carts awaiting.

Check out these shoes....(don't worry, I brought better shoes, but I didn't know walking was a choice on this excursion!)

Okay, now, this is the gap....and we're supposed to end up somewhere on the other side.

So which do you think we chose? 

Yep, you got it! The pony and trap! Some of us had to get out of the trap once in awhile and walk, so the horses could better get up or down some steep parts.

Mike out for a stretch...

Me hustling up the hill a bit.

We got through the gap about 90 minutes after we started on the pony and cart.

So this is a funny story. This boy is the nephew of the pony and cart driver. It's Saturday and they were trying not to make a big deal of it, but apparently it was going to be a special day for him. They only make one trip a day across the gap and he was to ride the horse blind the trap. The traps are only meant for 4 people plus the driver. The French couple who sat in the trap with us had a daughter with them and there wasn't another trap going yet, so our driver convinced the boy to squish in the trap with us and let the girl ride his horse. He wasn't happy about it, but he didn't say a word. I was afraid I was going to squish him, it was really a tight fit! Lucky for him, the French girl had little experience with horses and she gave up about 20 minutes into the ride. At the same time, another trap showed up with room for her to join them. The boy was so happy, he was smiling for miles. By the time I took this picture, he was getting tired, though. :-) 

The bus picked us up on the other side of the gap at about 4:00 p.m....we had barely arrived and had a small bit to eat before they got there. It was quite a long journey, but the views were breathtaking and hard to capture in pictures! Well worth the trek!