Killarney to Kenmare on the Kerry Way

Today I had an all too rare outing with James and it proved to be a doozey. Injury has plagued James these past couple of years so with that in mind we decided to walk the Kerry way from Killarney to Kenmare. This would give a worthy outing of about 15 miles and have a total of over 700mtrs of ascent spread out along its length but the climbs wouldn't be too steep and ditto the descents.

Both of us having the free travel (we work for the railway 😊) we opted to take the first train to Killarney and we found ourselves walking out of the town at 08:00 on a disappointinglyrics dreary misty morning. The forecast promised a fine day and we were hopeful this would still come to pass so we were in great spirits as we headed out of town. Eventually we reached the beautiful Muckross park and left the traffic behind. Unfortunately some drizzle arrived as well so we had to don the rain gear but thankfully it was short lived. The first section goes from town to Torc waterfall but it is after that that the route comes into its own. A good trail runs through wild and unspoilt land, with views from Mangerton on the left to the Reeks to the right. Waterfalls, streams,woodland and views all now had beautiful weather to match, it was lovely. We were in no rush so we occasionally stopped to have a nibble and enjoy the views. Near Galway so Bridge we turned left and headed into the final leg of the trip towards Kenmare. This is a little hillier but isn't bad and before we knew it we were past the Windy Gap and on the tarred road. This we followed for the next several kilometers down into the bustling little town. We were glad to reach it for several reasons but perhaps the most pressing was that quite a while earlier we had realized that we had forgotten sunscreen. On a warm sunny day we must have resembled two heat lamps as we walked into the town. Anyhow the pints and grub in the Landsdown Arms went down very well while we waited for our business back to Killarney  (very low carbon footprint 👍👍)and capped off a lovely day. James really enjoyed it and it's fair to say that he breezed through it. His company was superb as usual and it was just the tonic I needed. Thanks man....I must think of a stiffer challenge for the next one😀😀.