Tight Roads and Boiling Batteries. Sneem, Ring of Kerry by Motorhome

With clear skies predicted in Allihies, we watched the space station cruise overhead before retreating to bed with an alarm set for 2am. Being way out on the edge of the Beara Peninsula, we were endless miles from the nearest city. With no lights on the farm campsite, we figured this was our best chance to spot the Milky Way. The alarm goes off, we get up, and sure enough we could make out the sheen of white, an edge of our home galaxy, among the blazing myriad of stars above.

Don’t let me wax too lyrical folks, it wasn’t the mesmerising image you see on long-exposure photos. We could best see it by looking away from it, something to do with rods and cones in the eye? From experience we knew none of our cameras would capture it, so we didn’t bother trying. As we stared upwards, the sounds of the sea lapping on rock behind us, a couple of shooting stars streaked suicidally towards the Earth. More satellites drifted above, before the cool breeze and aching necks pushed us back in to bed.

The campsite service point had only a small grate and no drive-over concrete for the grey water. We deployed a flexi-hose which came with the van and has proved useful at awkward spots like this over the years. Full of fresh water with an empty loo, we commenced Operation Ring of Kerry (cue dramatic music), setting our satnav for Kenmare, one of the ‘gateway’ towns to the famous road.

The route from Allihies quickly narrowed and started to flow back and forth following the contours of the angled rocks around us. The view of the sea and the Kerry coastline were eyecatching, although as the driver my eyes were always on the next bend. For miles we saw no other vehicles, useful when one of our convex wing mirrors popped off (did I mention the roads are rough in places!) and Ju had to run back to retrieve what was left of it.

The road went steeply downhill at one point and I got a big excited at the idea of doing some engine-braking, popping the van into first gear, at which point we almost stopped dead. Note to self: we’re not in the Alps or the Norweigen mountains here fella.

Eyeries is another big draw on this north coast of Beara, but we burned straight on past. It’s a small village known for colorful houses, and has a motorhome aire, but we felt we’d experienced that at Allihies. The road widened a little afterwards, a double-edged sword as we winced once or twice passing the occasional HGV or tanker. It must take a special sort to drive those huge vehicles day-in, day-out on these small lanes.

Up until now we’ve only had to reverse on one occasion here in Ireland to allow oncoming campers to get past. Every other time we’ve been able to see ’em coming and get into a passing place. Finally we came unstuck at some roadworks before Kenmare, resulting in the situation shown below. I don’t know why, but vehicles were being escorted through the roadworks by a works van.

I’d not twigged this, so just drove up and joined the back of the queue behind a chap holding up a STOP sign. At this point the road was too narrow for two large vehicles to pass (or so I thought), but subconsciously I’d guessed all the oncoming cars must have already come through, and we were about to go. Nope.

A 10 minute wait later and the escort van appeared, being tailed by a good-sized B class. With cars behind us we couldn’t reverse. Cutting a short story shorter, a combination of excellent work by the lady driving the other van, Ju stood in front of me helping us get a bit further into the hedge, and the driver of the escort van waving instructions, we managed to pass. We were inches apart, a bit of a butt-clenching slow-motion moment. Ju reported some scraping noises from the other van, so hopefully they were undamaged.

Right, anyway, onwards to Kenmare! Well, Kenmare Lidl at least! We didn’t see much of the centre of the pretty tourist town other than driving through it. I was too keen to get into our night’s pitch and to tune out from the driving. But we did enjoy a brief sojourn in Lidl’s huge, free car park. We stocked up and relaxed with a brew, deciding what to do next.

The scenery around this part of Ireland is epic. It’s a really fabulous part of the world, but for me it comes at a cost of mentally and physically knackering me. Driving a big wide motorhome around here is entirely possible, loads of folks are out here from across Europe. But it’s quite hard work too, and if Kenmare had anywhere to stay, campsite, aire or wild camping spot, I’d have cheerfully dived in there.

That wasn’t an option though, so we just needed to decide whether to tackle the famous Ring of Kerry clockwise or anti-clockwise. Word is all the tour coaches go anti-clockwise, so it makes sense to do the same in a large van. But as we’re heading south-north, that would mean going way out of our way, and in the end we just decided sod it, we’d go clockwise and see how we did.

The N70 road from Kenmare to Sneem has a single place to stay on Park4night, and it’s a truly rubbish overnight spot, as many of the comments had pre-warned us. A tiny lay-bye right on the main road, so we ploughed on. The road width varies but in the early afternoon we didn’t see many vehicles and drove here fine, with some cracking sea views on the way. We didn’t pass a single coach or mini-bus.

When we finally arrived in Sneem, a few coaches were parked up in the village, so we’d been lucky to miss ’em (turns out a lot of them take the R568 to Kilarneymissing out the road to Kenmare). We had to squeeze around one, as it was parked half-way across the entrance road to the motorhome park.

The owner of the camperstop we’re in (Goosey Island, N51.836826, W9.901451) told me the coaches tend to run along this section in the afternoon, and the next 30 miles or so from here are the narrowest. So as long as we drive in the morning, we should be OK (famous last words). We’ve just been out again this afternoon and counted at least 12 coaches in the village at around 2:30pm, it’s hilariously busy.

We’re experiencing some amazing weather at the moment. Huge blue skies and hot sunshine. Not what we’d expected of Ireland in May at all, but we’re not complaining! Yesterday we made the most of it with long training runs on the Kerry Way. The path heads out into the surrounding countryside which, be warned, is rather boggy in places!

Knackered at night, we nipped to the local takeaway which has a mural claiming to be the Best Chippy in Ireland. That’s quite a claim, but don’t get suckered in folks, the food was OK at best. Neither the fish nor the chips were surely anything like the best in this fine country. Probably not even the best in Sneem…

Today we were wondering how to fill the day when an eggy smell helped us decide. Ju’s nostrils are more sensitive than mine, handy for me as she’d detected one of our leisure batteries was boiling. We whipped the windows open and disconnected from the mains (we were suddenly drawing 5 amps).

A bit of pondering followed, introspection, I really should have bought new batteries in Cork! And after posting a question on the ever-helpful Hymer Owners group on Facebook, we removed the passenger seat, disconnected the battery and popped it outside. We’re running OK on the second battery for now, and helpfully have a full-charged Jackery.

Ju’s called an auto dealer in Killarney who’s sourced two new deep cycle batteries for tomorrow. “This is Ireland”, he told us when he said the batteries should arrive: “you never know if they’ll really get here”. If they do turn up, they’ll deliver them here in Sneem, as part of their daily round. I can fit them before we either stay another night, or carry on along the Ring. We’ve a multi-meter so I can check the voltage when they’re charging, just to make sure the mains charger isn’t broken and trying to push more than 14.5V or so into them.

Sneem’s obviously one of the touristy places to stop on the Ring of Kerry, and we can see why. It’s a pretty little place, with a lovely bridge over the river which flows into the tidal estuary we’re parked right up against. We’ve mountain views above the water and behind the town. Birds buzz around throughout the day. There’s a ‘sensory garden’ a short walk from the aire, with a maze for the (big) kids among us.

The town’s population seems to vary between about 50 and 500, depending on the hour, with tons of opportunity to listen out for varied North American accents. You have, of course, also the opportunity to sup Guineess and buy anything and everything green and branded Ireland, from top-quality woolen wear to cheaper knick-knacks and Irish music CDs. It’s quite a contrast to the (really) quiet peninsulas to the south of us.

Right, time to get a brew and go wander about in the sunshine folks! Cheers, Jay