Island Life - Kerry day 2

Today was the day for the adventure! We were booked on a ferry to take us to the Blasket Islands - yes, in search of an obscure holy well. The Blaskets lie around 2 miles off the coast from Dunquin separated from the mainland by a notorious stretch of turbulent water! I was delighted to find some ancient homoeopathic travel sickness tablets which I chewed on optimistically. The going looked calm! The journey starts at Dunquin pier - this is the one with the iconic picture of the sheep going down it - it winds downward at tortuous angles and every year some hapless tourist tries to drive down it and has to be hoisted up. The boat was a small one with an inflatable dinghy behind it. We boarded, helped on by a jolly boatman and sat next to a French family - why do little children speaking French sound so adorable! Well, looks can be deceptive for the sea was exceptionally bouncy -  a large swell tossing us hither and thither. We then found out what the inflatable was for - there is no proper pier on the island so we had to leap into the inflatable and were cast ashore onto a roughly cemented area. 
What  a gorgeous place. The story is an interesting and melancholy one. Once around 120 people lived here. Life must have been incredibly hard yet they were self sufficient and well fed. They were also known for the purity of the spoken Irish and for their skills at storytelling, writing and poetry and have left an impressive literary legacy. The last islanders left in the 1950s when life got too tough. The village is now in ruins though one or two cottages have been restored - this one in particular. Others can be rented for overnight stays - no electricity or hot water through. Every year the post of caretaker is advertised and every year thousands of hopefuls apply. This year the caretakers are a young English couple who live here during the season and run a small coffee shop  - and now, rather luxuriously, a loo! 
We had a wonderful time.I think I found the well - instructions were to head to the cliff, go down a bit and you’ll know it when you see it. Well I think I did

We bounced back after four hours on the island, had just a quick time for a (cold, the hot water seemed to have conked out) shower before heading out to Dingle for a truly delicious supper at Solas.
Lots of extras just because but they'll be going soon. I fell in love with this little house.
Kerry day 1
Kerry day 3