Luckily we have a reservation. This is also known at Murphy’s and we get a nice, spacious and first of all newly renovated room. Because we like the house and are also rather tired, we got to the pub on the right side of the house. Really comfortable, 2 pubs and one restaurant in the hotel. Diner today is Irish stile. Pot roast with mashed potatoes and veggies(beet roots and pies). Fitting drink? Yep a Murphy’s at Murphy’s! And after that a Kilkenny and a Carling. This flushes even the driest roast. Nicole keeps going with Bulmers. But all decent, because tomorrow its horse riding.
We sleep fantastic deep and tight in our room.
KM: 246
Hotel: Murphy’s Guesthouse ***

26.08.2006 Fortune on a horseback?
Good morning. Today we have a date. With oat carburetors, because we have booked a 3 hour riding trip. But where. The confirmation with map is on the internet, but there is no internet here? Never mind we’ll find it. Far from it- no signs. And inquiring is difficult in Ireland because people send you to the desert or to the woods. There are horses but no stud farm. Desperation is coming up, where are the horses. A quarter to 9 we are back at the town center. But blind chance or luck, right on the town map there is an ad with way description of the stud farm. Uups 5 to 9 we enter the grounds and shift gears one down.

Quick around the edge and the helmet and boots and finally up on the horse.Nomen est omen? My horse is named Bacardi, Nicole’s  Budweiser. Will this go well? 2 girlies of the club join us and lead our our tour. The tour leads directly into the Killarney National Park across fields and meadows. After the path gets broader it means take care: „Attention, please be prepared for another trot“ Uh oh, trot, quite different to pass, faster and one hops up and down on the horse. At first one has get used to it and strains mightily the thighs, but its funny anyway. So we trot cheery through the woods down to the lake, named Lough Lean.

The Killarney-Nationalpark is situated in County Kerry in the Southwest of the Irish Republic.
The ca. 60 km² large national park borders the city of Killarney and contains the 3 lakes Lough Leane, Muckross Lake and Upper Lake, which account for an overall size of 22 km² of the park. Further one of Irelands oldest and remaining yew forests is to be found here. Beside the yews also many oaks , moose, tresses and fern grow in the park. As in the whole southwest of Ireland various blooms, usually only known from the Mediterranean, can be found due to the influence of the gulf stream. e.g. the bushy strawberry trees and large rhododendrons. Particularly the Rhododendron has become really troublesome for the park. In the mild and wet climate it finds ideal growing circumstances and threatens to overgrow huge parts of the park. With the help of work camps they try to contain the plague.

But we have no time. The horses are waiting. And they are restless. At anytime they try to grab some leafs or branches, but we’d rather like so see some more. Out on a small peninsula we catch some spectacular views on the castle and the lake.