County kerry Day 5 - Glengarriff Nature Preserve and Garinish Island

Our second day in a row where we woke up to clear blue skies and a brilliant sun shining down upon us. That made it an easy five minute stroll down to the grocery store cum gas station to get our sandwhiches made for lunch. We knew that the walk, the easier one today, would end with the option to eat at a pub or cafe but we got picnic lunches instead.  The easier walk would explore a nature preserve and visit an island in Bantree Bay while the harder walk was going to climb up a mountain and spend time on higher ridges and boggy land before descending back down towards the sea. It didn’t seem worth the work to do what was described as a challenging walk  with little seeming reward compared against the variety the easier walk offered. 

The easier walkers, most of the group, started out at a road junction  at the edge of the Glengarriff Nature Preserve. TheWaterfall Walk according to a sign is steep and rugged. For a walk in a nature preserve that has numerous paths that are accessible for people with strollers or tougher wheelchairs this is certainly a true and proper statement. The walk has some modestly steep hills and plenty of steps to climb up and down. For seasoned hill walkers it is not going to pose any real difficulty. We climbed perhaps  30 meters over several hundred meters to the highpoint. Nice views of the forest of pines, hollies, and much more. It is quite the change from the more open boggy lands we have been exploring.We would eventually work our way around to the River Walk and follow the  Canroska River along gravel and paved paths. Again a very nice change of pace. The morning cotinued  to warm up too with a sunny temperature pushing 70F and little to no wind. Easy walking.

I suppose the real highlight of the walk had to be our visit to Lady Bantry’s Lookout. This is reached by following a step-laden path a couple hundred meters and about 60 meters ascent to a fine viewing point that looks out across Bantry Bay. I wish we had spent more time just relaxing here than we did earlier in the morning where we had a snack break at a couple of benches that really had little of visual delight around them.  The path to the lookout will take most people about 5 minutes to walk; took me 10 minutes to descend the annoying steps

From the base of the lookout path it’s an easy road walk of about 2km into the heart of the village of Garriff. While the village clearly has an aboundance of places to have a likely tasty hearty bite to eat along with your drink of choice we hiked down to where we thought the ferry to Garinish Island would be docked and found a place to gaze out on the cove for lunch and a spot to stretch out and relax in the sun. That was a fine way to spend the next hour and a half or so before learning that we were actually in the wrong spot for the boat after all. Our boat, the Harbor Queen, was waiting for us in a major cove about a kilometer away. We would take the Blue Pool II , the boat we had seen make several trips already, back from Garinish.  The Queen provided us with an enjoyable ride across the gentle waters of the bay and we were fortunate to be able to get very close to rocky islets that were home to several relaxing harbor seals. These seals clearly don’t mind boats and people because we came very close to their rocky rests and they hardly stirred.  We were hoping to spot some sea-based birds like Steller’s Sea-Eagle. While a nest was spotted no birds were seen.

Garinish Island was once just a barren rocky island. I don’t recall who bought it and decided to turn it into a garden island but the project began in 1911 and was finished around 1914. Workers shipped in goodness knows how much soil and all types of plants to create this place. Today the island features many different types of gardens with plants whose home ranges span the globe from local flora to plants to grow in Australia and New Zealand.  Gravel paths criss cross a large, though by no means all, piece of the island for visitors to walk and enjoy the assorted plants. If you are hoping to learn what various things are bring your own identification book because signs that provide that type of information are thin on the ground. Fortunately, we had Mom who recognized many plants. And, of course, I can enjoy flowering colorful plants whether I know the names or not.

Photos

1. Overview map. StRt st the orange blob. Hiking mostly in the Glengarriff Nature Preserve. Ended in the village of Garriff. 
2. Mom and Dad at a break.
3. The tiver walk is one gravel paths and is pleassant enough. We would also do the meadow walj which would eventually take us to Lady Bantry’s Lookout. 
4. A view from Lady Bantry’s Lookout across Bantry Bay. 
5. Mexand Mom at tge lookout. Photo by Dad. 
6. Funky clouds anove the calm waters of Bantry Bay. 
7. Harbor seals.