Kerry on

Twenty years I've been travelling to Ireland, clocking up an impressive 40+ visits. I never really kept track of my stays, regrettably, but in my mind I've been almost absolutely everywhere around the country. Three times three weeks hitching around from Dublin to Cork to Galway, Sligo and back. Three or four times taking buses everywhere up and down the west coast. Three trips by car: West Cork, Galway, Antrim/Donegal. Day trips to Kilkenny and Wicklow.

I know I've never been to Wexford or to Waterford. But only now I realise that I haven't done what every tourist has done: I've never done the Ring of Kerry.

Why? Well, at first I never went there, because everybody did it and I'm contrary like that. And then, I simply forgot. Always cut through from Kenmare to Killarney, leaving the Iveragh Peninsula and its tourist trail to the Yanks, the Germans and the hippies.

I'll have to make up for it soon.