Another Year, Another Glorious Walk Through Ireland's Countryside

Two weeks until this year's walking adventure. This year we walk the Beara peninsula, in counties Cork and Kerry in southwest Ireland. Beara is the third of three major peninsulas in southwest Ireland. We walked the Dingle Peninsula (Dingle Way) in 2010 and the Iveragh Peninsula (Kerry Way) in 2011. Both of those were awesome experiences, and I expect the third time will be the charm.

Who is "we"? There are four of us this year. Marty Szabo and I walked the Dingle and Kerry Ways together. John Nelson joined us for the Kerry Way. And Marty, John, and I make up three of the four parts of  "we" walking the Beara way. The fourth part of "we" this year is Dick Gamertsfelder, who has threatened to join us before, and even went out and got a new knee just for this adventure.

As with the other Ireland walks, Deirdre O'Sullivan of Tailor-Made Tours has organized the walk for us. What Deirdre does is provide us the route, arrange for the B&B's and inns along the way, and arrange for our luggage to be transported every day to where we're staying that night. All we do is start each morning with an Irish breakfast, step out into whatever weather Southwest Ireland might be having at the time, and walk through back roads, fields, and trails across the gorgeous Irish countryside. Anywhere from 10-15 miles later we'll get to the village we're staying for the night, take a shower, rest up, and go find the first Guinness of the day.