Day 3: A Jaunting we will Go

Glorious sunshine!  Wonderful timing as we booked a jaunting car trip for this morning.  Jaunting cars are small wagons that are pulled by a single horse.  They are very popular here in Killarney and you see these everywhere around the town.  The driver of a jaunting car is called a "jarvey" and sits just behind the horse.  The owner of the place we are staying booked us a trip with his jarvey friend Pat and his Irish Cob horse Ben.

Our tour lasted an hour and a half and Pat took us into Killarney National park and all the way to Ross Castle. The views of the lake were beautiful.  It was a really cool way to sightsee as jarvies are known for their local knowledge of the area, including myths about leprechauns which the kids loved!  I also think when travelling with little people (children, not leprechauns) it is a good way to cover lots of ground and keep the kids interested.

Rowan with Ben the Irish Cob

KREW in the jaunting car.

I have always heard that the Irish love their horses and it was really nice to see these working horses being treated well.  Granted, not an easy job for them but they get every second day off and every chance they get they are given water, a break, and even some food.  The jarvies waiting for their next customers have their horses blanketed to keep them warm.  On top of that it was amazing to see how many verbal commands the horse knew.  The driver never even had to pull on the reins and the whip was never needed. 

That afternoon we headed back (by car) to Ross Castle.  Ross Castle is a "tower castle" built in the 15th Century that fell into ruin but has been rebuilt and furnished with authentic antiques.  These tower castles are very popular here in Ireland and typical design was knights quarters on the ground level, family lounge on the second floor, family bedroom on the third and the great hall on the fourth.  Very interesting compared to larger castle sights we have been to that are much more spread out, but these tower castles claim to have been extremely secure.

Ross Castle

We then headed over to see the Torc Waterfall which from its pictures looked like a beautiful, mythical-like waterfall gently cascading down through a forest.  Granted, it was beautiful and a must-see stop.  But take anything beautiful and build a parking lot at the bottom of it followed by a freeway-width walking path that takes 5 minutes (if that) to walk up and things become a little clouded.  After fighting our way (perhaps that's a slight exaggeration) up the path we arrived at the view point where we had to wait in order to get a picture of the children in front of the waterfall.  I think children have radars that tell them if any other child is doing something they are not, because almost immediately Rowan notices several children climbing up the rocks at the bottom of the waterfall.  She of course asks if she can do that too.  I say "no". She asks "why are those kids doing it?"  What I want to say loudly is "because their parents don't love them", but I show great restraint and say," because".

Torc Waterfall

I am trying really hard to feel my waterfall groove and the power and loveliness of the energy all around me (la-la-la), but it is really hard to do that when a lady is yelling up at her children to come down off the rocks.  Added to which I am getting increasingly annoyed at the fact that every picture I take has these other peoples children (the dumb ones climbing up the rocks) in the frame.  You'll see in the pictures below.  Good thing its not video or you'd hear me yelling "GET OUT OF MY F-ING FRAME!!". Of course I didn't do that...
 

See?