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So I left KAT this morning after a bender of a night, after saying all the goodbyes and having a final breakfast. Last night I was out drinking with the rest of the wwoofers in Sneem. It was a blast! I couldn’t be bothered to take my camera, so I can’t show you what a good time we had. We were out until almost four in the morning drinking, smoking and playing impromptu charades. Breakfast was at 8 am!

I’m in Killarney again, waiting until 2:15 to catch a bus to Dingle on the Dingle Peninsula. It looks like a wonderful place. I don’t have any accommodation set up, so I hope to find something this afternoon when I get there. Ideally a nice bed and breakfast where I can crash for a couple nights. I’d be glad to pay the premium for a comfortable place with a nice nice shower and fluffy bed … A hostel will do, though. I hope to do some relaxing and a little hiking and picture taking. Then I’m off to County Clare to make my way to Sunrise Farm on the 1st.

The day (Sunday the 26th) after my last post was definitely my best day in Ireland so far. It was a day off from farm work, and we wanted to head into Sneem for the day. There was a game at three pm that a bunch of people wanted to watch, and the English-speaking bunch were fed-up with the food situation at the farm and the French connection seemingly hogging what little was there to eat for breakfast. We almost unsuccessfully hitched to Sneem in the morning, as we walked quite a ways before getting picked up by a lone, aged Irish man (we determined that more often than not, these older gents are usually the ones who are nice enough to pick up hitchhikers). We peeked at the menus of all the cafés in town and settled on the riverside at an outdoor table to sit in the beautiful morning sun. We ordered broccoli soup and eggs and toast and coffee (it was brunchy-lunchy time wise). We got the coffee straight away, and the soup came first, but then the staff totally forgot about our eggs for what was probably and hour before we reminded them. The graciously said whoops and told us we didn’t have to pay for anything it was such a huge mistake. We didn’t really care, as we were having a great time chatting and eating and drinking coffee, etc. A free meal is welcome, and it was quite good once we got it. After breakfast we headed to Rineys to watch the game.

I didn’t realize the game we were going to watch was Gaelic Football. Whoa. It was something else! I was actually interested in the game - a fast-paced mix of rugby, soccer, basketball and volleyball with only a slight twiddle of similarity to American Football. The match was between the county Kerry team (where we were) and county Dublin, so everyone in the pub was there for the game. It was a blast! Two Carlsberg pints helped me get into it.

After the game, we headed out to a spot near Adam’s (a friend of the people at KAT, and a regular face around the place) for a swim.

What a spot! It was one of the warmest days we’d had and the water was refreshing. I stripped off to my keks (underpants) and jumped in the pool below the falls with the other new arrivals. (A group of others went earlier than us.) So nice! A free breakfast with coffee, an exciting game along with a couple pints, and now swimming at a waterfall in the Irish countryside. I was almost beside myself with happiness, it does not get much better than that!

After we were swimmed and sunned out, we walked to Adam’s house nearby and chilled for a while. It was yet another inspiring self-built place and we drank tea, juggled juggling balls, talked about traveling and just generally had a good time. We left Adam’s and headed back to Sneem for a bite to eat at the Hungry Knight on the way back to KAT. I was definitely a bit knackered by then and we were all glad to get back to the farm, shower off and crash for the night. Unfortunately, if you don’t care much for fried foods, I can’t recommend the Hungry Knight. I was tormented with greasy stomach for hours before I finally digested the strange veggie burger and chips with garlic mayo.

Early this week two wwoofers left and another arrived. Today, five wwoofs left, catching a ride with Bob to Killarney, drastically changing the mood at KAT. It sounded like everyone there was really looking forward to the break from so many people being around. I can’t even imagine. It was quite a ride! I enjoyed it a lot and think everyone involved, with the exception of Andres who was very distant through the time he was there.

I’ve got a few new contacts in Europe and in the States and am on my way into my last month of adventures. I’m either going to spent the rest of my time in Ireland, or I might just spend one week each on two different farms, and then breeze through Scotland and Wales on my way back to London. Staying in Ireland sounds nice, as traveling too quickly is the pits, really. But Scotland was one place I really, really, really, really hoped to get to. I may only be able to spend a few days there! The alternative is to just hope in the future to come back to the UK and wwoof here for as long as I can and really soak up the place. It’s almost a waste of time to go to a country for three days. No, actually, it IS definitely a waste of time as you can’t see anything in that time. I’ll just have to see how I feel when the time comes.

I’m at the wwoof farm in Ireland. It’s near a place called Sneem, which is the closest town to the farm. Getting here wasn’t much of a problem, and all the locals I asked seemed to know the place, even though once I got to Sneem I realized I didn’t have the farm’s phone number. I hung out for several hours in a nice pub called Riney’s and chatted from time to time with the very cute girl working the bar. I think she is a bit young for me, but she was nice all the same.

Kerry Alternative Technology is kinda crazy, haphazard interesting. Honestly, I can’t say that I like it all that much. It is really similar in a lot of ways to the farm near Almeria called Los Molinos de Bornos. KAT is “wwoofed up” as they called it - there’s 12 wwoofers there now and there’s a similar attitude and mood in them all to what I experienced in Spain. There’s a composting toilet like Paola’s, with not quite as nice a view. The farm is off the grid, with solar and wind and unique to this place is hydro power. (The alt-technology is the reason I wanted to come to this farm. Although, most of it is in disrepair and we haven’t and I imagine won’t have any time to learn even a little bit about alternative stuff!) There is a land-line, but no interet access. I’m at the Sneem Community Resource center writing this. And, KAT doesn’t even have a working shower for us at the moment, as the water has been re-routed to the festival fields! No one has had a shower for a week or so! Luckily it is not that hot, or we’d all be stinking big time. This weekend they had their third-annual music and beer festival. Everything I’ve done since I arrived has been working towards doing stuff for the festival, lots of setup like constructing toilets, tents, tarp coverings, kitchen work, etc. And I can only imagine now all I will be doing by the time I leave will be festival take down. I’m not all to happy about it, as it is definitely NOT what I hope to experience on a farm. The festival was mildly fun, though, despite constant rain, and there was a little bit of good music and it was a good time working in the kitchen and serving food to the festival goers. I’ll write more on KAT later, but I might try to change my plans and limit my time there, as it’s not the best use of my limited remaining travel time! There’s nothing wrong with KAT, really, it’s a great place and if I was at a different point in my life and travels, I’d probably enjoy it immensly …

That’s it for now. Oh, yeah - Ireland is beautiful! (But wet wet wet.)