Kerry and the South West
The South West of Ireland is home to the biggest mountains in the country. These in turn host some lummy rivers. An added attraction to Kerry (in particular) is that the long narrow peninsulas of the region mean that the mountains and rivers are near to some great surf spots.
Kerry is home each new year to a great thronging mass of paddlers, mainly student clubs, who come to paddle, surf, freak-out and get nekkid and swim at midnight (no, honestly).
Seeing as this orgy is usually the one time each year that I go paddling down there, my memories are pretty hazy. Still, I'll see what I can dig up....#
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Surfing |
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Cute Kerry Hoors |
If you want to paddle in Kerry itself, the town that's central to many of the rivers is Killarney. Killarney is a bit of tourist trap though. This has it's positives and negatives. On the plus side, it's easy to get to and has good road links to most places, there's plenty of good, cheap hostels and other forms of accommodation, and last but by no means least...there's feckin' loads of pubs and nightclubs!!!
On the down side, the place is often full of elderly American tourists wearing green plaid trousers, looking for their roots and "lepreeeeeeshans." Also, being touristy it's more expensive than it should be.
One hostel I stayed in and found agreeable was Neptune's Hostel, check it out if ya want.
Another way of getting a roof over your head is to book a house. Many of the more remote tourist area have houses for rent in the Winter that will be cheap if you pack'em in. A word of warning though, if you end up booking a "holiday home" make sure it's warm and insulated: Many of them were built for the Summer season and are iceboxes in the winter.
Apart from Kerry:
Limerick can be another place to base yourself I suppose. There's a few hostels such as Barringtons which offer budget accommodation. Limerick is also known as "Stab City." I don't think I need to elaborate....
There are plenty of spots along the coast of Clare where you can rent houses, find hostels, or camp, e.g. Lahinch, Spanish Point, Miltown Malbay.