The Tralee Blog

After having heard about the exciting project first at last year’s Kerry Bicycle Festival it seems that the new walk- and cycleway between Tralee and Fenit is now in the final stages of planning and may even be finished very soon. Although I understand that some discussions are still going on with owners of properties adjacent to the track I no longer doubt that the ambitious new way can and will finally become a reality. [»]

As announced a few days ago the Tralee and Dingle Light Railway is back in operation, after it had had to cease scheduled travels in the midst of the 2006 season due to massive technical problems with the solitary steam engine. While 5T is still out of service the train is not, because the guys from the railway now managed to source a diesel engine. And today at 10:40 (two hours ago) the small train made its first journey from Blennerville to Tralee after almost three years downtime. It will now continue to travel between the two stations hourly, starting on the full hour from the Aquadome in Tralee and at the half hour from the Blennerville Windmill. [»]

Today we spent the best part of the day watching a pod of ca. ten pilot whales in Sandy Bay near Castlegregory. While this may sound like a nice activity it has infact been a quite distressing experience, because this particular bay is at best five metres deep, and pilot whales are a deep water species. They can easily become completely disorientated in a shallow environment like that. Worse still, the same pod had already stranded once yesterday evening only a few hundred metres further up the bay, but the whales could be successfully refloated. [»]

Just a short, but rather great notice: The railway will finally be operational again after a break of 3 years. The steam engine 5T is still in dire need of repair, but at least it has been removed from the open yard and is now stored safe and dry inside the shed. The work will be done by two diesels instead, the first journey will commence on next saturday , 1. August at 10:30 am. And yes, I am talking about 2009. I’ll try to be there! More pictures after the break. [»]

While there are still more than 500 google-entries pointing potential visitors to “Fenit Seaworld”, that former attraction has infact closed a long time ago. Yesterday I spent some time in Fenit Harbour and took the opportunity to bring you a picture of the now disused building, because it will probably demolished very soon to make room for a new warehouse. If you wish to see a good display of native and tropical sealife in Kerry I would recommend to visit the Dingle Oceanworld Mara Beo instead.