'Meeting of the Waters' in Killarney, Ireland

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After visiting Blarney Castle, we made our way back to Killarney. Before heading back to the hotel for the evening, we had a stop off at "Meeting of the Waters" in Killarney National Park. I had read that it was a picturesque place to visit, and we pulled up into the car park to take a look. The car park was pretty empty, so we had a look at the map at the entrance to the trail to see how far the walk was. The sign said fifteen minutes to get to where the waters of the two lakes meet, so we started off. (Don't trust this sign as the walk there too at least half an hour, and we were walking at a quick pace.) 

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The views on the way to the start of the trail were pretty.

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The walkway was paved, and it was an easy walk without steep hills. We were led through the trail between the beautiful rhododendron bushes. We were at the foot of the Purple Mountain, with thousands of rhododendrons on the hill above us. They were beautiful.

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We crossed over a small pond near the lake, on our right as we walked. We kept hoping that the "Meeting of the Waters" was around the next bend. It could not be far, because the sign said 15 minutes. So, we kept thinking that it was behind the next bend and could not be further.

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We saw a couple of red deer. One was a doe (hind), and one was a buck (stag). The red deer graze the mountains in Killarney National Park. The hinds can be hunted at certain times of the year, but the stags cannot be hunted in the county. It is thought that the red deer have been grazing here since the last ice age. We watched the deer until they headed away from us and went further into the forest.

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We caught glimpses of the mountain covered in the beautiful purple carpet of rhododendrons.

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Finally, we came to the "Meeting of the Waters". This is where the lakes (Upper Lake, Muckross Lake, and Lower Lake) combine. The Dinis Cottage (a hunting lodge) is an attraction here, and the old weir bridge can be seen in the distance, over the water. This can be seen on one side of the lake.

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The views on the other side of the lake were amazing. There were beautiful views all around. I'll let the photographs do the talking.

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I zoomed in using my camera in order to see the old weir bridge in the distance.

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After a quick wander around, we then headed on our long walk back.

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The was our last stop for the day, and we headed back to the hotel to get some much-needed sleep and to find out that my brother's wife had a baby a bit later on that evening. This was on June 9, so a day before my own birthday. Keep checking back for the remaining posts of my road trip around Ireland.

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