Dingle 5: "Pull Like a Dog": paddling hard for an amazing reward.

 Thursday July 11 Lydia Altman

Our activities today did not start until 10:30, for which we were all thankful. While I imagine this allowed some people a slow morning, most of us slept in as long as we could, rushing to get breakfast and out the door like we have every morning on this trip. The days packed with activities are so much fun, but I think I could sleep for days.

After our lie-in, we headed to the classroom to work on our report for the Maharees Conservation Association. For this report, we collected data in the dunes to look at the differences in biodiversity between sites with differing levels of restoration. While others worked on the introduction and methods, I recorded data into a table to analyze later. At noon, we broke up for lunch. Some people went out to buy something, while others returned to eat our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before we ventured off to sea kayaking.

Sea Kayaking consisted of two different things: exploring sea caves full of starfish and trekking to and
from these caves. As someone with little upper body strength, the waves and wind we encountered on the trek proved challenging to navigate. Ultimately, I would say the struggle was worth it for the amazing caves, but I would recommend stretching and bringing water for anyone planning on going in the future to have a more comfortable experience than I did.

For dinner, we originally planned to eat the fish we caught on Monday, but after the tiring adventure, we stopped at a Tex-Mex food truck. I was unsure how Irish Mexican food would be, but although unauthentic, it was quite delicious. But what is a good dinner without dessert? Naturally, we stopped to get ice cream from Kool Scoops on the walk back to our accommodation.

Back at the hostel, we found that the fish had spoiled, and some went out and fed it to the seagulls. Many of us were grateful for this since fish is a taste we have not acquired. Other activities of the night included playing cards, reading, napping, and calling home. These activities were accompanied by the sounds of many French teenagers running around the place and rummaging through the kitchen quite loudly. As they finally quiet down for the night, the dorm of girls from St. Mike’s is busy getting ready for bed after another great day of adventures.

 

Dingle 4: It's not an American Rowboat

Thursday July 11 Sawyer Pierpont 

        Today I started my day off by mentally preparing myself for rowing, but not the traditional rowing
you’ve seen in The Boys In The Boat, but rather traditional Irish Naomhóg (pronounced nave-oge). I had never heard of this rowing prior to coming to Dingle. Naomhóg rowing boats consist of 4 seats with each rower having two oars. I was surprised at how narrow the oars themselves were with the ends of the oars being around three inches wide. Our guide Luke was only 13 years old which surprised all of us at how young yet skilled he was. The rowing technique itself was challenging at times as it required you to cross your hands over each other with one being your top hand and one being the bottom hand. I felt most comfortable with my left hand on top and right on bottom. After cracking my knuckles together several times, our voyage with Luke came to an end. 
        Next item on the list was sustenance, coffee and a crepe. Our group of rowers found a near by crepe shop where I ordered a cappuccino and a lemon sugar crepe. Following our snack break we made
our way to the Sacred Heart classroom on The Mall where we discussed our next ordeal. 
         After a bagged lunch at the classroom, we made our way to Hussey’s Foley near the Dingle Harbor where we observed different sectors within a large intertidal area. My partners, Jarret, Nate and myself, found some intriguing animals in our intertidal sectors. Our finds included Plumose Anemone, Velvet Swimming crabs, common sea stars, Shany’s, and Common Prawn. As we explored the surrounding tide pools I couldn’t help but feel slightly like Charles Darwin or a young Teddy Roosevelt collecting data samples and exploring new land; at least new to me. After we finished our three required
data collection sites.

         Nate, Jarret and I continued to scour the rocks and tide pools in search of whatever little creatures we could find to scratch our itch for adventure and exploration. Once we had our fill of species searching, we made our way down to the light house where we were able to look out into the North Atlantic Ocean with Skellig Michael in the background. As I sat on my grassy rock perch, I was impressed and taken aback by the sheer beauty and vastness of the view from the top of the rock.