Kayaking around Ireland - the short story
Having just written an over long - but obviously rivetting and unputdownable (or whatever the expression for a readable blog is) - blog entry about the start of the kayak trip around Ireland i realised that plenty of people have better things to do than sit down to a computer screen novel.
So here are the bones.
I left Castlehaven on the 9th June 2007 and over the past nine days have paddled just over 100 miles to get to Dingle in county Kerry.
There have been blue shark, whales, porpoise, basking shark and puffins to keep me company.
The longest open-sea leg, so far, was the twenty miles across from Valentia Island to the Dingle Peninsula yesterday. I got around the notorious Mizen, Ireland's most southerly point and where the seas can't decide whether to go left or right and get into a bit of jumble, fairly easily.
I've camped on remote and deserted islands, glorious headlands and pretty beaches. There have been nights indoors staying with friends.
More than just a long slog around Ireland by arm-power the jaunt is a chance to look in on Ireland from the outside and see how things are going. To that end i've been doing plenty of research and poking around for stories; much of it of course in the coastal pubs of Cork and Kerry. So far i've gate crashed a wedding, joined in sing-songs, had lively discussions about Ireland's rebuilding of a viable government and the strange 'marriage' of the Greens and Fine Fail and heard the good and the bad about fishing, farming, tourism and the Celtic Euro's buying power.
I'm in Dingle for a few days catching up on writing. There will be more blogs posted when i next hit an internet point in a week or so, when i should be well on the way to the Aran Islands.
Any messages, good jokes, song lyrics or words of encouragement welcome.
So here are the bones.
I left Castlehaven on the 9th June 2007 and over the past nine days have paddled just over 100 miles to get to Dingle in county Kerry.
There have been blue shark, whales, porpoise, basking shark and puffins to keep me company.
The longest open-sea leg, so far, was the twenty miles across from Valentia Island to the Dingle Peninsula yesterday. I got around the notorious Mizen, Ireland's most southerly point and where the seas can't decide whether to go left or right and get into a bit of jumble, fairly easily.
I've camped on remote and deserted islands, glorious headlands and pretty beaches. There have been nights indoors staying with friends.
More than just a long slog around Ireland by arm-power the jaunt is a chance to look in on Ireland from the outside and see how things are going. To that end i've been doing plenty of research and poking around for stories; much of it of course in the coastal pubs of Cork and Kerry. So far i've gate crashed a wedding, joined in sing-songs, had lively discussions about Ireland's rebuilding of a viable government and the strange 'marriage' of the Greens and Fine Fail and heard the good and the bad about fishing, farming, tourism and the Celtic Euro's buying power.
I'm in Dingle for a few days catching up on writing. There will be more blogs posted when i next hit an internet point in a week or so, when i should be well on the way to the Aran Islands.
Any messages, good jokes, song lyrics or words of encouragement welcome.
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