Ireland Part 3: A Trip to Dingle

Sunday was cold and rainy. We had been lucky up until this point to have amazing Irish weather. Our intentions were to drive to the port town of Dingle and take a boat tour to try and find Fungie, Ireland’s famous dolphin. With waking up to this less than ideal weather, we contemplated rearranging our plans but ended up making the trip to Dingle anyway. We are from Florida and have unpredictable rainy days all of the time. If we let rain ruin our plans, nothing would ever be done! Although, it turns out there is a big difference between Florida and Ireland that we forgot about - warm rain versus cold rain. Luckily, we were prepared with raincoats, gloves, and scarves. 

We arrived to a cold and gray Dingle that was still bustling with families out and about on holiday. We arrived a little early so after we got our tickets for the boat tour, we got a bit of ice cream and people watched for a while. Well, if I’m being honest - we really dog watched most of the time. I was feeling a little heartbroken and missing my own dogs after seeing so many of them enjoying the day out with their families. In a lot of the places we’ve been in Ireland, it doesn’t appear that leashes are required. A lot of the dogs seemed to have jobs! They are much more lax here with the rules, and I admire it. I could only imagine all of the things I could do with my four-legged best friend if he had been there. One dog in particular caught our eye. She was a small, white, curly-haired dog whose master was having ice cream and a chat with a friend. She came over to us and said hi, we found out her name was Mimi. She attempted to play with a few of the other dogs that walked by. She especially liked it when little kids were near. She provided us with good entertainment while we ate our ice cream and waited for our boat.

Our vessel arrived shortly after and as we waited in line to board, I noticed that a few of the dogs I had seen earlier were going to be joining us. One was a black lab puppy with his family, and another was a black and white border collie who was a member of the boat’s crew. She was the lookout and she took her job searching for Fungie very seriously! According to our tour guide, Fungie is a wild bottle-nosed dolphin who has been living in Dingle for over 30 years. No one is sure of his age or why exactly he resides here alone, but they suspect him to be under the age of 40 and that he was possibly removed from his group for “bad behavior”. Dolphins are known to live in pods so it is odd that he has spent the last 32 years alone. Many of the locals believe that he has stayed because it is a very sheltered harbor and that it is possible he feels secure here; like part of the family. He continues to seek human contact and is said to love playing and doing tricks. There are multiple tours that leave on the hour daily to go out and look for him, and you are offered your money back if you do not see him. He is well loved and even has a statue located outside of the tourist and info center. 

When I was growing up, I wanted to be a marine biologist or a dolphin trainer at sea world. When I got into high school, I found out I didn’t really care for science and became focused on my newfound passion for photography. I never lost my admiration for dolphins though, so needless to say I was excited when my husband agreed to take a boat ride with me to try to find this dolphin. At first, I was worried about getting my hopes up and then not getting to see Fungie. But shortly after we got on the water and headed out of the port, I realized quickly that I was about to have a memorable experience, regardless of whether we got to interact with Fungie or not. I was once again captivated by more of Ireland’s stunning cliffs and how they had textures and shades of purple, how the grass at the top was the truest green, the water was a mesmerizing deep shade of blue. The mountains in the distance were gray and mysterious. The clouds were low and grazing the top of the mountains and cliffs. The water was choppy here and there, I occasionally had to stop and focus on not getting seasick. Trying to take photos at sea was a new task I was trying to master. There were so many things to take in and observe that I almost forgot we were looking for a dolphin.

We reached the open water and sailed around in circles, waiting patiently for Fungie to make his appearance. Our trusty lookout paced back and forth at the front of the boat. Once or twice, we saw his dorsal fin peak out of the water, and we would hastily sail over to the area where we spotted the dolphin, but it started to seem like Fungie wasn’t feeling up to playing that day. At one point he did come up to the side of the boat and made a split second full body appearance, but then he disappeared and unfortunately that was all we saw of Fungie that day. I theorized that he was feeling under the weather; that it was too rainy and cold for playing. And as much as I was hoping for more interaction with Fungie, I was still very appreciative of the experience as a whole. I can’t remember the last time I had been on a boat. And even though it was cold and wet and gray, the scenery was still breathtaking. I could easily understand how these guides spent all of their time out there on the water surrounded by nothing but those views, searching for a friendly dolphin. It sounds like a dream come true if you ask me.

We got back to land and contemplated going to the nearby aquarium, but we were already pretty tuckered out from being cold and wet. We decided to head back to Killarney and spend the rest of the evening warming up and relaxing. On our way back, we stopped at one of the cliff top points to take in the view of the beach. There were a few families down at the shore and some surfers out in the water. The Wisconsinite in me should have been unphased by it, but I have been living in Florida for too long now and couldn’t help but think them crazy. We only stayed for a few moments and quickly got back on the road.

We stopped at a pub in the middle of nowhere along the way, but this place only offered a toasted ham sandwich or a microwavable pizza. Unimpressed by the menu and the vibe, we decided to try and find somewhere else to eat.  The next bar we stopped at had the same vibe like we were interrupting something. It turns out there was a very big, very important game in Ireland that day and it seemed like every Irish native was at a pub watching it. My anxiety couldn’t handle the way everyone turned their heads away from the TV and looked at us as we walked into the door, and the fact that we weren’t greeted with the usual “take a seat anywhere” but instead with blank stares, so I irrationally walked out and hauled butt to the car. It was not one of my proudest moments. In truth, it was probably all in my head. But I was tired, cold, hungry, and all-in-all not exactly thinking clearly. We got back on the road and David dropped me off at the hotel while he went out and picked us up some food from the McDonald’s in town. Interestingly enough, the largest the chicken nuggets come in is a 6 piece, there are no double or triple quarter pounders, and a large drink is about the size of a medium here in the states. I couldn’t help but appreciate their understanding of “enough is enough” and the feeling like there seemed to be a better quality overall in the food.  

With full bellies and a warm room, we turned in early for the night.