Chunky Monkey

You have to be flexible when traveling like we do. So tomorrow’s boat trip became todays. Carrigaholt is a tiny harbour on the Loophead peninsula, Co. Clare. We found dolphinwatch office easily and paid for our pre-booked tickets. After walking misty around the local castle, we locked her up in our cool van, we headed to the pier to meet our boat and its captain. Visibility was 100% and off we went to see the dolphins. Once clearing the Shannon’s estuary and were in the Atlantic we saw Chunky Monkey, our first dolphin. This permanent wild colony are all given names for recording purposes. Mary Kate, our zoologist guide, loves dolphins and knew her stuff giving her enthusiastic expert view point. We saw mothers, calves and a pregnant dolphin and saw several swimming alongside the bow of the boat. Although these dolphins are the same species as in the Mediterranean they are twice as big at 4 meters. We were really shocked at how big they were. An amazing experience . After 2 hours on board we found a celebratory home made ice cream, yum!! Then off to the headland lighthouse for overnight.