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Our trip to the Dingle Peninsula, Ireland
Nov 4-14, 2010

Watching a Storm on the Atlantic

Waves



Page 1: Prep and Travel to London.
Page 2: Fri – Drive from Shannon to Dingle and Cottage.
Page 3: Sat – Dingle, Michael, and John Benny's.
Page 4: Sun -Storm.
Page 5: Mon - Storm.
Page 6: Tue – Inch Strand.
Page 7: Wed – Climbing and Set Dancing.
Page 8: Thu – Glanteenassig.
Page 9: Fri – Shopping.
Page 10: Sat:Mon – Return Home via London.
Original, all-on-one-page version.
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Press here for 2009 Dingle travelogue (a new window will open)
Press here for 2008 Dingle travelogue (a new window will open)
Press here for 2007 Dingle travelogue (a new window will open)


Watching a Storm on the Atlantic

Sunday, November 7

We were really looking forward to the storm but wanted to know when it was expected to start so we turned on the TV – the first time we've done that since we've been coming here – and KC looked for the weather channel . He had trouble finding it. The sky was overcast and the animals were skittish – the sheep were running to different fields and the horses were whinnying with no dog in sight. There were lots of birds around, too. But there was no wind or rain. We tried to find a forecast using the internet connections on our phones (there is no phone or internet in the cottage-a good thing) and found one which mentioned only intermittent rain. Perhaps Tony had been wrong; or, the forecast had changed.

We needed to know because, if the weather was going to clear, we would go hiking, but we didn't want to be caught on the mountain by a storm. We finally decided that since it was a blustery day, storm or no storm, we would stay in. We ramped up the heat and settled in with books and cameras. We texted Michael to see whether he made his flight, given that we knew he had been out very late the night before. We caught him on his way to the airport (I really hope he wasn't driving and texting at the same time!) and he said that the flight hadn't been cancelled and that he was confident he would make it out before the storm hit.

Around 1:00pm Phil stopped by to warn us about an impending storm! There was flooding expected and some trees would be downed. If the lights went out, she said there were a torch (flashlight) and some candles in the kitchen. She thought we would be disappointed by the “bad” weather forecast and was surprised when we were exactly the opposite. While we didn't want anything to be damaged, we were looking forward to seeing large waves crashing against the rocks in front of the cottage. The location of the cottage and the large picture window would be the PERFECT place to watch them. She showed us how to find the weather channel but it was in Gaelic! Nevertheless, we now knew a storm was coming! Apparently, storms are not unusual for this time of year, which is another benefit to coming in November.

The note Phil was going to leave if we had not been home
(evidence of how well she takes care of her guests):




Location of the cottage with respect to the coastline:





The calm before the storm:



After Phil left, we lit a fire, broke out the cheese, crackers, and pear cider, and settled in to watch. Garvey's Market no longer stocked that black rind local cheddar we'd enjoyed on an earlier visit but the St. Killian's mini full cream cheese was really delicious as were the Jacob's cream crackers (my favorite crackers ). At 3:00pm I started cooking a beef stew – it would be a perfect dinner for a cold wet day.

The fire:



The ponies were huddled in a corner of the field. Since they couldn't graze KC went out to give them some carrots but they refused to come to him.

The ponies, huddling in a corner of the field:




KC fighting the wind back to the cottage:




The sea was rough, but not as bad as we expected it to be:




The surf:



We had kept the TV on and suddenly they started reporting in English: "…a low pressure front was moving in causing gale force winds tonight, it would be calmer with rain tomorrow, and there would be gale force winds again tomorrow. Flooding was anticipated in low-lying areas. " So, we would get a storm but it would be at night when we couldn't watch it! What a disappointment.

The wind was loud and there was some rain but the surf never really got rough. We ate the stew – the meat was dry but tender and the sauce was thick and spicy. It wasn't as good as Colleen's but it was edible and the sauce was great with bread and butter. We got the candles out just-in-case and then whiled the rest of the day away reading and listening to music.

This year I brought the small MP3 speaker??? that Em had given me and it was FANTASTIC! The unit is dual voltage so all we needed was KC's universal travel adaptor and a multiple plug. I hooked both the speaker and the MP3 player into the adaptor via the multiple plug and we were able to listen to my favorite tunes without having to worry about batteries. Fortunately, there are outlets EVERYWHERE in the cottage so we moved the music to whichever room we were in.

We played some cribbage and at one point KC won 6 games in a row (there are three games in a round)! He kept getting double runs and I was getting zippo. I did one crossword and then we went to bed. It was around 2am.

EOD cribbage score: KC=5 BH=4



Page 1: Prep and Travel to London.
Page 2: Fri – Drive from Shannon to Dingle and Cottage.
Page 3: Sat – Dingle, Michael, and John Benny's.
Page 4: Sun -Storm.
Page 5: Mon - Storm.
Page 6: Tue – Inch Strand.
Page 7: Wed – Climbing and Set Dancing.
Page 8: Thu – Glanteenassig.
Page 9: Fri – Shopping.
Page 10: Sat:Mon – Return Home via London.
Original, all-on-one-page version.
Press here to return to personal picture menu.

Press here for 2009 Dingle travelogue (a new window will open)
Press here for 2008 Dingle travelogue (a new window will open)
Press here for 2007 Dingle travelogue (a new window will open)


A NOTE ON THE MAPS
Most of the maps I posted here were created using screen caps from MapQuest and Adobe Photoshop. I found that MapQuest had more detail, especially in the shoreline, than Google. But, neither MapQuest nor Google was detailed enough for our nature hikes so those maps I created by scanning the Ordnance Survey maps we use when we were hiking and then photoshopping the scanned images together. Please do not rely solely on my maps if you travel to this area -- buy your own Discovery Series Ordnance Survey Maps they are invaluable.


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OOAKFolk, Inc., and artist Barbara Healy are not affiliated in any way with the original manufacturers of the dolls pictured in this site. No photograph, text or graphic on this site may be copied without written permission from Barbara Healy. Copyright © 2004 OOAKFolk, Inc.

Last Revised: January 14, 2011
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