We were to meet at 10 today, and I made sure I got a little eyeglass magnifier thing. Apparently they were €5, but we're all getting a bit grumbly over the fact that the course was €130 and the only thing we've gotten so far is a notebook we don't have to write in. We haven't even had a cup of free tea organised anywhere. And the last hurrah buffet has been cancelled. So with over 70 people doing this course, that's about €10,000 just to have these experts out here? And we also pay for parking our cars, getting the boat, staying here, our own food AND the little magnifying glass?
NO
. I TOOK IT, AND I'M NOT ASHAMED.
Leo was on hand to corral the experts today, and to hurry them up if they spent too long looking at grass. Also to make them go to different restaurants on the island, because we all swamped the Doonmore yesterday, and that wasn't the plan apparently.
I chose to go with the non-marine-biologist group today, which was birds and flowers. Unfortunately, Leo went on ahead, and so did about 15 of us. The marine biologists, geologists, ecologists and ornithologists all tarried to look at MORE FREAKING GRASS and therefore we were an hour and a quarter late starting the actual damn walk, so we couldn't even do what we were supposed to, and just barely walked up the side of Knock hill.
We DID learn all about Machair land, which is a sandy soil particular to north western Ireland and Scotland, which makes for good golfing, apparently, but is being undermined by rabbits and dune buggies and caravan parks, and maybe otters too. To raise our spirits, we looked for otter poop piles instead. These are supposed to be on very green mounds, and consist mainly of fish bones. We didn't find any, and soon everyone realised that although it was an entertaining interlude, it was another distraction, and Leo had left us in order to make the other, slower group hurry up. We were on our own
. To hurry up the -ologists by ourselves.
So we got through the gate to climb 'the hill' (I don't know if it gets capitals or not) and since we had no frequent flyers or geologists, the ornithologist got stuck, and it was up to me, the hiking-ologist to plough a path forward. It was pretty obvious really, when you weren't gazing at cockspur grass or bog asphodel. We just have eyes for different things.
We got a nice view of the beach, and some people who drove out to go periwinkle picking with the low tide, but we had to keep to a REAL schedule today. Finally the ologists woke up, when 15 of us (the same 15 who had been waiting an hour and a quarter on a rock wall earlier) didn't stop to listen to another conversation about bog asphodel, and they yelled at us not to keep going because we had to get back. So we trudged back down the hill, listened to them still talking about the asphodel, and we headed off for lunch.
It was a bit of a disappointing morning, even though the weather and views were lovely, because of all the, like, totally negative vibes that had occurred, dude. But the place we went for food was so CUTE and they had lovely food, and a bunch of us were happy to sit and chat together, and best of all: my food arrived just as the slowpoke asphodel folk joined a queue that went out the door, and they all had to watch me eat it and know that they had to wait
. Mwahahaha... Vengeance is sweet.
Lunch was a long affair, but we were in the right places to officially sign an official roll today, so there was that. That meant that the ones who stayed out late last night (and they stayed out really late, considering that I was out for the count at 6pm) could sign the roll and go home to prepare to stay out late tonight on. That annoys me, but I am glad I went on the whole group adventure next.
We went to East End Beach, and Leo told us we had to make a dragon in the sand that was at least 80m long. It was a bit of a surprise and hard to wrap our heads around, until he told us that we had to put ourselves into the minds of school kids and finish it in 10 minutes. The resident artist drew the head, and the rest of us started digging and piling sand, and gathering interesting rocks and seaweed. It turned out really bloody cool, actually. I had the magnificent idea after my shower, when there was no one around to hear, to call it 'Boff the Magic Dragon'
.
I had my shoes off for this whole affair, and the sand was just gorgeous. I didn't want to put my (dear, beloved, reliable) salomon shoes back on, but on they had to go, since we were going up another hill to see a another cliff.
We stopped to look at some cutaway roadway rock, and some more grasses, and then we went up onto a weird, high, boggy, rocky Burren-type landscape. It had some ponds, lots of heather and a path with French walkers all happily "Bonjour!"ing us. Some girls in front of me were wondering "what's that yellow flower there again? Bog aspartame?"
OH MY GOD IT'S BOG ASPHODEL HOW COULD YOU FORGET AT THIS POINT MY GOOOODDDDDDD. WE'VE ONLY TALKED ABOUT IT FIVE HUNDRED TIMES.
Fortunately, there was a balm to this annoyance. Around a bend in the bog was a sheer drop of a cliff, with some interesting geological features, including a broken cliff, arches, bluffs, ridges, and more; but more importantly THERE WERE SEALS
.
They were so cute and they were just swimming and diving and being cute, and there were just two of them in this far down pool of an inlet. Ah, it was lovely.
Everyone else was placating the ornithologists and ecologist, looking at some fulmar birds, which I actually thought were "Bulmer" birds for a while. They can't walk on cliffs like plovers or gulls, and they screeched angrily at those birds when they landed nearby. So naturally I thought people were joking that they were Bulmer birds. (You wouldn't believe the Google hoops I had to jump through to find the correct spelling of "Machair". This has not been an easy course to take notes for. Remember 'ombrotrophic' yesterday?)
At some point, I could no longer take the birds or the heather or being far away from my hotel with slow-walking ecologist and ecologist sympathisers, so I hit off with what will probably turn out to be always the same bunch of 15 people
. It took a looooooong time to get back to the hotel.
Today, I have not had a nap! I am so pleased. And tired. I am very tired.
I had a shower, and suddenly realised there was a man outside my second story window, on the top of a teepee. It turns out that the hotel man who said the wedding party on Thursday are having a teepee built on the lawn WAS NOT speaking in hyperbole. He was actually understating the fact, as there are two teepees.
After my shower, I headed down to the Beach Bar, and had some nice fish and chips and some DIVINE rhubarb crumble. Also ran into some musicians from Headford, because it seems I was right, and the insanely amazing band that all the foreign (ie - not Galway) teachers were praising to the high heavens and seriously recommend I visit, are locals from at home. So boom. Go home.
I mean "Yay, go you, home!". Not "go home, weirdos"
...
There is a corncrake walk starting outside my hotel tonight, but I have one living outside the window (currently beyond the teepee), and I don't expect them to honestly get much farther than next door before it gets dark anyway. So I'm not doing it.
Might have some Fulmars instead...
----
As it happens, I met a lovely lady in the restaurant and we talked about the difficulty of running a musical in a primary school. She went off for the corncrake walk, and I waited until I thought they'd have passed my hotel.
I bumped into them on the way back. I couldn't casually sneak by, because they all said hi to me, and the ornithologist was scraping two sticks together to try and attract a crake while the ecologist was gloomily saying "I think you should revise your previous statement to 'they are notoriously elusive and unresponsive to calls'"
. So I asked if they were trying to get it to make noise or to move, and I forget the answer. I took out my phone and my bird sounds app, and played the corncrake.
Not only did the crake start replying, it hopped out onto a grassy mound, flew around the field a few times and walked up a terrace towards us. I have never seen a more excited ecologist or a more befuddled ornithologist. Everyone was delighted. The revised statement was revised again. I got literal claps on the shoulder. I don't know if anyone has ever clapped me on the shoulders so enthusiastically.
I played the sound a few more times and the crake flew to the next field. We walked over to that field, played the sound again and it flew in a circle and off up the hill. It really made the night for the group. I really felt I played my part.
We went back to the hotel and had a great chat with a very random bunch of people that included topics like swimming with seals, opal mining in Coober Pedy, sweat lodges in Navan and the best possible way to roll down a hill.
Fulmar
Tuesday, July 05, 2016
Inishbofin, Connaught, Ireland
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2025-02-10
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margie
2016-07-05
It's great to see you blogging again, Mary. Really enjoying it.
Una
2016-07-10
I love your pictures Mary but I couldn't find the corncrake!