Sit and Staycation to Ireland

We don’t really take our dogs on holiday with us but we have taken them to Ireland a few times now.  Well this is Ellie’s first Dogliday really.  Why Ireland?  The travel is quite short and you don’t need doggy passports.  They do lots of cottages that take dogs.  They have fabulous open spaces up mountains and on empty beaches.  Mainly they have a very gentle climate that usually involves cloud and a bit of rain.  With dogs and a car that is the best option! 

When we arrived they were having unusual weather up to 23C and it was quite hard work even just to stop for a coffee or loo break.  Is there shade?  Can we let them out? etc but by the Monday everything was back to Ireland’s finest sunshine and showers, perfect for long walks and visits out for the humans too. I don’t think I have ever seen so many and such a variety of tractors in quite a small area ever before as the farmers were all working really hard to make haylage before the weather changed.  Right before our eyes green fields became stripped to gold and black wrapped bales appeared all over the place.

Making friends.

Exploring rock pools.

Just ensuring every inch of the beach is used at full speed.

Some of the huge cliffs along the coast.  You can just see the fence on the top right, that was about shoulder high on me.  Needless to say the dogs were safely in the car at this point!  Chris actually went down there via the far end and he was so tiny.  If I'd put one of those photos here you wouldn't be able to see him!

And the water was very clear.  That isn't shadow it's down to the bottom.  We saw a large pod of dolphins too but none of the photos came out clearly.

And a day later in the same spot a nice little swell came in and Chris managed some surfing which made his trip.  This actual break has quite a reputation and he had shown us some videos of huge waves here, really scary stuff but it's what Chris has done since before he could walk!  I'm just so happy for him that there was a wave, even if not of the huge variety, and there was only him and one other guy, it can become so crowded when the surf is good. 

Some of the locals chilling out.

Those cliffs!  Yes the Cliffs of Moher.  I have a bit of a bug bear about these.  It's all cordoned off and you have to pay to walk to them and look.  The visitor centre is just full of the usual plastic tat they call crafts.  (There were dozens of 'craft' shops which are actually just gift shops.  I've only ever found one genuine craft place in Ireland!) It's not the money, €6 each, but shouldn't landscape be just that?  Can you imagine not being able to see Lulworth Cove or most of the Jurassic Coast without being herded and charged?  A manmade attraction maybe, but nature? Just my thing I know.

Perfect doggy days.  Tully now has her swimsuit on.  She it a very good swimmer but she can be rolled around a bit when there is surf and Ellie also tends to try and run over her all the time!  This photo is showing the art of anticipation of the ball being thrown and trying to steal it before that happens.

And of course all that leads to complete satisfaction.  Unfortunately a still photo doesn't capture the fact that these three spent a lot of their sleeping time still running along those beaches, legs still going nine to the dozen!

Thank you for reading this far, I have a couple more photos to show later including the Spanish Gold!!!  And yes Benta, you were quite right, the person who lived in the house in the previous post would have been christened Edward but is better known as Father Ted.  You can go there for afternoon tea even though it is a private house but we were too early and I don't think the owner would have dressed as Mrs Doyle.

Back to a bit of work now the internet is actually trying to work!!!

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