What would you do on a Wednesday evening...

George's Head seen from Middle rock

Off course you could wonder intensely on CR7 haircut during a penalty shootout...
Or you could head down to Kilkee, for an evening dive.... as I did

Oru club had the boat moored in Kilkee bay for the week, after a busy weekend, doing water safety for the Kilkee Hell of the West triathlon (  http://www.limericktriathlon.com/drupal/?q=kilkee  )  like we do every year.

This time I actually decided to stay for the Saturday night in Kilkee, enjoy a few scoops in the local pub ( The Skinny dog ... or more accurately The Greyhound Bar ... not to name it ) with triathletes, and their partners. We also manage to squeeze a dive or 2 over the weekend.

With the boat easily accessible ( no need for launch or recovery, happy days) , we decided to go on for a midweek dive.
When I arrive the sea was flat calm, and the temptation to go farther the coastline was pressing, but the lack of dry cox made me think better of it. Five of us were diving.
So I settle upon middle rock once more, the visibility in the water had deteriorated from the weekend.

Funnily Sunday, the visibility was poor, green and murky for the first 15 meters but all cleared up down below. On Wednesday however it was murky all the way down ... which did not help my photo-graphical skills ...

Poor visibilty.. combined to poor white balance settings

Middle Rock: Right in the mouth of Kilkee Bay, this is said to be one of the finest dive sites in the area. On nautical charts you'll find it rightly in the middle of a groups labelled "Black Rocks" from the color you can see when the tip of the rocks emerge from the water.

Middle rock is easier to access than outer rock, which usually see big waves and swell even on calm sea, we usually approach it from the North, dropping the divers the deeper (up to 33 meters ) and leaving them heading south to find the sheer wall of the rock.

While the first group was enjoying the site under we made use of a fishing rod, and were lucky enough to capture some mackerels.

Soon enough it was time, to go back to land, moor the boat ( no tricky boat recovery this time ) and head for the next curry in town.

Happy divers... post dive...

Incidently you can check the different dive sites in Kilkee on our friends website http://www.kilkeesubaquaclub.com/ , I encourage you to have a read at Noel Gleeson on "Oileán Na Bátha".

 How else would you spend your Wednesday evening ?

Picless update - ending June

Hi, no pic in this post, somehow, I did not take the time to get my cameras out in those lats two weeks, since my parents left.
Not that those two weeks haven't been busy:
- a quiet session in Dr john to catch up with the local francophone biologist from UL.
- A Sunday in Doolin, diving with underwater birds and dolphins. It actually killed me not to have my camera on those dives :).
- A play in BellTable : PigTown - worth checking out if you are around, or if someone decide to replay it.
- Another good music session in Bourkes, this time the band was "Funeral Suits"
- A boring friday night in the Limerick Horse Race.... seems the event has been getting quieter and quieter with the end of the boom.
- A wet saturday in Kilkee bay, covering fro the Hell of the west triathlon.
- Followed by some good catch up in the local pub ( skinny dog it was ). By the way triathletes are sexy :)
- A short sweet dive on middle rock on sunday followed by some healthy food watching the gorgeous bay while basking in the sun.


That's about it... now roll on next weekend and the sea session.... and this time i'll bring out my camera.

Parents Irish Holidays - Part 3 Donegal

Guinness for strength...

Heather Blooming

Sheeps on Donegal cliffs...

Donegal coastline...

Walking on Aran Mor

The Ferry to bring us back on land

Carrick-on Shannon pub ... Ireland coloured

Bundoran Beach

Walking on Donegal beaches of fine sand

Mum

Dad

The END

The End

Parents Irish Holidays - Part 2 Northern Ireland

Starting with Belfast and the Titanic experience, very good, worth a trip

Newspaper headline...

the last message of the Titanic...

Titanic last message....

Then the Giant Causeway....

My folks walking to the causeway ...

Dad on top of the Giant Causeway...

Walking on the giant causeway

Viewed from the top of the cliff.

Northern Ireland Coastline

Pause...

Coastline on the right of the rope bridge.... blue sky and sea

The rope bridge

Derry the republican side and the graffiti

  Last stop Derry and the republican side.

Parents Irish Holidays - Part 1 Dublin

Dublin, Temple Bar

Temple Bar Pub

Local drink: Guiness

A pint of Guinness on top of the storehouse

Side of a Pub in Temple Bar

Old dubliner painting

On the liffey

Tall ship on the liffey

Irish Holidays with my parents

I am back from 10 days travelling with my parents in the North of Ireland with my parents. A good occasion for me to visit, Irish places I don't usually hang into.

Here's the full road trip ( minus some detours ):
View Larger Map

Over 1400 km, a couple of days in Dublin , then in UK before finishing in Donegal.

Tallship anchored on the Liffey

Guinness for moral support

First we started in Dublin Visiting the Guinness StoreHouse The quays, and Trinity College and the book of Kells

Sculputre along the old quays

 

That's the way to ensure it won't be stolen...

 Also a bit of wandering under the sun in the streets of the fair city: We also visited St Patrick Cathedral, and seen it's organ fund:

A keg as an organ fund... inside St Patrick cathedral ... ???

Suprisingly at the restaurant in Temple Bar I was able to find some Muprhy:

My favourite stout... Murphy

Then after a small detour through NewGrange ,we were off to Belfast to see the Titanic Quarter:

The entrance of the Titanic experience...

The dry dock in the Titanic Quarter in Belfast

We settle for a couple of days in Antrim, visiting the Bushmills Old Distillery:

A nice sample of Bushmills

 Then the Giant Causeway, and the coastline. Before going back to the republic we went to Derry:

Diamong in Derry

 The flower were blooming all over the place...

Heather blooming

We settled in Killybeg for a couple of days:

Killybeg fishing harbour

Off course we had a bit more pints of Guiness:

Mor stout

And healthy Irish breakfast:

Irish Breakfast ... foodporn

We also did a bit of tweed shopping:

Tweed shopping

It was soon time to go back to Dublin, but on the way back we stopped at the Bundoran beaches:

Bundoran Beach

And Carrick On Shannon. By 5PM wednesday we were in Dublin, I said goodbye to my parents before they fly back to France, and soon I was on the way back to Limerick via the bus:

On the way back to Limerick

 I realize that I have a lot more pics, so I'll add a post or 2 to add those later.

All picture on this post taken with Instagram on Android.