24th August 2017

Dog‘s Bay. A place that has taken me by surprise.

We are driving through Ireland in our campervan. Well, I‘m driving – my mum and my sister are sitting next to me and behind me enjoying the scenery, which is passing us outside of our little home on wheels. Two weeks we are on the road alltogether, before we will enjoy another two days in Dublin. It‘s summer back in Germany, hot, really hot, and especially my mum is delighted and glad to be out of the heat. The weather in Ireland has been fresh the past days. We have woken up to some rainy and windy days. Our bodies are craving for some warmth from the sun. Today seems to be a good day. But we know already how quickly this can change in Ireland, we have experienced it ourselves.

We are on our way to the northern part of Ireland. We wanna see Connemara National Park in Co. Galway on the way, and we want to stop at Dog‘s bay before that. I‘ve read about it in a little book, which has a good collection of hiking tracks all around Ireland in it, and Dog‘s bay sounded nice. There is only one picture, so I don‘t know exactly what to expect.

When we arrive, I‘m forming this big smile on my face, my eyes grow big and my heart warm. We get out of the car and I walk down the beach with part of me being in disbelief. I have been to beaches in Ireland before, but this one doesn‘t look typically irish to me. The sand is white and soft, there are beautiful shells, which the ocean has washed to the shore, and the water is just full of colours of blue and green. It‘s like the Atlantic has brought a bit of the Caribbean all over the ocean to this corner of the island. I‘m thinking that this is as Caribbean as it can get on irish soil.

We decide to follow the hiking track, or part of it, and walk across wide meadows with yellow flowers. The breeze from the sea smells good, salty, and wild. Clouds and blue sky share the sky today and we change from being too warm in our clothes to being too cold from the wind as soon as the sun hides. After we have crossed the meadow we arrive at the other side – another bay with the same sand, same colour water and no soul anywhere near. Big rocks are spread around the bay and it looks like someone just dropped them like you would do in a game to design a landscape. I wonder where they come from and how long they‘ve been sitting there. I always had a weak spot for rocks in nature. There is something mystic to them. While nature always comes and goes with the seasons, changes, sometimes dies, before it‘s reborn in spring, the rocks just sit there, solid, watching, and making sure everything is ok. They are peaceful.

We walk back to the first beach to be close to our campervan. When we stroll over the meadow we see some dark clouds in the very distance. As soon as we arrive at the beach we know, it‘s either now in the sun, or never. We quickly walk to the campervan, put our swimmingsuits on, get our towels and find a spot at the beach, to walk down to the waves. The water is totally freezing, but that won‘t stop us. It‘s the warmest day since we arrived in Ireland and the most beautiful beach we might cross during our tour. My legs want to step backwards, but my mind pushes forward and there I stand – in the North Atlantic Ocean.
My mind thinks, this is fantastic! – and –  I‘m freezing to death! My sister is tougher than me. She has dreadlocks and wants to give them some nice treatment. Salty water from the ocean is just that, so she breathes in deeply and dives under water with her whole body and head. That also marks the end to her bath session, she quickly gets out of the water to the towels and my mum and myself follow her. Just then the first drops start to hit the warm sand and we rush to the campervan to dry us inside, while the rain drums nature’s songs on the roof and windows of our home.