Today I started my day off by mentally preparing myself for rowing, but not the traditional rowing you’ve seen in The Boys In The Boat, but rather traditional Irish Naomhóg (pronounced nave-og). I had never heard of this rowing prior to coming to Dingle. Naomhóg rowing boats consist of 4 seats with each rower having two oars. I was surprised at how narrow the oars themselves were with the ends of the oars being around three inches wide. Our guide Luke was only 13 years old which surprised all of us at how young yet skilled he was. The rowing technique itself was challenging at times as it required you to cross your hands over each other with one being your top hand and one being the bottom hand. I felt most comfortable with my left hand on top and right on bottom. After cracking my knuckles together several times, our voyage with Luke came to an end.
Next item on the list was sustenance, coffee and a crepe. Our group of rowers found a near by crepe shop where I ordered a cappuccino and a lemon sugar crepe. Following our snack break we made our way to the Sacred Heart classroom on The Mall where we discussed our next ordeal.
After a bagged lunch at the classroom, we made our way to Hussey’s Foley near the Dingle Harbor where we observed different sectors within a large intertidal area. My partners, Jarret, Nate and myself, found some intriguing animals in our intertidal sectors. Our finds included Plumose Anemone, Velvet Swimming crabs, common sea stars, Shany’s, and Common Prawn. As we explored the surrounding tide pools I couldn’t help but feel slightly like Charles Darwin or a young Teddy Roosevelt collecting data samples and exploring new land; at least new to me. After we finished our three required data collection sites.
Nate, Jarret and I continued to scour the rocks and tide pools in search of whatever little creatures we could find to scratch our itch for adventure and exploration. Once we had our fill of species searching, we made our way down to the light house where we were able to look out into the North Atlantic Ocean with Skellig Michael in the background. As I sat on my grassy rock perch, I was impressed and taken aback by the sheer beauty and vastness of the view from the top of the rock. 

Today in Dingle we left our hostel and drove through Conor Pass through the mountains with the bus going up and down its rolling hills. With a one lane road it's still two way traffic so it gets a bit sketchy when the bus pulls off near the cliff edge to let the traffic go.
But as we arrived at the Mahrees it leveled out from farmland to a tombola, which is a sandy isthmus that connects to pieces of land via sand. As we arrived at the conservation area we met Martha Farrell, a conservationist working for a nonprofit that helps rewild the beaches of the Maharees.
From DJ raves to “wild camping” the beaches got decimated by us humans. The grass was broken off and the sand blows away due to the lack of root structure to hold the sand and keep the dunes in place. Martha's job was to plant more marram grasses to help reshape the dunes and rewild the beaches. We measured in a 30 meter radius the floral fauna that grows naturally along the grasses, and looked at the newly planted grasses and see what other fauna have come back with the recent plantings.
We learned a lot about the different views of nature and how the locals treated the environmentalists. And it's not the happiest attitude when trying to get rid of OSV (On Sand Vehicles) beach access. The funny thing about that is it's heavily frowned upon here but where I'm from, Martha's Vineyard, people come from all over the world to sit on the beaches with their cars. Martha's vineyard is not the only place where it's allowed, along the coast of New England many people drive their cars on the beach daily. It's very interesting to see the divide between what's accepted and what's frowned upon.
The vineyard has the same problem with storms and people ravaging the beaches and it's only a matter of time till my home makes the very hard decision to close OSV access. Martha talked about the response to closing the “wild camping spots' ' they were named like the “no fun police”. I hope as a society we can bridge this disconnect between recreation, lifestyle and environmentalism so that we all can have a good time while protecting and furthering the life of different species and floral fauna.