Bioluminescent Kayaking

Kinsale to Skibbereen is only about 90 minutes, but it just so happens that this part of town is also home to the most famous golf course in all of Ireland – Old Head. Originally, Jonathan had looked at this one as an option for his 40^th birthday – but the price tag was a little too much sticker shock. At around $400 per person for golf, we decided we should stop and take a picture instead. Even that was hard to do……the course itself has a gate that should belong to a castle – you can’t even drive up to the golf course property without a reservation! But the views from that spot were still pretty epic!

So on to Skibbereen we go! When we started planning this trip with J&K, Katie had an IT issue (unrelated to the trip) that led to a very serendipitous moment while getting her laptop fixed! I won’t go into the long story of it all, but what she discovered was that she had a connection to a distillery called West Cork that is based in – you guessed it – Skibbereen! Leading up to the trip, we learned that they would be doing some tastings in Denver, so we tried them out so we could be the ‘experts’ on West Cork Irish Whiskey. When we got into town that afternoon, we were treated to a private tour of their distilleries thanks to the connections Katie had made. It was really neat to be able to tour a distillery that is not one you will regularly see on the Viator websites! Thanks, Katie for the awesome connection!

Following the distillery tour, Bryan and I were pretty tired and we still had a lot of day left to go – so we decided to go back for a nap while the other four toured more of the city! We all met back together for dinner at the Church. What has been so neat about Ireland is how many buildings have been repurposed for use today, rather than a scrape and rebuild. We had the

Bank Bar, the Old Bank Hotel and now the Church restaurant! This building was used as a church from 1883-2003 when it was repurposed for use as a restaurant. Unfortunately, in 2006, there was a terrible fire destroying the building – but they restored it as best as they could to it’s original look.

Now is the time where I answer the question you didn’t ask – why were we on the road so much instead of staying in one place? As we were planning this trip, a friend and former co-worker of Bryan’s who lives in Dublin, mentioned this lake called Lough (lock) Hyne and how it was the only saltwater lake in Europe. If you visited it at just the right time of year, you could kayak at night (yes at night) and see the bioluminescence that came off the lake due to the saltwater. Once Bryan heard about this, he wanted to do everything he could to make the kayak trip happen! He did a lot of research and discovered that the season to see it would just be starting toward the end of our trip – so we needed to visit on this particular day to try and see it in action.

This kayaking trip was the other reason we needed to get a rental car. The trip was about 15 minutes outside of Skibbereen with no bus, so it made the most sense for us to drive ourselves. The adventure had us starting at 8:30pm at the lake. We were able to get ‘suited up’ and enjoy the lake scenery before it got dark. While we were waiting, we saw a seal in the water! We later learned that there is one entry point that connects the lake to the ocean – which is how it becomes the saltwater lake. When the tide is high, other creatures come in from the ocean and sometimes will stick around! The guides told us they have seen sharks and even a four foot long lobster – so the seal was also no surprise!

In order to see the bioluminescence you have to kayak when it is dark out or it can’t be seen. This can certainly cause challenges since you have to ask yourself – how do I know where to kayak and go? The instructors did a great job of numbering us off so that we all could report back and make sure we were accounted for. They also each had a red light (rather than white) to follow, one instructor stayed in the front and one kept the rear.

The kayaks were for two people and the back person ‘steered’ with their feet – so I assigned Bryan to that job. It was such a cool experience kayaking all around the lake – they essentially had us take one big loop around the exterior. At one point, the instructors had said ‘don’t go to the right of me’, but somehow Bryan and I missed him saying that and we got stuck on the rocks. Because you couldn’t see much, it was hard to push ourselves out, but it made for the most beautiful site – the sparks were flying! Yes, we were fortunate enough to see the bioluminescence throughout our trip! I had taken my phone to take pictures but quickly realized that you wouldn’t be able to capture it. It’s just too quick and magical for a photo to do it justice. The best way to see it was when there was friction with the water – so when we got stuck on the rocks, it was great – ha! We could regularly see it when our paddles hit the water and off the back of another’s kayak as it made waves. It was so incredible and we were all thankful we had the opportunity to see it!

It was so dark out on the lake that it was a bit misleading how far you were or where you were on the lake, so I was ready to be done when we wrapped up – and cold! Multiple times we said to each other, we’re kayaking in Ireland at night – how amazing?! To learn all about this adventure, check out their website with Atlantic Sea Kayaking here.

Once we got back to the hotel, we were all running a bit on adrenaline, so we grabbed a drink at the bar before they closed, and then another nightcap in the hotel room and played some games. One more day to go!