Robert's Ramblings

Just under two kilometres north east of Skellig Michael is its smaller sibling, ‘Little Skellig’ or ‘Sceilig Bheag’ in the native Irish tongue.

I first laid eyes on Sceilig Bheag seven years ago and was introduced to the home of one of the northern hemispheres largest colonies of gannet, along with its incredible accompanying smell. There were six of us that day, my wife and four of our closest Australian friends. This time I was with a group of strangers who would later become good friends.

Not more than an hour after capturing this image, I got the chance to scuba dive below Sceilig Bheag’s mysterious waterline and glimpse just a little of what she hides from the rest of the world.

From this day I become hooked on Kerry diving.


#adventure #birds #crag #freedom #gannets #ireland #island #kerry #littleskellig #ocean #portmagee #seabirds #solitude #theskelligs #travel #aerial #seascape #landscape

Over the last 6 months I have come to know the County Kerry town of Cahersiveen quite well.

As this is the home port of the Inbhear Sceine Kerry Sub Aqua Club, we have departed from here for many amazing diving adventures off the amazing South West coast of Ireland.

On top of the incredible diving, we have stayed here, we have visited the cafes, restaurants, and pubs here, and we have made friends here.

Even if you have no intentions of getting wet, Cahersiveen is a wonderful base to explore the South West of Ireland. If you are a scuba diver, the Inbhear Sceine can show you some of the very best diving to be found in all of Ireland.


#abstract #aerial #ireland #kerry #Cahersiveen #tinyplanet #wildatlanticway #skelligcoast

Of my many different diving experiences here in Ireland, the most profound would have to be depth. My previous South Australian dives averaged 15 meters, now off the coast of Kerry, it’s more like 35.

With these depths come the loss of light, the loss of colour and the urgency of time. Below 30m, especially with turbid upper layers, the gloom becomes palpable, mysterious, teasing and inviting.

At 40 meters, and with lights, it is like night diving where the torchlight brings the underwater world to life in a video roll of incident light. There is security in that little bit of light but if you are game to turn off all lights, to hang out over deep water away from structures, and to let night vision do its thing, something magic happens.

I find it difficult to put into words that feeling of floating in a void of shadows and shapes. I seem to be aware of the bottom below and the structures around me but they have no substance, no threat, they are simply ‘there’. When the torchlight of another diver penetrates that void, the sharp relief of substance is both jarring and beautiful at the same time.

It’s been a long time since I really got to ‘feel’, diving. The magic of the gloom has brought that feeling back.


#Scuba #diving #kerry #ireland #deep #gloom #portmagee #InbhearSceineKerrySubAquaClub

No I am not about to stop diving with these guys, far from it, I plan on many, many more dives to come. I am imagining however that these may have been the words my camera might have uttered as it captured its last image.

Here we are on the east side of Puffin Island, Co Kerry and just about to descend on what would be my first camera-less dive in years. Yes, my camera started the dive, but never made it past a few meters before a catastrophic flood sent it off on and entirely different trip.

After 15 years of faithful service it was time to say goodbye to and old dear friend.


#Scuba #diving #inbhearsceinekerrysubaqua #ireland #kerry #boating #rib

We were diving very deep to avoid the surge above but even here below 30m we were tossed back and forth making photography tricky.

While capturing this edible sea urchin I waited for the leaf like red algae to be pushed down flat by the surge. It never was, I think it had gotten impaled on the urchin's spines.


#critters #diving #echinoderms #Echinusesculentus #edibleseaurchin #ireland #kerry #scuba #seaurchin #underwater #InbhearSceineSubAqua

I’d never really done much RIB (rigid-hull inflatable boat) based diving before coming to Ireland.

Back in South Australia, not including an inflatable hull boat I owned in my twenties, I could count my time diving from RIBs on one hand. Almost all of my boat diving was from off-shore equipped rigid fiberglass or aluminium boats.

Here diving in Ireland now for the last 4 months, the only diving I have been doing if from RIBs with guys and gals of Inbhear Sceine Kerry Sub Aqua club.

There once was a time when a nice dry cabin had its appeal but for its size nothing beats the seaworthiness of a RIB powering through moderate seas, its stability at rest and the ease of getting in and out. Try getting back up the ladder of an anchored rigid boat in big seas and you risk being smashed by the heaving transom, ladder or outboard. A RIB on the other hand is a delight in the same conditions where you can simply pull yourself up and over the buoyancy tubes and back into the boat.

Now that I’ve had a taste for rubber over glass there just might be a RIB somewhere in my diving future here or back in South Australia.


#inbhearSceine #kerrysubaaquacclub #rib #scuba #diving #kerry #skelligmichael #portmagee

What a strange sight among the graves of Cill Mhic Dhuach, a man in a hazmat suit power cleaning a tombstone with the precision of a dental hygienist.

Perhaps the cleaning is required as part of some study where researchers need unrestricted access to the stone surface. Perhaps it is part of some tourist beautification program. Or perhaps a family is paying respect by up keeping the grave of an ancestor.

Ultimately, lichens and their associated bio-communities will be the ultimate protectors of the stones and the stories they hold. I hope that to protect the past, the graveyard shift ultimately becomes a thing of the past.


#CillMhicDhuac #Kilmacduagh #countyclare #ireland #travel #journalism #blackandwhite

You could be forgiven for being confused by such an exotically named plant presenting itself so devilishly. The true beauty of this intriguing Nigella damascena is yet to emerge.

Very soon those green veined leaves will fold back, turn blue, and reveal themselves as the petals of a dramatic and exotic flower. The common name, love-in-a-mist, comes from the effect in full bloom of beautiful blue petals floating in a filigree mist of fine green.

This time of year the Burren, in Co Clare, Ireland, is awash with colour as wildflower adorn the ditches and rocky landscape in all directions. It is a very special place that rewards stillness with a great sense of belonging to the land.

The Burren is a place I recommend visiting and spending time in. You may or may not find something very special here but at least the wildflowers will not disappoint.


#Loveinamist #nigelladamascena #nigella #ireland #wildflowers #burren #flowers #burrennationalpark

Another beautiful jellyfish, the crystal jelly (Aequorea victoria), is normally almost perfectly clear but when disturbed it illuminates its outer bell in a blue-green glow using tiny light producing organs.

The light producing substance harvested from these guys is aequorin, a calcium-activated photoprotein used in medical research. The crystal jelly is also the very same creature who’s genes have been inserted into mice to make them glow green as their genetically modified bodies produce their own aequorin.

As the water here off the coast of Kerry is still getting warmer I’m looking forward to these guys being around for a few more months yet.


#crystaljelly #aequoreavictoria #jellyfish #ireland #scuba #diving #kerry #wildatlanticway #aequorin

Ireland’s Burren National Park, or simply ‘The Burren’ is unlike anything you would have imaged to be Irish landscape.

It is said that Oliver Cromwell, during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland circa 1650, when he first saw the Burren, said, “There isn’t a tree to hang a man, water to drown a man, nor soil to bury a man.”

Despite it’s stark almost sterile aspect from afar, up close the Burren is an oasis of life, abundant in flora, fauna and ancient human history. When we visited here a couple weeks ago it was awash with colour as wildflowers bloomed from every conceivable nook, crack and cranny.

This is a place to find solitude and feel the juxtaposition of wide open barren rock landscape with the rich colour of living things.

I first came here over twenty years ago and will always be back for more.


#Ireland #landscape #countyclare #burren #burrennationalpark #tinyplanet