Taking Trains and Boarding Boats in Cork

Recently, I had an all-new experience, as I learned how to take the train from Dublin all the way down to Cork. I have taken the train from Dublin to Belfast before, but never to Cork. From Cork train station, I then took the train to Cobh, where I stayed at the Commodore Hotel. I have stayed at this hotel quite a few times when I was little, which is why I wanted to spend the night there out of nostalgia.

The following morning, after breakfast and packing my things, I took the train to Fota Wildlife Park, which has its own station. This was one of two major reasons for this holiday, as I wanted to learn how to get to Fota by train whenever I want to visit the park again. It was also the first time I have visited Fota on my own, as I usually visit with my parents. Due to the limited phone storage I had, I decided to just take my time to see everything, and I only took a few photos with my phone, snapping the Indian rhino, drill, and elongated tortoises; after all, I have plenty of photos of most of the species that particularly interest me. I most looked forward to visiting the Tropical House again, having been closed due to COVID, and I managed to see the new baby sloth, with only its arm visible on its mother’s belly. This was also my first time entering the indoor part of the Madagascan village, which had tanks for day geckos, golden mantella frogs, hissing cockroaches, a stick insect, and a fish tank (which I also photographed), along with information boards about lemurs and the biodiversity of Madagascar. After I had finished walking around the park, I headed to Fota House to meet my parents, who had been waiting for me in the gardens, so that we could all drive to Glandore, where we had booked a place to stay for three nights.

On our first day in Glandore, my parents and I went for a big long walk to the Rineen Forest recreational area, passing through the village of Unionhall along the way. From the forests overlooking the mudflats, we could see two cormorants, one that was standing on submerged ground before flying off, and another much further away but following the first one just seconds later. We also saw not one but two curlews flying in more or less the same direction as the cormorants, and we heard their distinctive calls before spotting them. As it was lashing rain during this time, we ended up getting soaked despite bringing our waterproofs and umbrellas with us, so when we walked all the way back, we got changed before having sandwiches for lunch.

We had booked to go whale watching with Cork Whale Watch in the hope of seeing whales and dolphins out at sea, the other major reason for our trip. However, our trip was cancelled once again due to the weather, and so we booked a trip with Whale Watch West Cork, hosted by the zoologist Nic Slocum. We arrived early at Baltimore Harbour, and took the boat from there, sailing past Sherkin Island as we headed to Cape Clear Island. Along the way there, we saw several seals resting on small islands of rock, as well as various seabirds, including gannets (which I had seen in the bay at Glandore on our first night there), guillemots, and black-backed gulls. We spent about an hour on Cape Clear where we had lunch and investigated part of the island. I am actually going to spend two nights on the island later this year, so its good that we went there and got a gist of the place. We also met the island’s warden, Steve Wing, who showed us part of the bird observatory where I would be sleeping. Afterwards, we took the boat back to the mainland, seeing more guillemots, black-backs and gannets, as well as cormorants and shags, and what may well have been manx shearwaters. While the journey to Cape Clear was pretty stable with mild weather, the trip back to the mainland proved to be a bit more rocky as the boat undulated up and down with the waves, with some splashes onto the boat and ourselves, but we weren’t too wet by the time we got back. Though we had not seen a single cetacean on this trip, we at least saw plenty of interesting wildlife, and we got to visit Cape Clear in preparation for my stay on the island.

We left the following morning, stopped by Clonakilty for some tea and treats, and then went straight home, arriving around lunchtime. As I went upstairs, I was surprised to see a young magpie in Mum’s office, behind the blind in front of the window. I also saw some bird poo on the floor, not to mention some stuff had been knocked down in the bathroom. We kept the door closed over while Dad tried to grab the magpie with leather gloves, then we took it out into the park and released it there. My parents then did a big cleanup of the magpie’s mess upstairs while I had lunch. Just days later, we found an adult magpie trapped in the blocked fireplace in my parents’ room, suggesting that this is how the younger magpie ended up inside our house.

Anyway, during our trip we have achieved quite a lot of things. I learned how to take the train from Dublin to Cork, and from there to Fota, and we visited Cape Clear for the first time, getting our first impressions of the island, and I’m sure I’ll explore more of it when I stay there later this year.

And by the way, Happy Belated World Oceans Day!