Dutchman sells home so he can swim with a County Clare dolphin
Exclusive, by Lynne Kelleher
A Dutch sculptor is so smitten by a friendly Irish dolphin he has sold his farmhouse and moved all he owns to a stretch of coastline near the wild mammal.
The 54-year-old ocean lover has swapped his airy country home for the cramped space of a Renault van to the people-loving female dolphin.
Dusty the Dolphin seems happiest when she is in a crowd of swimmers but she has reserved a special relationship for Jan Ploeg.
The water-mad artist carries fibreglass water wings and slips both feet into a single large flipper called a mono-fin before jumping into the sea at a tiny beach just outside the village of Fanore in Co. Clare.
The dolphin and her biggest fan perform a sort of undersea ballet dance mimicking each other's movements.
The single fin and the wing, invented by the Dutchman, enable him to speed through the water with the fast-moving dolphin: "I've spend 10 years developing the water wing. It's made of fibreglass and there are holes in it to fill it with water so you can dive".
He says his relationship with the mammal has developed every day for the past two months and said: "It's like dipping one foot in paradise".
"Our swims are getting better and better. I think of them as a type of ballet. We're getting to know each other really well. Now we just give each other a nod or a wink and we'll swim off one way or the other."
"She definitely recognises other people. I go in every day, sometimes once and sometimes twice. It doesn't really matter about the time or if the sun is shining. It's the feeling I get with Dusty."
"Sometimes we really communicate and other times she flies away to the beach to other people."
Jan, a sculptor, who spent four years studying anthropology and sociology says he is fascinated by the way dolphins interact with humans.
He said: "They are so intelligent. They were around 35 million years before us."
"People want to meet beings from another planet but we have a whole civilisation under the ocean. I want to get to know them and learn how to communicate."
Jan began his love affair with whales and dolphins 16 years ago after suffering writer's block.
The artist, who was diagnosed with manic depression 30 years ago, was struggling to regain his creative edge when he decided to go to an island for a few weeks.
He said: "I was sitting on the beach one day and I remember thinking I'd love it if a whale came out of the water."
"I went to a dolphinarium in Holland soon afterwards and was talking to one of the staff when I got the impression someone was watching me. When I looked up I saw an Orca peering out of a window in a pool."
"To me she had all these questions in her eye. I became fascinated then and have wanted to know more about whales and dolphins ever since."
Now Jan sculpts his favourite whales and dolphins and has an exhibition in the Green Room Gallery in Dingle, Kerry.
He first heard about Irish dolphins when he met conservationist Horace Dobbs on a whale-watching holiday in Tenerife in September, 1990.
Horace told him about a famous Irish dolphin called Funghi and added that: "Dolphins were very good for uplifting the spirits."
Jan said: "Two years after meeting Horace I saved enough money and I decided to go over to Funghi. I first swam with him in 1992. I felt really great after staying with the dolphin. It does help you on the spot but afterwards the feeling goes."
After swimming with Dusty for the first time last summer Jan decided to sell-up and move to Ireland.
He said: "There are only about 10 wild dolphins who interact with people in this way in the world. And there were about five of them last year in Ireland."
"It was then that I heard about Dusty. Fungi is now more interested in boats. He will dart away from you - but Dusty loves people."
"I went home last year and sold the farmhouse. I'm 54 years of age now. I decided it was a case of now or never."
"I'm now living out of a Renault Express and camping. I'm living very cheaply at the moment but I'm hoping to go to Connemara and start sculpting."
"I would prefer to be in more comfort but at the moment the dolphin makes up for everything."
He said Dusty, who is also known as Mara or Fainne, Orb or just the Dolphin zigzags between swimmers.
"She is very gentle, can travel at 40 kph and is about 10 foot long so we think she is about ten years old."
"She never stops me getting out of the water even though she is so powerful."
"She loves when you make sounds in the water and some people think dolphins can help heal people."
"I've heard that Fungi has gone towards a boat with a sick child on a number of occasions when there are lots of tourists boats out and stayed beside it all the time."
"For it to happen ones is unusual but a number of times and it makes you think."
He said she often brings little 'presents' to some of her regular swimmers: "She does different things with different people. I came across Uata one day on the beach and there was a pile of stuff next to her."
"I asked her was she collecting the stuff but she pointed out to the dolphin in the sea and said: 'she is bringing it to me'."
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