The water is crystal clear to the very bottom and lights up in soft greens. Then Dusty swims by, sleek and silvery, slender sunlight undulations sliding along her grace like a golden shroud. I do a rapid hand-flap in the water. She turns and bends towards me and I kneel on the steps, one foot prepared to get wet. I reach for the tip of her beak and after a tickle she rolls on her side and enjoys the strokes of my fingers across the creases in her throat. I touch a tip in the little dimple under her pectoral fin and wriggle it a little to her intense delight. Our eyes meet, hers relaxed, half closed, it's been a while, last time I swam with her was in July.
Then a woman reaches out from one step above me and an obese boy in fatsuit wades towards her on the submerged landing. Dusty sinks away, rises and throws water at the boy who takes a step back but does not get the message. Who am I to tell them not to crowd the dolphin. Dusty can take care of that herself very well.
Two girls jump in. I go up the steps and from the pier above I can see one of the girls go deep and swim alongside Dusty in touching harmony. It's a wonderful sight and so inviting. Soon a waterproof contraption for my dialysis tube will arrive and I'll be able to join Dusty again.
Ever more people gather on the pier, but not for the dolphin. The ferry from the Aran Islands is approaching the mooring and to the crowd Dusty's an exiting pastime. Dusty goes off to greet the ship and during the boarding Dusty cruises on the other side of the dieseling boat.
Around the pier there was not a single parking place left, so I had to resort to the large space along the harbour. Apparently all the boat tourists want to restrain themselves from avoidable exertion. Typical.
Earlier I had gone down to Pollenawatch. So very different! All along the stumble path flowers bloomed. Purple orchids in abundance, a sweet scent drifting in the breeze, birds chattering away on the ivy-clad bull-rocks, the water, crystal clear and in but a ripple, but no dolphin… She now lets herself be awed from a concrete landing.
In Doolin at least it's easy to access the water. Inside Crab Island, which forms the outer corner of the squarish Doolin calm water, even at rather high winds it's not too much of a problem. The slipway lies in the lee of the pier and aside the corner opposite from Crab Island there are two small sandy beaches. Fortunately for us it is not allowed to launch private ribs and the like from the slipway. You do have to watch the ferries, though. Even when they're moored they let the engine run and from the pier above you can see the current of water, but you can't see that when you're in the water. So keep your distance! If the ferries are inconvenienced in their manoeuvring swimming in the harbour may be prohibited or Dusty will be blamed. And then I panic back to 2004 when in Fanore, for a similar reason, the County Clare Council wanted to shoot the dolphin. Some people can be rather intolerant when they see their income threatened.
It looks like, after the relative seclusion in Fanore for two years Dusty has chosen Doolin this summer as a the-more-the-merrier location.