Dingle's famous resident is its dolphin named Fungie. Fungie the dolphin has been living in Dingle Bay in Ireland's west coast since the early 1980s, when he just arrived into the bay alone. He enjoyed Dingle Bay so much that he stayed, and he enjoys seeing the visitors and chasing the boats. I wanted to catch a glimpse of the famous resident during my visit to Dingle, so we headed to the harbour to book a tour. Morning tours were cancelled, so we had a bite to eat and then went back to the harbour in Dingle for a chance of seeing the dolphin.
After our pub lunch on the harbour, we waited for our boat to arrive. When our boat arrived, we boarded it and were taken out to the sea, passing the fishing boats in the harbour.
Our boat, the Lady Laura, had a resident dog. This was the first they had gone out that day to look for the dolphin, so it probably felt that the day was a little different.
As we sailed further out into the bay, Dingle looked fascinating from the distance with its harbour and the mountains in the background.
We caught sight of lighthouses and sea cliffs. We admired these before the boats started to look for Fungie. We kept our eyes open, but we did not see any signs of the dolphin. We were joined by two other boats looking for him as well, and a small boat also joined us to aid in locating him. We kept circling for awhile.
Finally, we caught sight of him. He was swimming between the boats, but it did feel as though we were disturbing him and chasing him. I'm sure we were not as the boat owners love this dolphin and would never harm him, but I could not help but to feel that we were in his territory and that he wanted to be left alone. I think that maybe he was relaxing and sleeping in.
Fungie is a Bottlenose Dolphin, but no one knows how old he is. He's made the bay his home since the early 1980s. Dolphins live to be about 50 years of age. When I saw him early last June, he would have just enjoyed thirty years at Dingle Bay.
The boats kept following him and circling around to locate him. At times, he seemed to play with the boats. Unfortunately, he never jumped out of the water so that I could get a decent photograph.
We caught glimpses of him around our boat or the other boats, but they did not last long. I got the feeling that he just wanted to be left alone and he lived near the sea cliffs on that side of the harbour.
For those unlucky to see him, the visitors get their money back. Apparently, this does happen a few times a year. I'm sure Fungie needs to take "sick days" from time to time.
After watching him for a few passes and circling around the boats, we headed back to the harbour.
Our next stop was the drive to Kilarney, as that was the next area in Ireland that we would visit.
Have you see Dingle's famous dolphin, Fungie?
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