NEVER STOP DISCOVERING

NEVER STOP DISCOVERING contrast I was seated on a colossal horse called Jack, a benign beast whose only sign of chagrin at the incompetent buffoon on his back was the occasional roll of his eyes and contemptuous snort. Over the next few days we roamed throughout the county, visiting the Folk Village at Glencolmcille to glimpse a past that had been anything but easy – this was and is a beautiful place in which to travel, but had at times been a harsh one in which to live. This perhaps explains why community in Donegal remains so strong to this day, with a genuine warmth and a profound interest in who you are, where you’ve come from, and where you are going. Our most challenging location was Port, situated at the end of a long stony track, which itself was the continuation of a narrow road that snaked across endless miles of misty peat bog. At the end of the road sat Port Cottage, a restored building in a long abandoned hamlet that looked straight down the gun barrel of the Atlantic. The cottage was basic, to say the least, but therein lay its magic. A turf fire burnt in the corner of an atmospheric room containing a small kitchenette and living area. This was strewn with the detritus of the sea, the flames reflected in emerald sea glass and dancing through dried kelp strands that hung from the ceiling. It was in this bay that Isla – accompanied by the incomparable Ian Millar, local climbing legend – became the youngest person ever to climb a nearby sea stack, arms raised in triumph as the sea swirled fifty metres below, and the gulls wheeled and called in the sea mist that surrounded her lofty perch. But the final hurrah was still to come. I had stored the boat locally during the week, and retrieved it in order to whisk the family to a place of genuine wonder for me: Malin Head. Rightly revered amongst mariners, wildlife enthusiasts, and indeed anyone who loves wild places, it was here of course that I had my basking shark encounter so many years before. Launching the boat was a chance to use the Land Rover Advanced Tow Assist, a wondrous wee dial on the Discovery’s central console that essentially steers the trailer down the narrowest of slipways. This gives ample opportunity to leap out of the car looking smug, giving every appearance of a salty old sea dog, when in fact it’s a triumph of technology rather than personal competence and know-how. But for now, that was my dirty little secret as I acknowledged the smile of a local man on the jetty with a modest tilt of my head. We spent the majority of that day at sea, going as far as Inishtrahull Island – frequently the last sight of land for anyone emigrating from Ireland, and therefore a place that has had more tears shed over it than anywhere else in the country. It was on our return to harbour that our farewell to Donegal awaited. A local boat contacted us on the radio to tell us that a pod of dolphins was playing beneath the long shadow of the great, glowering cliffs of the headland. I turned the wheel and sped towards a rendezvous that had been several hundred miles, and many years, in the making. We had come to Donegal to show our children a place that we thought one of the most wondrous in Europe, indeed in the world, and as we arrived at Malin Head, the pod raced to meet us. Within seconds the boat was surrounded by sleek grey figures, twisting in the waves and exploding out of the water in our wake, accompanied throughout by the shrieks and laughter of Isla and Molly. It was, truly, a fitting send-off for a week in a special place on the edge of a continent, and for a chance to travel by road, by track, and by sea on a real voyage of discovery. WATCH THE VIDEO To relive the Halls family’s all-terrain adventures with their Land Rover Discovery in beautiful Donegal, visit youtube.com/landrover The Advanced Tow Assist functionality makes light work of manoeuvring Monty‘s boat. Out on the water, a magical treat awaits the Halls: a pod of exuberant dolphins 58

RIGHT XXXXXX “ DOLPHINS TWIST IN THE WAVES AND EXPLODE OUT OF THE WATER IN OUR WAKE” 59