A couple of dives later and back ashore, I am dragged kicking and screaming for a “quick” Guinness in the afternoon sunshine. Having moved the Jeep to reload my gear I decide I may as well park outside the pub as anywhere else.I have to be honest, I had an ulterior motive for going to Ireland. It wasn't just for the diving, it was for the Guinness, the Murphy's, the pubs and the “craic” - the Irish word for generally going out and having a good time. It was also an ideal trip to try out the latest Jeep Grand Cherokee, loaned to me by Daimler-Chrysler for an extended road test.
There is lots of good diving in Ireland and on this trip I managed to fit in three top locations in three west coast counties. Baltimore in Count Cork, The Skelligs in County Kerry, and Kilkee in County Clare, with a short diversion to Dublin to check out the local diving scene.
My tour began with an overnight crossing on the Swansea to Cork ferry. I quite like this long crossing because a 7am arrival at Cork is late enough for a decent night's sleep, but early enough to get west and diving. The Jeep's turbo diesel engine and automatic gearbox prove well suited to overtaking on Irish roads, though I didn't get to play with the cruise control.
I was in Baltimore just after 9am, including a stop on the way to get some Irish money out of a cash machine.
A couple of dives later and back ashore, I am dragged kicking and screaming for a “quick” Guinness in the afternoon sunshine. Having moved the Jeep to reload my gear I decide I may as well park outside the pub as anywhere else.
As I get out a local guy with a pint in his hand admires the Jeep, then dryly complements my finely judged parking. I look to see the bumper overlapping but not quite touching that of a Mercedes parked behind. Either the back of the Jeep sticks out further than I expected or the front of the Merc does.
Sea conditions are perfect, though visibility could have been better. The tour is off to a good start. Finally the weather breaks and I used a day of wind and rain to drive on to County Kerry and the Skelligs.
On the way across I had carefully packed everything into the minimal amount of space. This time I just pile it into the back of the Jeep and across the rear seats. Having pulled my back getting dive gear in and out of less accessible cars, the high floor of the luggage space is something I really appreciate. I shut the main hatch and load the last few small items through the separate window hatch. The amount of luggage space was my only disappointment, only about the same as a medium sized estate car and not in the same league as some of the larger 4x4s.
Slightly soggy from packing in the rain, I luxuriate by turning the heated seat up high and feeling the warmth spread through my cold clammy clothes. This is a feature I would place high on the list for my next diving vehicle.
A few days later I finish a day diving on the Skelligs with the remains of a nice sunny afternoon to kill. I decide to take the Jeep to the beach, after all, that is the main off-road thing divers want out of a car.
The beach at Ballinskelligs has soft powdery sand, hard sand, loose shingle banks, and a couple of streams running across it. The Jeep doesn't even feel challenged, though I do take the precaution of putting it in low ratio to go up one shingle bank. In some ways disappointing, but in other ways reassuring. After all, I wouldn't want to drive down a beach in constant fear of getting stuck.
Just north of Kilkee I drive to the cliffs overlooking Bealnaricka bay with John Cosgrove, owner of the Kilkee Diving Centre.
I was looking for a shore dive with access that would test the Jeep, so John had shown me the way down a quarry track overlooking the bay to the north of Donegal point. It turned out the bay was too rough to dive and the Quarry track had recently been levelled to the extent that some people would have taken an ordinary car along it. The Jeep didn't even notice the pot holes.
One stormy morning I am suffering slightly from an excess of Irish hospitality. It is a good job the sea is rough and diving is not planned until 2.30 in the afternoon.
Outside the dive centre I climb into the Jeep and press seat button 2. It whirrs, lowers and reclines. The seats adjust every which way with electric controls and there are two memories. I have memory 1 set for driving and memory 2 set for snoozing. Both positions are extremely comfortable.
My final stop is Malahide, a seaside suburb just north of Dublin. I finish a day's diving and arrive back at the B&B; the owner is outside watering the plants. “Did you know there is a sock on your roof?” he enquires. I realise something has gone horribly wrong. I had been airing my dry suit underclothes on the Jeep's integrated roof rack. The woolly bear and thermal T shirt were inside the car, but 3 socks were missing.
I retrace my route and am relieved to find my socks scattered at intervals along the middle of Malahide high street. They had dried out quite nicely on the hot road.
Before the return ferry I fill the Jeep up with diesel. The price in Ireland is about half what it is in the UK, but you do have to shop around. Garages just a few miles apart often differ by as much as 15p per litre.
Back home I check up on a feature of the Jeep that I had been wondering about. The mpg figures on the trip computer just didn't seem to tie up with the amount of fuel I had put into the tank. The answer turns out to be simple, the computer can be configured for US or metric, and it really does mean US, not imperial, so the fuel consumption display is in miles per US gallon. Translating to imperial gallons, I had averaged 26mpg for the trip.
Overall the Jeep Grand Cherokee had been a comfortable and practical vehicle for the trip. I didn't get a hint of back ache from the driving seat, or from pulling gear in and out of the nice high luggage area. I was half hoping the man from Chrysler would forget to come and collect it, I certainly wouldn't have rushed to remind him.