People should be “pragmatic” about their holiday bookings because of coronavirus, the Irish Travel Agents Association has urged.

In contrast to floods in Ireland, this island of La Gomera in the Canaries now suffers a worrying deprivation of rain and an increasing occurrence of ‘calimas'

One of the exotic pleasure of this island of La Gomera, and indeed of all the Canary Islands, is the variety of fresh fruit one can enjoy in one’s porridge.

The farmer who dropped by to give unasked-for advice to my friend and his wife clearing their newly bought quarter of an acre of long, abandoned terraces on a steep slope on the island of La Gomera in the Canaries was unequivocal: “Cut it down!”

A Courtmacsherry neighbour, Kathy Gannon tells me that when the tide is out, the vast acres of clean, grey mud of the bay reflect the sun in splendour in the clear, sharp air.

I see that a website describes the call of Canarian cory’s shearwaters as ‘waca waca’. It’s a mad, hysterical call, uttered when the parent birds arrive to feed their nestlings.

FIFTY seven Canada geese at Coolmain Strand and 47 Canarian ravens touring the sky above the blunted peak of the long- extinct volcano of La Gomera, in the Canary Islands — Garajonay, the volcano is called, for a pair of doomed lovers, Gara and Jonay, she the Gomera Guanche princess, who fell in love with the peasant boy, Jonay, from the island of Tenerife, 50km across the water, which he swam to reach her.

Yesterday evening, when we went to ‘our village’ in the Valley of the Great King on the island of La Gomera in the Canaries, we saw an owl in the first hour of darkness, and it was heartening to know that such things hadn’t changed.

I don’t know why we bothered to go to the Med for part of the winter when we could have been sunbathing in Ireland, at least up to two weeks ago. Now, we hear that there was snow in Killarney yesterday.

I’ve set about exploring the fauna of the island. Species are few compared to Ireland but, as always with wild things, be they plants by the wayside, birds in the sky, fish in the sea, or

"Sea lions literally everywhere, you’ve to be careful not to step on them, marine iguanas, blue-footed boobies, frigate birds, sea turtles.”

Buzzards are returnees. Extinct in the late 1800s, they slowly began recolonisation in the 1930s, writes Damien Enright

The temperature gauge in the Go Bus reads 21°C at 5pm as we are driven from Dublin Airport down the quays and along the Liffey to pick up more passengers for the three and half hour drive to Cork.

The owners of Rocinante, a 17m long ketch, asking price €50,000, are a rum crew, with a story behind them, writes Damien Enright.

In West Cork, it was as warm as the Canary Islands if one was in a sheltered corner or a stoutly built conservatory.

The ravens have built their nest at their traditional site at Coomalacha, on the Seven Heads in West Cork, as they do every year. I’m glad to hear this, writes Damien Enright.

My column of February 26 explained that a unique charm of the Valle Gran Rey on the island of La Gomera in the Canaries is the laid-back “vibe” left over from the first hippies that arrived here, Vietnam War draft dodgers in the late 1950s.

The beauty of west Cork under snow is a rare and lovely sight, writes Damien Enright

La Gomera offers a uniquely different ‘vibe’ from other Canary islands in one important respect. Apart from its unique cloud forests, unspoiled beaches, walking paths and absence of glitzy resorts, a distinctive laid back feeling abides, writes Damien Enright

The Valle Gran in La Gomera in the Canary Islands is much the same as ever, writes Damien Enright

Four Irish rowers enjoyed a breakfast of orange juice, fruit, Coca-Cola, and a burger — their first proper meal in a month — after completing an epic transatlantic row in record time.

Four friends have become the fastest quartet from the Republic of Ireland to row across the Atlantic ocean.

An amateur endurance athlete and his three friends are believed to have set a new world record for rowing the Atlantic, raising more than £250,000 in memory of his tragic mother in the process.

First, the perennial question arises of who or what is responsible for the condition of the venerable paterfamilias snoring, mouth agape, in his armchair post Christmas dinner, while his wife and children make like mice so as not to disturb his “well-deserved” rest.

Four Irish friends spending Christmas Day rowing a tiny boat across the Atlantic in one of the world’s toughest races lie in sixth place out of 26 international competitors.

It’s a freezing cold but starkly beautiful day here in the SouthWest, while it’s mucky, snowy, or slushy in the North-West, North and East; how fortunate we are. 

Up to 20,000 Cory’s Shearwaters, oceanic birds with 1.25m wingspans, were breed on the Selvagem Islands, 280 km south of Madeira. Big, meaty birds, the squabs were traditionally harvested and salted for food. Monks on Skellig Michael similarly harvested gannet squabs from Small Skellig, writes Damien Enright

The challenge is known as the world’s toughest row.

Stepping out of Central Station, Belfast, at about 7pm on the Saturday before last, I saw, at the end of the street, a murmuration of starlings wheeling about the sky.

Flatulence is just as common in marine mammals as in humans and terrestrial animals, writes Damien Enright

Damien Enright is heading off to roam the highlands and lowlands of Ethopia but not before he leaves you with some springtime inspiration.

After midnight, driving home from Cork Airport — the last leg of our 15 hour journey from La Gomera, a small island off Tenerife in the Canary Islands — we came upon a fortunate, if regrettable, treat.

Great excitement on the phone last Sunday morning, communicated via Skype from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, by two friends of ours, British long-term residents there.

NORWAY: For one goldfish in Norway, it’s almost like being a fish out of water.