Our 16 week “Escape the heat” motorhome trip was curtailed after the nine week Irish section owing to a non working fridge and a mysterious engine warning light. Not wanting to tempt fate and have another breakdown like we endured last year, we decided to get home straight after the ferry from Rosslare back to Bilbao. On 22nd July it was, “Will Hattie Hymer make it onto and off the ferry?….She did! The plan had been to linger in Asturias and Galicia like we did last year until mid September when it will be a little cooler at home.
A fortnight or so before we were due to leave home towards the end of May, Ditto had another relapse from his herniated disc of two years ago. We got up one morning and thought he’d had a stroke, he couldn’t walk properly and his head was lopsided. I took him to our vet who said it was a recurrence of his slipped disc, he gave him laser treatment and medication and he was to rest as much as possible…..rest with Poco around…..very difficult. We thought we would have to cancel our Irish trip but he responded well enough to travel so off we went.
We had also discovered two days before we left that the camper fridge would not work on gas or mains. Another “shall we or shan’t we cancel” dilemma ensued, but I went to Decathlon and bought a 12 volt coolbox to tide us over until we could get it looked at in Ireland (which we did in week 2 but the fix was short-lived.)
We got to Bilbao in two long days’ driving. What I haven’t told you, as if this doomed trip was not doomed enough, was that after we emptied our loo and waste water and filled with fresh just before getting on the ferry, our toilet completely jammed up and the emptying valve refused to open. It was being tricky on our last trip and Nigel had taken the precaution of acquiring the requisite replacement spare part from Thetford before we left home. Good job we had packed it. No time to do anything about it we embarked the ferry and muzzled the dogs to get them to the cabin.
Once on the ferry they settled extremely well and were no trouble. Poco has severe separation anxiety and we weren’t sure how much fuss he would make left in the cabin when we went to eat but we needn’t have worried, initially he made a fuss as did other dogs, but soon settled down.
Once off the ferry at 9pm, we drove just a few miles to a pub car park where the kind publican left us access to the toilets overnight. In the morning we breakfasted there after which Nigel tried and failed to fit the fiddly new part, in the rain of course and kneeling on rough stony ground. He decided he needed a small hand held cordless drill to complete the task so we googled shopping centres on our route and found a B and Q with an appropriate sized barrier free car park just outside Cork City. There were also public loos available which was most convenient (‘scuse the pun). Eventually, dodging the rain, the job was completed, and phew, off we went the next day.
Kinsale, in County Cork, is where the Wild Atlantic Way begins its 2,500k journey, twisting and turning on frequently narrow roads with passing places and grass down the middle, along the beautiful coastline. It does as it says in the title, wanders all the way along the coast road, generally north but also all points of the compass are turned as it weaves its way from County Cork to Kerry, to County Clare, to Galway and Connemara, to County Mayo, to Sligo, to Donegal and finally ends as it meets Northern Ireland at Muff in Donegal. The plan was to nip into NI if there was time left to see the Giants Causeway before heading back to the ferry but that didn’t happen, more on that later.
Our first deadline was to meet up with Aoife’s mum at her holiday home near Bantry Bay. Aoife is our elder son’s long term partner, they met at University in Aberystwyth and we first met Emer, her mum, at their graduation. We had a most hospitable couple of days with her, she gave us the warmest welcome and took us out for a lovely meal. We arrived in Ireland just as their very unusual hot spell had finished, she said it had been unprecedented, even too hot to sit in the garden so she was quite glad of the cooler, wetter weather.
After that we just took our time exploring and doing short days’ driving and stopping where we felt like stopping. This was never meant to become a travelogue so I’m not going to attempt a day by day account of our journey but I will try and get the pictures in more or less the right order! It’s going to be difficult to choose which to include and which to leave out. Most of them are phone snaps with the occasional ‘proper’ photo from Nigel’s camera, credit given.
One of the things we had been looking forward to was strolling with the dogs on the many and varied beaches. In reality this wasn’t quite as straightforward as you might think as many were “No dogs allowed,” or had dog bans from May till October. Quite a lot had height barriers to the car parks leading off narrow roads where we couldn’t stop. However, we found enough we could access and the dogs had a ball when they could run free. We had to be very careful not to overdo it with Ditto because of his back injury but it is so great to see a whippet running and jumping round in circles for joy! Here’s a few random beach photos.
We were delighted to get a phone call to ask if we would be anywhere near Shannon one weekend in June and because our itinerary was set in jelly………..yes, we could be. Richard and Aoife flew out to Shannon to join us for the weekend of 14th and 15th June. As usual they were a breath of fresh air and we really enjoyed their company, they stayed in a B and B in a town named Spanish Point (of all names!) and we met up for walks and food. Aoife was born in County Kerry but had never been to Clare before, the two days with us inspired them to aim to do an Irish coastal road trip at some point.
All too soon they had to head back to London and we felt the usual deflation after they had gone.
But we got back onto our route and carried on for the next few weeks, lingering where we felt like it and making the most of the dry days. Here are some more highlights…..
coinciding with the final. We could only see them setting off as the beach is 2 kilometres long and they raced at the other end, plus it was raining!!
As we neared the end of our stay in Ireland, with just one week to go and one Peninsula left to explore before returning to Rosslare for the ferry back to Bilbao, I got a phone call from my niece and nephew saying that I should go and visit my sister who had had a fall and was in hospital in a very bad way. So without further ado I booked a flight from Dublin to Luton the next day, Nigel arranged a campsite close to the airport for him and the dogs to linger in and less than 24 hours later I was staying with my friends Jean and Peter in Barton-le-Clay from where I caught a train to the hospital in Peterborough next day where she had been admitted. It was not an easy few days and very emotional but I couldn’t stay longer because we had that ferry to catch! I am glad I went but it was a sombre end to our trip and we never did get to see Malin Head of shipping forecast fame! My sister remains in hospital, very poorly and I will visit again when I can. Just before I left Barton, Peter took this photo of Jean and me relaxing in their garden.
Once reunited with Nigel and the dogs in Dublin, we gradually moved south towards Rosslare. The first evening back we stayed in a pub car park, allegedly the highest pub in Ireland….I don’t think so. They do love their superlatives here, we have seen the most westerly pub, the smallest pub, the highest cliffs (twice, once in County Clare and once in Donegal!)
Again the ferry trip was smooth and the Bay of Biscay very kind to us a second time. We didn’t linger getting home and arrived on Friday evening 25th July. Our total kilometres driven in Ireland was 4,256 and the whole trip from home and back 6,064! Although the Wild Atlantic Way is officially 2,500k there are a lot of spurs, side shoots and optional extra loops involved, hence the differential.
And back at home…..well, some plants have flourished, some have died, or hopefully are “resting” and may survive with a thorough watering we hope. The pool was mucky and the cover needed removing and power washing but Mr. C soon got it sparkling clean again and very refreshing it is too!
before we cleaned the cover.
Thoughts about Ireland, in no particular order……
- It rains a lot.
- Beautiful, green and lush with absolutely stunning headgerows.
- No graffiti, or none that we saw.
- The most defibrillators I have ever seen.
- It’s windy.
- Very friendly people.
- The land of the modern bungalow with acres of tarmac around.
- It rains a lot.
- Very expensive, from food, to fuel, to postage, to campsite fees, to eating out.
- Hard to choose but our favourite area was Connemara, probably the least populated, watery and atmospheric.
- The cleanest country we have ever been to.*
- Probably because it rains a lot.
*There is no council run rubbish collection in Ireland and very few litter bins. Individual households can pay to have private contractors empty their bins. Or you can collect it up and take it yourself to a local recycling centre where you pay on average 8 euros a large black bin bag and an extra (5 euros or so) for recycling. Any litter bins you see around have very small apertures to prevent you putting anything larger than a tissue or coffee cup in. There are heavy fines for littering and we can honestly say we saw none. It made it difficult for us, storing up rubbish wasn’t pleasant as we have 2 dogs as well as a non working fridge…think food waste, chicken bones, doggy waste bags, etc. but we managed, only having to pay a few times. Some of the campstops we stayed at, especially pub car parks allowed us to use their bins. Supermarkets run a deposit scheme for plastic bottles and cans. You collect your empties and take them to the supermarket where you feed them into a machine. Once the barcodes are read you get a money off voucher against your next shop. We first came across this system in Germany in 2015, it is also widely used in Sweden and was beginning to roll out in the Netherlands last time we were there on our boat. Once back in Spain, with huge green bins everywhere but also so much rubbish blowing about on verges we both thought we knew which was the better system.
The following photos are from Nigel’s drone. This can only be flown in dry, not too windy weather so they naturally show everything in a favourable light! Nevertheless they give an enjoyable and alternative insight into the scenery that my phone camera can’t capture.
That’s all folks, I could go on (and on, and on) ‘cos I’ve had to leave out loads but that’s enough for now.
Hasta Luego
