Monthly Archives: July 2009
The Causeway Route, Day 2
Having woken up and found ourselves in a car park in Cushendall, we set off again in bright sunlight down a small suburban road recommended to us, off the official Causeway route. To our great pleasure it quickly became a winding rural road, snaking through rolling emerald-and-yellow patchwork hills punctuated by four-or-five-house proto-villages. Sometimes the road was perched on hillsides … Continue reading
The Causeway Route, Day 1
With a week to go until Katherine’s course, it was the perfect opportunity to go on a wee driving tour of the north east corner of Ireland, understandably a fairly famous stretch of coast. First we stopped in on our friendly and helpful host at the CL site in Islandmagee, who gave us a few pointers for the trip — … Continue reading
Towards Belfast
Having woken up and gone through our morning routine, security intact and all belongings accounted for (it was our first wildcamp, so we were admittedly a little nervous), it was time to start the journey towards Belfast, for an art therapy short course Katherine had booked months in advance, when all this seemed a lifetime away. Our first stop was … Continue reading
Arrival in Ireland
We turned up nice and early for the ferry from Pembroke to Rosslare in the Republic of Ireland’s South East, and sat in Nettle while I did some last-minute caravan park/wild camp/mobile Internet research from my painstakingly slow iPhone. Time came, and we were herded by friendly and jocular Welshmen onto the ferry, a big ol’ cruse-liner-esque thing: Nice and … Continue reading
Oxfordshire, Cardiff and Pembroke
The day after Bath was a bit of a loss, recreationally speaking: A drive to Nettle’s home town to get her LPG tank put in and a couple other bits and pieces, then onwards towards Oxford, with a lengthy stop-over to get some supplies at B&Q, a Bunnings-like establishment, then eventually to another Certificated Location (CL) club site in Faringdon, … Continue reading
On the road
It’s our fourth day in our new motorhome, and we’re loving it. Being able to take our house wherever we go is just brilliant, and living in it is a bit like being a kid again: Everything is fun and exciting — even doing the dishes. So, here’s the info: It’s a Fiat Hymer B594, ‘A’ Class Fiat Ducato 2.5 … Continue reading
Bath
After our long walk, and quite possibly over-staying our welcome at Bath Chew Valley Caravan Park we moved on, to one of the certificated locations in Keynsham, a half-hour-or-so drive from Bath, and a relatively pleasant and uneventful drive from Bath Chew Valley. Much more sensibly-priced — something like £5/night. This was a grassy field next door to two very … Continue reading
Staying in Solihull
While setting ourselves up with a motorhome, we stayed in Solihull, a borough just outside of Birmingham where my grandparents grew up. We were picked up from the train station by Trevor, my something-cousin-something-removed and Keith, his father in law, my grandfather’s brother, and therefore my great uncle (I’m getting good at this) and driven to Keith and Olga’s (my … Continue reading
Bishop Sutton
Having just loaded our bags into our new motorhome, who we’ve decided to call Nettle, and found places for things (still sitting in Steve the dealer’s driveway), we spent a little while online searching for a place to stay for the first night. We wanted somewhere close, but the best candidate was completely full, so we settled on one in … Continue reading
On motorhome insurance
A summary of efforts to find an insurer to cover two young Australian motorhomers travelling full-time through UK and Europe.
Continue readingHome
We’ve found our new home! The whole thing went infinitely more smoothly than we expected — it was the second motorhome we looked at, too. In Birmingham (specifically, Solihull), we stayed with Keith and Olga, my great aunt and uncle, and met Trevor and Jane, my…first cousin, once removed, according to Yahoo answers, and her husband. They are fulltime motorhomers … Continue reading