Monthly Archives: August 2009

The ferry from Dover arrived in Calais, and we headed down the stairs back to Nettle on the car deck, and followed the stream of cars off the ferry and onto French soil. Repeating the ‘drive on the right, drive on the right’ mantra, we followed Nigel’s directions towards the centre of Calais and drove around aimlessly for a little … Continue reading

Our time in Ireland coming to an end, it was time to meet the ferry to take us back to Pembroke, Wales. So, we drove east from Kerry for a few hours until we felt like stopping, then I arbitrarily picked a town on the sea that may yield a decent overnight spot. This turned out to be Youghal, a … Continue reading

Ireland has the same requirements for contracts as UK, so the menu again had only prepaid on it. In the prepaid broadband-ish market, there are only two contenders. 3 This is who we settled on, after failing to get along with Meteor. 3 Ireland are a little challenging for passers-through, as they refuse to sell you pre-paid Internet without selling … Continue reading

The Ring of Kerry driving tour is another popular Irish attraction, and one we weren’t going to miss. Having been warned to travel counter-clockwise, in the direction of the tour coaches, to avoid having to make any tight passes, we started in Kilorglin and headed South. The Ring started out a little underwhelming, after some of the sights we’d seen … Continue reading

Our first stop towards Dingle was Inch, a place recommended to us in Galway. A little narrow road took us in, and we were met by the sight of a long sweeping sandy beach with mountains wreathed in cloud behind. We were excited to see a host of motorhomes parked on the beach and, thinking we’d found a pretty cool … Continue reading

Galway behind us, we drove through the city of Limerick and onwards, approximately following the coastline. We drove through County Clare, the county from which Katherine’s mother’s ancestors came, and characterised by strange purple hills which upon closer inspection were covered with purple rock. The abundance of stone in the area has led to a vast number of pretty stone … Continue reading

Arriving in Galway, from the Connemara area, we made a beeline to the harbour, which often represents a promising spot to park for the night. This time, it didn’t look so good — somewhat on the industrial side, not surprisingly — so we pulled over for a quick stint of online research, and found out that the nearby promenade had … Continue reading

Here are some things we’ve learned so far, both logistical and otherwise. First and foremost: We’re finding that travel by motorhome is a wonderful way to see the world. It allows one to immerse in the world far more than other kinds of travel, especially when ‘wild-camping’ out in it; it permits travelling at one’s own pace, with the ability … Continue reading

After a very scenic drive through the mountains, we arrived fairly early in Letterfrack, at the slightly-disappointingly-crowded visitor centre. With, refreshingly, most of the day ahead of us, we decided to do the 7km walk up to the top of a nearby mountain, Diamond Hill. The beginning of the walk, starting at the visitor centre, felt a bit like being … Continue reading

From the Sperrins, we drove for what seemed like three or four times as long as we expected, stopping on the way to get fuel, empty the dreaded black water and top up on fresh water. Once we were about an hour over the border into the Republic of Ireland, the motorway became very picturesque, with enormous steep-sided mountains and … Continue reading

Belfast behind us, we drove west for a long way, following the motorway. We arrived in Strabane in the evening, a town right on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland; picked a random road that looked relatively promising, leading towards the river that marked the border, and stopped when we found an adequately out-of-the-way clearing beside … Continue reading