Tag Archives: Ecotourism
Mount Etna, Part 1: Up the mountain
I’ve been so wrapped up in writing software, the blogging has suffered! Time to catch up: Last time I wrote, we’d just left Selinunte, and had spent a night wild-camped on a hill overlooking the quite pleasant scenery near the road towards Mount Etna. So, we drove on, and caught our first glimpse of the volcano’s gigantic snowy peak soon … Continue reading
Sicily: San Vito Lo Capo, Zingaro National Park, Erice, Selinunte
We had just left Scopello after a very enjoyable week spent developing software and painting: We wanted more! But it was also time for a change of scene, so we drove on towards San Vito Lo Capo, another town that sounded quite promising. A short and picturesque drive inland through pretty, rocky mountains, through a rather sad-looking town amusingly called … Continue reading
Cinque Terre
Having taken a windy little road down through the mountains, switchbacking through ramshackle villages, we stopped for lunch with a view down through pine trees and vineyard-strewn mountains to the azure-coloured sea. With the plan to find a wild-camp in the village of Monterosso al Mare, the first of the five villages that make up Cinque Terre (“Five lands”), we … Continue reading
Ring Of Kerry
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
Dingle
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
Connemara National Park
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
The Sperrins
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
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
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