Author Archives: Michael

Leaving Cinque Terre, we drove out along those winding roads, and back onto the freeway, Michael Jackson and Queen belting out from Jen’s laptap. We drove for quite a while, passing the exit to Piza, and for a time with quite impressive mountains in the distance. Following Nigel’s directions, we eventually found ourselves driving amongst grape vine and olive tree-covered … Continue reading

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

Motorhoming around Europe always seemed like a very romantic and exotic thing to do, and for the most part it really is. The one caveat is bathroom-related, and there’s little romance to be had there. Seven-or-so days without the opportunity to empty the chemical toilet left a big impression on us when we started driving, and…sloshing. It was time to … Continue reading

Bad news in France: The mobile broadband market here is very un-competitive — the French are very behind the times when it comes to 3G. Lame, France. I’m amazed that telcos are allowed to use the word ‘unlimited’ (or rather, illimité), when the quotas behind the scenes are not only present, but so restrictive. Where are the consumer protection organisations … Continue reading

From the ex-battlefields of the Somme, we drove in the direction of Paris, taking the back roads at a relatively leisurely pace. We encountered some trouble when, after seeing a number of route bloqué signs, we eventually realised they were talking about our route, and had to retrace our steps for a considerable distance, in traffic that went at a … Continue reading

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