Our Travels and Blog beginnings.

Our night in Strandhill had been good, but it seemed a shame just to jump in the van and leave again, so we figured we could afford a few hours more around the area before heading east. Joyce was up sharp and was out for her jog, and myself and the boys got up at the back of 8, got dressed and sorted breakfast. I had promised the boys a play in the swing park if they behaved last night, and they had so this had to be honoured. Its not easy getting up early, when I've been up scrabbling and then writing this blog, it takes a while, lol. So we never really seem to get up and on the go quite as early as I would like. Anyway, the boys had some fun on the zipslide and swings but then we turned our attentions to the very obvious hill behind Strandhill. Its flat topped peak just over 300metres high, but looks interesting as its limestone and has some cliffs along its flanks. It also has a huge Neolithic chambered cairn on its summit which is visible from miles around, it is 10m high an...

The title is said, tongue in cheek. Today was a  bit of a scunner, we woke to the sun totally splitting the trees and it was warm, with a good forecast for the south west for a few days, but for us we were heading north. Our time has run out, our holiday is not finished but we have to make tracks back north. Had we made it as far as hoped we would have headed east through Clonakilty (a work colleague of mine recommended it, his sister lives there). I also wanted to visit Cork, I heard good stories about it from my fishing mates. There's still a couple of peninsulas down there to be explored, we wanted to take Ireland's only cable car to Dursey Island. But we had ground to a halt at Killarney and it was the right thing to do. We have travelled more miles each day than planned, the coast is long and meandering. Its not fair on the boys however, its their holiday too and need swing parks, beaches and walks and have not had enough of any. So the few days not moving too far have be...

Joyce woke sharp today and soon had running shoes on and was out the door, I had led her to believe that the road was fairly level as she hadn't ran so much this trip......it was until just about the end of the carpark......however, she managed her 5k again this morning. The boys were sleepy and had to be woken up for breakfast. The clouds were down on the hills, so that ruled out a possible trip up Torc Mountain, a 500m summit in the Killarney national park with supposedly very good views over the Lough and Reeks. We took a walk up the road that Joyce had ran for a mile or so towards the Gap of Dunloe, its very busy with Jaunting carts, which carry up to 8 people pulled by a single horse, there is a lot of this around here, and its very popular with the tourists, just not this tight Scottish one, lol. We mulled over what to do today, I still hoped to get to Mizen Head, and we still had time so we packed up and headed to the tyre place. We pulled in at 12, and a lad came over loo...

We'd missed the courier cut off for getting a new tyre on Tuesday but I had asked the man at the tyre centre to order the tyre for me, and figured I could either get it fitted on the Wednesday if we hung around Kilkarney or if we moved, get it fitted on the Thursday on the way back up. So after some more humming and hawing we decided to do option A. He said the tyre would be here back if 11 on Wednesday morning. Joyce was up sharp today and jogged into the centre of town and back following last evening route, so she got her 5k done no problem, it was a very level run. After a leisurely breakfast at Whitebridge Campsite we headed to Ross Island and Ross Castle. We had a nice walk around the Island through a superb mixed woodland, and thank goodness for the trees!! It was blowing an absolute hoolie, the waves on the Lough were like big white horses. Had this been my walking In day I would not have gotten along that ridge. Joyce and Logan missed the best part of the loop as they hea...

The forecast for today was perfect, and I woke at the first buzz of my alarm, and immediately had that horrible-Oh jeez, I can't be bothered feeling, it was an age since I have been up this early. There is such a temptation to snooze the alarm, or just turn it off. But this was the day, I was in the right place at the right time and I managed to put those thoughts aside and hopped out of my cozy bed. I had prepared my breakfast last night so scoffed that as quietly as possible, said good bye to Joyce and left the van at 5.40 with head torch showing the way. This is where, the wee bit effort the night before is invaluable. I knew exactly where I was heading, and probably would not have found the place I needed to branch off the main path had I not put that effort in. It was a beautiful starlit morning, the moon had slipped behind the hills so wasn't helping too much, but I managed quite easily to work my way up towards my first peak of the day Cruach Mhor 932m. I could see...

After yesterday we needed a better day with no dramas, so it was a pleasure to wake up in such a stunning location without a cloud in the sky. The view from the breakfast table was superb, upwards of a dozen boats were leaving from Portmagee with loads of lucky passengers heading out to The Skellig Islands. These islands look like the top of  Chamonix Aiguilles sticking out the Atlantic and incredibly for many years from about the 7th century Monks lived on Skellig Micheal, the larger of the 2 islands in their beehive huts. Later in about the 12th century Irish Christians occupied the island until it was abandoned due to deteriorating whether patterns. The boats take their passengers out for 7 miles to the Island, land them and then there are 600 stairs to climb to visit the beehive huts. Its a trip we would love to do, but I think the boys are just a bit young for it, its a very exposed place. We walked out to Bray Head and the signal tower, which is possibly about as close as you...

A bit of a drama today, but that can wait. This morning, we woke up to heavy rain that had been on most of the night and the wind had got up again. So, any thoughts of climbing Mount Eagle or visiting the Blasket Islands were scrapped. We had breakfast and got tidied just in time for the sightseers on their 54 seater coaches to start appearing around the bends of the narrow cliff road. We moved the van a wee bit as I don't like taking up more of a parking area than I need to. We were scanning at the bird activity on the water from our high vantage point, and Joyce sports a seal patrolling along the beach just at the surf line. Clearly there were lots of fish in the bay. Callum was desperate to get down on the beach with his bucket and spade, it wasn't a morning for it but he was sure it was so the jackets, hats and gloves were donned and down we went, it was not too bad down there and a few castles were built. It is another stunning little beach and on a blue sky day would be i...

The has been an interesting trip for us. We are the types who like to fully investigate area's we visit, and this trip has not allowed us to do that in any shape or form. Ireland, or at least its coastline is enormous. 3 weeks is pretty decent length of time for a holiday but I really do think you could spend 3 months doing this same journey and still not see it all, and also if you had 3 months I would expect you would at some point hit some better weather, we have been rather unfortunate in that respect, that said, we still haven't needed to put on the waterproof trousers but that is down to the fact we have spent so much time driving. We need to be back in Larne 1 week today, so will manage the Ring of Kerry, and the most southerly point, and maybe a trip to Clonakilty or Cork en route home. However, I feel we have missed a lot out, and have really just scratched the surface and not done justice any particular area. I have been exploring Scotland for for probably 25 years or...

Today was a much more calm weather day, that doesn't mean it was nice however, that's not a complaint, I don't complain about things I can't effect. It was dry when we woke up and had breakfast at Doonaha, but by the time the dishes were done and the boys had went outside to blow some bubbles, the rain was soon on-for the day. We headed east through Kikrush, another lovely looking town and onto Kilimer for the ferry across the Shannon estuary to Tarbert in County Kerry. After 10 minutes in the queue we boarded the ferry along with only a few other cars, it didn't make much money on this crossing. However, it worked out great for us. I took Callum out the van and up onto the side of the ferry where there are seats, we never intended to sit there, just to take a picture or two, but the captain on the other side spotted us and shouted over to me and said to bring the wee fella over and up stairs to the bridge. It was wet so the steps were slippy, so we made our way b...

We had parked at Doonaha campsite on the Loop Head peninsula as we though it would be more sheltered from the weather, if it was coming in from the west, however it had really calmed down when we went to bed, so it was a bit of a surprise to be woken up at 4am to hear a proper storm raging outside and the van being buffeted about in all directions, small stones hitting the van, and buckets rolling around outside,  I think the wind was  from the south west and firing right up the Shannon estuary at us. It wouldn't have  mattered if we had parked at Kilkee, it would still have been getting it there too. Its a bit of a weird feeling when its dark not know exactly how much your van is moving when you have nothing the gauge it too, but it was very wild. In 4 years of van ownership this is the 2nd night we have had like this, the last was on Islay and then we were so worried we moved the van as we thought it might topple. We've had the van out in some rough weather and exposed ...

We woke with a bit of a conundrum, should we visit another cave, or visit a smokehouse, or visit the cliffs, or visit a castle.....this is the problem. So much to do, and so little time. I like coastal scenery, and we are all really enjoying the caves. Also, the weather was supposed to turn really bad later in the afternoon as we catch the tail end of a tropical storm called "le grand" Ali I think. It was a nice morning and Joyce got out for her jog, she ran away down past last nights eating venue and down to the harbour, she chatted to someone at the pier who ran boat trips to the Aran Islands and cliffs and said they we running a very reduced schedule today and the boat would be back in at 2pm latest, they thought the weather was really going to be bad. We had breakfast, played with the boys with the Frisbee and football for a while and then settled on Doolin Cave, for starters, it was close by and we were on a cave roll. We had heard a wee bit about this caves best feature...

Salthill campsite in Galway was the dearest so far, and perhaps a mistake as we didn't really need a campsite on this night. However, it was quite late by the time we got there and we needed to get parked up. It cost 30 euros for a pitch without electric hook up, it was another 6 euros for that.....we didn't bother!! Joyce took the boys for a wander along the promenade in the morning as I finished getting the van ready and I picked them up a wee bit along the road. After my failed attempt to take them to the Sealife centre at Achill the Irish National Aquarium seemed like a good place to make up for that failure......we parked up and paid our 33 euros to get in......which was steep, but however well worth it. Its a superb mostly saltwater aquarium over 2 levels with huge pools with lots of the species that are found in Irish waters, from rays, to conger eels to huge bass which are now protected in Irish waters. There is also a Neolithic dugout canoe which emerged from a bog at...

Clifden campsite served us well, its had all we needed and we got the van all cleaned, the loo and rubbish all emptied and fresh water on board. We played for a wee while with the frisbee and football. I decided to go up and get my beard under control again and by the time I came back down Callum was in the bad books again, yesterday's behaviour had reappeared and poor Joyce was exasperated and not at all happy !! Not a good start to the day. I am not sure what is the matter with him, he is highly intelligent, and has a great memory for things that happened months ago....however his short term memory is abysmal, lol.  When told to stop doing something, or quit the backchat it seems to go in, rattle around a few times and get completely lost in that head of his.......For some reason last night he took an age to go to sleep, he went to bed at normal time but lay in the top bunk like Mr Macfidget.....messing around with this or that and chatting to himself, he was still awake after 1...

I had half heartedly looked out my walking gear the evening before at Keem, the wind had settled down, the hills had all cleared and there was a peak called Croaghaun right above the bay where we were parked. I hadn't went as far as making a sannie however as I wasn't that confident. Croaghaun is 680 metres high, but what makes it special is that its north western slopes plunge right down into the Atlantic.  They are (arguably) claimed to be the 3rd highest cliffs in Europe also. I didn't have a map other than Kenny and Sheila's Wild Atlantic Way atlas but I figured given clear weather, and the fact I could see right to the top from where the van was parked I could get up and down safely and quickly. But alas, through the night the wind got up again, the rain battered down and when I looked out the van window the hill was shrouded in cloud....I would probably have got to the top but there would be no view, so no real point. Game over!! We got up and had breakfast and ...

Rinroe Point was a superb place to park up , but for some reason nothing quite happened as quickly as it might have. We arrived a bit later than planned, got the boys bedded late, and the scrabble match took a bit longer than planned so it was the back of 12 before our heads hit the  pillows AND I still had to write the blog which I did. The night was a bit blowy but nothing out the ordinary, however we did have a couple of seriously heavy squalls, it is really loud in the van, and both times it woke me up. That's not a problem but whilst its battering down you are lying there praying that it doesn't wake the boys up . I remember when I was wee going on caravan holidays out on the Ardnamurachan peninsula and the rain or hailstones on the roof could be terrifying. However, once our boys are asleep they take a bit of waking and neither stirred. We woke to a pretty decent morning and Joyce after a bit of procrastination went out for her jog-it was all uphill with a headwind for a ...

Today was going to be a bit of an unknown, Callum is afraid of caves, or so he says. Not sure if this has come from a book he's had read to him or a film he's seen. And today we were going to do a cave tour. We got up a wee bit later than planned and had a leisurely breakfast and completely redid the van as we were again in a campsite-we will hopefully be back in the wilds for a couple of nights now so having full water on board, an empty loo and a clean van is good. We headed back over the border into Eire and then a mile further on were back in Northern Ireland, the border does some strange twists and turns around Belcoo and  Blacklion. A few miles further on and into the hills and we were at Marble Arch caves and Geo Park. There lots of interesting walks to do here also but today was a trip underground for us. As a side note at this point, we are mostly following the coast, I like the wild seascapes, love the sound of waves crashing on the shore, and live always in hope of...

After the boys late night they didn't seem to be in too much of a hurry to get out of bed, it was 9 o'clock before we woke them up. It was a nice day, the best forecast for a while actually. I had rather hoped we would have made it to the caves today, but it would have been a shame not to explore Strandhill a wee bit more. On our wanderings last night we discovered a pretty amazing beach here, which is very stoney. There was also a continual noise from all over the town of waves pounding the shore, this never let up the whole time we were there. A look at the map reveals there is nothing between here and the  America's and it clearly receives the full brunt of storms and wind and waves. There are big signs saying that the beach is unsafe and swimming, bathing etc were not allowed. The coastguard helicopter also made a couple of passes over the bay during the morning. The waves were enormous and it wasn't even particularly windy, there were big groups of surfers heading...

Yet again, even though it was a wild night I slept like a log. The Malin Beg parking area is parked right at the top of a cliff that was taking the full brunt of the wind broadside. It was fine though, the boys never really stirred (apparently ;-) ). Joyce was up sharp and got out for her jog, along the road and also out to the old Watch tower, these were built circa.1770 during the Irish rebelion to watch out for invading French vessels, there are a lot if these old towers and they are visible from each other, if one tower spotted a vessel a fire torch beacon was lit at the top of the tower to notify the other towers that something had been spotted, all very interesting stuff and that was the limit of their communication technology back in those days, effective though. The weather was improved this morning and we had breakfast and got tidied. Callum had been asking a lot to go down onto the beach with his bucket and spade, so we all got our layers on and went down the many steps to ...