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- 1) Test out camping gear and iron out any potential mechanical niggles that may have crept in on a long road trip (luckily there were none :-)
- 2) Sightseeing: Inga had never been to Ireland (besides Dublin) or Scotland before and Rob, although having visited both before, had never made it to The Giant’s Causeway in Ireland or the Scottish Highlands (any further north than Stirling)
In these respects the trip was a resounding success. Overall we covered almost 3000kms in 10 days with no mechanical issues at all. The only slight “problem” we had with Cathey was her windscreen wipers developing a mind of their own and eventually they would only work on one speed – luckily it was the only speed we needed: FULL BLAST! Yes, we had loads of rain but on the whole (except for one occasion in Scotland) it didn’t really bother us too much!
We spent 3 days and 3 nights in Ireland and 5 days and 4 nights in Scotland, with a day either side in England and Wales on the way there and back. We saw all we had planned to and more, even though at times it was a bit of a push in the short time we had available. This generally resulted in us driving until fairly late in the evening and not always being able to spend quite as long as we wanted at the various places we stopped off at during the day.
We quickly got into the camping routine after a bit of 1st night wobbly! Generally we camped every night – either in campsites or “freecamping”/bushcamping - in the roof tent as well as a couple of nights sleeping in the back of Cathey before early morning ferry crossings and also on the way home driving till 11pm to make up time. Also we prepared almost all our meals ourselves while away except for a couple of mornings when the rain lead to unanimous votes in favour of a Full English, Scottish or Irish (which ever the case was) breakfast in the nearest café. Never a bad decision!All in all very good practise for Africa (except for the weather being a bit different ;-) and we would have been quite content to carry on through Africa. However reality check – back to London and work commitments for another 4 months was quite an anticlimax!
Briefly our Irish journey saw us catching a 02h45 ferry from Pembroke in Wales to Rosslare in Ireland, arriving bright and early around 06h30. We headed for Kilkenny firstly and then the “scenic route” to Cashel. Through co Tipperary via Limerick into co Clare heading towards Cliffs of Moher. We spent the 1st night at a “campsite” – insert holiday park – near Liscannor. The less said about that the better!The next day we visited the Cliffs of Moher, Kilfenora Celtic Crosses, Poulnabrone Dolmen and the Burren in co Clare. Later we drove through the Connemara in co Galway, visiting Kylemore Abbey and we ended up camping at a great spot near Ballina in co Mayo. The following day we set off towards Sligo, crossing into Northern Ireland where we stopped in Londonderry before visiting Old Bushmills Distillery, Giants Causeway and Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge in co Antrim. We then had a bit of a hairy drive in the dark to reach Larne around 10pm. As we had an early ferry again (07h30) to Scotland we chose not to camp and just slept in the back of Cathey which proved quite comfortable and convenient!
So that was our 3 days in Ireland, quite rushed but very eventful & thoroughly enjoyable! All of Ireland was amazing with the only low point being our 1st night’s campsite where we ended camping on gravel and surrounded by rowdy kids!
For news on our Scotland leg of the trip read the Scotland update in the UK section. Also for more photos (other than the ones in our Ireland photo album on this site) go to: http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/[email protected]/album?.dir=a2e3re2&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//uk.photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos
Hope to see you back on the site soon
Take care
Rob, Inga and Cathey
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