Category Archives: posted by Florian

These are the posts Florian has written

Day 31 – Who needs a plan …

Good morning, France! Queuing at the border check point, ferry in the distance

I might give a few years off the tail end of my life if I could ensure that all days work out like this one. To begin with: We did not miss our wake up or run into any sort of issue disembarking the ferry. We woke up at 5am Irish time (6am local) to both my alarm as well as the gentle Irish folk music provided curtesy of Brittany Ferries. We had breakfast, bought just in time to avoid the mad rush and vacated our genius cabin in due time to leave the ship among the first waves. I even had time for a quick shower in our ensuite.

Running around, chomping on a pain au chocolat…what a good life our kids have 🙂

Next up, first destination back on French soil: Boulangerie patisserie – one of the few things open on Sundays in this land of liberty. By the time we had our first baguette in hand we were greeted by a wonderful sunrise over Roscoff’s old harbour. The light of the new day revealed what a quaint and pretty little town Roscoff was. We stuck around for a while, admiring the strange bell-tower, walking out on this seemingly endless pier. We liked it.

Still early in the day on a beach just out of the old town, we sat for a while thinking about what to do and where to go next. We were sorely missing a Lonely Planet guide for Brittany – it has become such a part of our traveling by now. Just something to sharpen the focus and find inspiration. Without such aide, we decided on an ambling “long way” route to a campsite only 140km to the east. We were glad to be able to draw upon the Rustiek Kamperen site again.

Before hitting the campground early for once, there was some road to be travelled. The ride was pretty high up there, following along through more cute villages along the shore as well as the cities of Morlaix and Lannion. The former of which was such a sudden revelation of cool and picturesque that we had to stop for a coffee and a wander. The main feature (for us) was this absolutely enormous railway viaduct crossing the narrow valley right at the point where the estuary was capped off by a small harbour and covered over to make space for the village square. Best of all, there was a path on the first level of arches accessible to cross and take in the views. A perfect surprise.

Just a short while after the baguette from this morning was ritually sacrificed on another of our now almost customary beach-side lunch stops. After lunch, given our early start, I was the only one left to really admire the scenery as snoozing ensued all around me for most of the rest of the way.

Bringing people together for an Indonesian Rice Table. The kids had their own table…mostly

That also meant no additional stops or delays before the campground, though. What a jackpot it was. Le Cheval Rouge was a rural farm renovated and run as a B&B / Glamping site by Dutch couple Chantal & Oliver. It was like it was made for us – very small and intimate, exceptionally kid friendly and without big campervans. Or many other campers at all – most other guests took the chance to stay in big family tents kitted out as glamping sites for families. Just as we were about to set up and enjoy the afternoon, the cherry on top was delivered: Sunday was the day for a communal dinner. Today it was Indonesian Rice Platter. We were just in time to decided to join in. Indonesian food? Mostly vegetarian, as Chantal is vegetarian, too! So many times, yes.

And so, we had, completely by accident, one of the coolest evenings of our European travels. A perfect warm late summer evening, everyone around a long table set out in their garden. Although we were the only non-Dutch guests, everyone was very kind in switching to German or English to accommodate us. Most of the guests were families with young children as well, the kids were playing, and the wine was good. I even got to spend a few minutes at the campfire even though the rest of my family has called it an early night.

Good times!

Leaving the ferry at 7am to see the first light of dawn behind it

Day 29 – Un-cork the fun bottle

So good – what a high point to end our Ireland adventure! We love Cork – yes, I am starting with this. Who cares for a minute by minute retelling of our day?

again, the more appropriately sized ones

What would there be to say anyway? We packed up and got on our merry one. One last time deciding against the (toll laden) direct route and taking a scenic detour via the coast instead. Same as yesterday, it was really worth it. Not quite Wicklow mountains, but worth it. Probably my last single track roads on the island, framed by the sunny green pastoral landscape of the south.

Even though the reputation of Cork as the foodie capital of Ireland was calling to us, we opted to take it slow and have one last lunch on the road. Once again, a handy beach provided the perfect backdrop for a few sandwiches and some planning ahead. One last chance for the hobbits to get their feet wet on an Irish beach.

At a bit after 1 pm we had made it into central Cork. The drive in was already promising, crossing the river Lee a few times via inner city for a couple of first views. On second try we found a very conveniently located charging station right on the central island and woke both kids to get ready to explore!

hearing protection for all – AoE did not want to put them down

If you have read past blogs of ours you will not be surprised that the recommended “English Market”, a still operating market hall selling produce and delicacies, was very much our cup of tea. From there we tried to find a few self-guided walking tours (turns out this was discontinued during Covid) but ended up going our own way anyway. Teatime was up and we chose the delightfully kitschy “Tara’s Tea Room”.

We wandered from here further into Shandon quarter*!”§ aiming for another cluster of sights on the hill north of the main island in the river Lee. This turned out to lead to another brilliant stumble into adventure. The main point of interest here was the bell tower of the Anglican Church on top of the hill. Two unique features – with being able to go up for great views of the city not counting: A – it is an active bell tower, but all guests are allowed to ring the bells themselves. And B: The most adventurous ascend of any tower we had yet – stairwells down to 50cm width culminating in a wild climb through the timber framing of the belfry itself. As you pass right next to the bells, hearing protection is actually provided by the church for any adventurous visitors! I made it even with the Agent in the carrier on my back, with no more than a scraped knee. Nina was mighty impressed 😀

After that unexpected mini adventure, we decided to try our luck and go for one last proper dinner on the Island. Market Lane provided just the right opportunity we needed. So we wandered back down the hill and into central Cork on our way to dinner. Number 3 even got the chance for a second visit at a toy shop he had spotted earlier and where he had fallen in love with a particular wooden train set on display.

Dinner was once again great, including the service. The kids got their own little menus including a colouring section and were distracted for the brief wait. The food was great, too. Even Number 3 went for the edgy choice and had smoked haddock on mashed broad beans (which was very good, too).

The car was fully charged and the campground not far. The kids got to watch their good-night program while we set up the camp and were quick enough in bed that we were only a few minutes late for roleplaying. Even the 4G / WiFi was good enough for a smooth final two hours online with some of our friends before collapsing to bed ourselves.

Day 27 – Have a Guinness when you’re Tired

Given the unreliability we experienced with the public busses yesterday, we decided to go into town once again with the hop-on option. We had a two day pass anyway, so why not. Number 3’s pick from yesterday got elevated to TOP 1 for the day.

Yup, dead zoo it is. Giant Irish deer in fact

Turned out, we got pretty lucky – with all the bussing and transferring we made to the National Museum – Natural History branch at about 10:40am. We were greeted by a staff member asking, with a mildly concerned look, about a reservation on our part. Reservation? This was a free museum; we did not expect that. Turned out that they were renovating to modernise the exhibition and had only about half the space to use – it was still free, but attendants had to be limited to avoid dangerous pushing and shoving. As said though, we arrived just in time to be allowed in without a booking.

The exhibition, also dubbed the “dead zoo” was packed with taxidermies of local animals. We have a similar wing in the Senkenbergsches Naturkunde Museum in Frankfurt, so Number 3 felt right at home. With only one floor open, 45 minutes were plenty to the get through the exhibition. All of a sudded, we had some extra time on our hands.

We decided to give Nina and myself a small treat and have a really quick browse next door at the National Gallery. We only had enough time to check a few of the Irish artists up to the expressionists and switch to the Europeans for a few minutes with the resident Caravaggio.

The kids were excited to be on the hop on hop off bus again

Our lunch appointment was at 12:30, the hop-on-hop-off bus leaves every 20 minutes. That means we should have plenty of time to get to the Guinness storehouse. Or so we thought. First, the bus was late, then we had to switch to a different one entirely due to a defect on the first one. All in all, it took over an hour – we maybe could have walked.

It did lead to a bit of a sour start of the Guinness Storehouse experience, unfortunately. When we finally arrived at the 1837 bar our lunch reservation had been released and the wait time was up to an hour. We settled with the bistro style Brewer’s Dining Hall – a rather disappointing choice.

The storehouse itself was anything but, fortunately. A tasteful beer-themed Disneyland experience, including sights, sounds and smells. All very well done, not too overcrowded and not feeling like being charged for getting a commercial. To be honest, it still is just that in the end, but the smartly converted storehouse and the laid back confidence in the quality of the product made it second only to a port lodge tour in Porto. Especially since you get to top it off with a beautifully pulled pint of Guinness in the spectacular Gravity Bar with views all over the city. Nina volunteered her free drink (plus Phoebe was dutifully asleep). That meant I got to get a side-by-side of on tap Guinness to Guinness 0.0. The alcohol-free version is shockingly good, in my opinion.

Oh look! I am trying Guinness again! It’s…

It had been a long day; I am still under the weather and on mild cough meds. The decision what to do for dinner was not easy. Ultimately, we stuck to our guns and went with the booked table at yesterday’s choice: The winding stairs. We arrived a bit before our reservation time, not feeling temple bar on our last stroll through the quarter. What a great decision it was. The views and the atmosphere in the place were great. We got a table on the second floor upstairs (poor waiters) with the river Liffey as a backdrop. But all that paled in comparison with the quality of the food. The kids shared a vegetarian “scotch egg” while Nina and I went for mains – cauliflower and pork belly respectively. Everything was just perfect – well cooked, smooth, exciting flavour combinations. And not even that accordantly expensive. I kind of doubly regretted the Lunch now – how can two dishes of such diverting quality be charged at the same price?

Regardless, we were glowing now all the way back to the campground. Even the bus was not that much too late this time (it was, but conveniently so for us). A good end to a packed day!

Day 25 – F… This Day

No further text

…

Was what I intended to write. But I guess Nina would not let me get away with it. So here the cliff notes: The plan was to take it slow, go a bit past Dublin to Brú na Boinne to check out the really cool megalithic stuff there and then head to Dublin to get set for two full days of Dublin exploration.

So close and yet so far…Newgrange on the hill

Problem Number 1 – I have taken ill, for now with a moderate cough. So everything takes a bit more time, is a bit harder and done with a little less patience.

Number 2 – the curse of overbooking struck again. We failed to check ahead, and so it turned out that the site is booked out for the entire week. Last week before the school year starts and all. In short, we waisted 2 hrs on the motorway and a bit of toll for this folly, to see a bit of an underwhelming exhibition of the place we were locked out of seeing.

Right, so maybe a coffee place on the way back as consolation? Nope, nothing good. Instead, the kids started getting antsy and picking up on the moody vibe. Stern words were exchanged. Campground it was – and, well. That was not much consolation either. The standard “feels like roadside robbery” vibe of so many city camps grounds. At least it had a playground, and we had some peaceful hours before bedtime.

I did not last much longer, apart from a cheerful conversation with a Swiss couple that we kept running into for the last two days. Ever since Mizen Head – what a small world. I’m sick, let’s skip that day …

Number 3’s amazing ability to make friends on the playground gave the Agent someone to push her

Day 22 – Kerry-go-Round

Campground forgettable – time to go. Not as quick as we wanted, though, or to do the Gap of Dunloe guilt-free (it is a public road, but traditionally used by jaunting cars, bikers, and hikers). At least early enough to go for the Ring of Kerry itself clockwise without much trouble.

In the end, it all worked out fine. The road has been upgraded in recent years and we have been on much worse with worse traffic. We only encountered the first oncoming busses around lunch-time (they are only allowed to go counter-clockwise) and never had much trouble passing each other.

Much worse (but more fun) was the first minor side road to a well-preserved ring fort. Not quite as spectacular a location as up north in Donegal but preserved instead of re-constructed. We had fun and both kids eagerly climbed the ring, this time fully uninterrupted.

After that we made our biggest mistake of the day and allowed the Agent of Entropy to fall asleep before lunch. It would come back to haunt us later. Said lunch worked out absolutely perfectly, though. After a 3 minute supermarket stop, we were stocked on great bread, fresh salads and veg. Only 15 minutes later we had pulled into another great spot to drop our picknick blanket once again. This time, at a beach somewhere on the Skellig ring, with added ruins and big skies to round of the image. Oh, and as a beautiful reprise of our first trip with the roof tent, we found very passable Pastel de Nata in said random supermarket as well!

The extra bit around along the Skellig loop was described as an adventurous bit of road in the Lonely Planet. In the end, it was scenic but certainly not worse than many other roads we have been on by now. Traffic was also very manageable. There was good reason to dare the wilds of Kerry’s far West though, regardless of road conditions: Another Chocolate Factory. We got a neat free tasting and way too much sugar for the hobbits and sat down for a round of hot chocolate for all of us.

A bit worn out after so much of the Wild Atlantic Way we were not going for many more stops after that. In the end, the drive is a bit of the attraction with this one. We found a campground a bit further along on Beara, the next peninsula south of here. We pushed it, but not before taking “the road less travelled” to avoid a third visit to Killarney in two day. Turned out that the road via the Ballghbeama Gap was the sketchiest bit of driving for the day. It was also totally worth it! We had the road almost to ourselves (minus the obligatory sheep) and even though a light rain had set in, the vistas were still great!

After that the only question was about what to do with dinner. We would have enough time to cook, but not much inspiration. On the other hand, we were passing a second time today through Kenmare, which we had snobbed earlier today. The Lonely Planet had a top recommendation for a local restaurant. A quick call confirmed that they had space for us for dinner at 5pm sharp, kind of perfect for our plans.

The dinner was excellent, and our kids both managed to stay well enough behaved to keep it a pleasant experience. I was especially proud of them for trying both my mussels in white wine sauce as well as the really excellent chowder that I finally got to have. The vegetarian options were taken serious as well. So, we all ended up properly stuffed and ready to fall asleep right there and then.

Luckily, the campground was only 15 minutes away. It had a bit of an abandoned charm, but at least we were left alone and could collapse well and early into our camp.

Day 20 – Two Inch

It felt a bit like a missed opportunity when we left Inch Beach Camping this morning to set out on the Dingle Peninsula loop. Especially their 10kg industrial washer and dryer – after 3 weeks, our bedding had acquired a certain … aroma. The sorrow was only short lived, as the first bit of road, going back north via a different, tiny single track pass was a reward in and out of its own.

The top-rated item of the day is certainly Dunmore head, the westernmost point of mainland Ireland. On our way there, and to an extend afterwards, the road is lined with little way-side sights here and there. We bagged a few of them on our way to Dingle, the namesake town of the peninsula. My personal highlight was Conor Pass, just before Dingle. Town was buzzing with tourists making good use of the warm weather and locals on weekday errands alike.

We arrived a bit too early for lunch, so we decided on a second breakfast in a highly rated café “Bean of Dingle”, which was busting at the seams when we arrived. We still managed to snatch a spot and enjoy the great coffee and treats. Afterwards, we went for a proper shop in town including ingredients for another dinner from our camping cookbook and headed out to find a good lunch spot. The dinner recipe was a bit of a gamble, as it required a box grater that we neither had nor could find in that supermarket.

Lunch worked out much smoother right away. We found a neat little spot with great views of a few of the islands further west. Nina was not so enamoured with the proximity of our picknick blanket to a steep drop of 15m, but the kids were fully relaxed.

A few minor stops later, we were heading for Dunmore Head proper. The Agent of Entropy even got a well-timed nap in, falling asleep in the ring sling (wrap to carry a child <10kg) before being successfully transferred to the car-seat. The weather has finally turned a bit and we arrived with a light drizzle. More disheartening was the sign on the road back east though, stating one-way limitations in place between 10am and 4pm. It was 2:30pm now. There was some box-ticking to be done before, regardless.

It was a good 20 minutes hike uphill from the car park, but the views were more than enough to make up for any pains. Even the reasonable number of other tourists and cheeky “the last Jedi filming location” self-promotion could not put us off this time. Even the weather was in a way adding to it. Number 3 once again proved to be all the trooper. His personal highlight was climbing over the border-wall to the last paddock. Much to my surprise I was able to contain all nerd-posing for the photos, but the Last Jedi vibe was palpable, nonetheless.

Dunmore Head – at the westernmost point of Ireland

We came back to the car with 20 minutes until the road would open again. I suggested a cup of tea to sit it out rather than waste the same 20 minutes on a detour going back to where we came from. We felt it was a good call and the drive was worth it. Only slightly more terrifying than the usual single track roads noticing that some drivers were clearly not expecting oncoming traffic at all.

That late in the day, we had to decide. Go 45 minutes further to an unknown campground in Fossa or return to where we came from at Inch Beach. We had the ingredients for dinner and a promise of clean sheets convince us to do the second “2 nights but not really rest” camp of the trip. Even the matter of the grater got sorted out, thanks to kind fellow campers.

Cooking a full dinner (“Rösti”, great success) and getting 8kgs of washing and drying done lead to a slightly delayed bedtime and very tired parents, but given the weather promising a late and wet start tomorrow we were fine with that. We even still managed to keep up with the blog …

What a pretty road and view right in the beginning

Day 18 – To Loop or Not to Loop

One thing was clear, I wanted off this campground asap. All sympathy to non-neurotypical folks, but maybe running a hospitality business is not the right calling for yous. I don’t care if I can eat of the toilet seat if all your quirks and utter inflexibility make the stay annoying at every step. “Can we charge the car?” “No, we don’t do this, electricity is too expensive”. “Can I pay for it?” “No, we generally don’t allow it …” -.-

The big question was to head straight for Limerick City or take the 2hrs to go west first to do the loop head to the tip of the loop head peninsula (creative naming, I know). The weather forecast looked like the former, but when we hit the road at 9am, the look at the sky made us fancy our chances. It was the right choice, for sure. Lone single track roads with wild and exciting vistas all the way. A quick stop at the lighthouse at the westernmost point was all we needed. For once, we opted against the tour to go up and moved on. In we came on the southern route to come out again along the northern cliff-side road. Such spectacular views greeted us all along that last stretch that we really had to wonder why we were almost alone here, while fighting for bad vistas with busloads of day-trippers yesterday. This was preferable to us any day of the week!

After this great morning, it was about a 1.5 hr dive to Limerick. As we could not charge the car yesterday and won’t be able to tonight (or so we though) I headed for a 15 minute top up on a fast charger before going to town to park conveniently at a 22kw AC charger in downtown. The kids slept through the drive and woke back up with enough drowsiness to excuse this slight delay of lunch. Including another short hunt for a free AC charger it took us until 1.15pm to get to the designated lunch place. There was a short queue to get seated when we arrived at the Hook & Ladder as it was still very busy.

up there we must go – for views and fun points

It turned out it was well worth the wait with excellent food all around. Even the kids were great and did not make a scene due to the delayed lunch. Service was nothing short of exemplary, even though the house was packed. A very welcomed change to our last lunch experience. We ended up staying to transition seamlessly into tea time as well.

After that success, Number 3 got his wish as well. Of the few options to go for, we decided the King John’s Castle was our best pick. It was a bit on the pricy side, but that was made up for by an excellent exhibition part. More interactive than Galway City museum, both kids were occupied long enough for me to dive into the meat of the history part. Win-win, I’d say.

After that, all there was left was a slightly late trip to the camp for the night, delayed even further by the fact that I had not realised that it was actually “in” the gated forest park it was named after. So with a final 15 minute detour, we got there, set up and were pretty much ready to collapse after a quick muesli dinner for the kids. No internet or cell phone reception anyway … 😀

Day 16 – From Galway to …

The day that would start in uncertainty that we had come to terms with. Even though there were some spots we had picked out to wild camp tonight, we still wanted to give the two camps in Galway City a last shot. Much to our surprise, the first of the two adjacent camps would actually sell us an utterly overpriced city camp tent spot without power – cash, obviously. Ah, how we had missed city camps and their greedy owners. Turned out later, comfortably racist comes with the package as well …

had to sit right there, on the knee – no other option

At any rate, we set up the camp and were ready to take the bus to town. Much to Number 3’s delight, it turned out to be a double decker bus! With us arriving a bit close to lunch time, we re-arranged our plans a bit and went for a closer more casual recommendation. It ended up being a burrito bar – not a bad pick. The food was solid, quick enough for the kids and reasonably priced. Now all we had to do was to convince the Agent of Entropy that it was naptime in the carrier.

Oh, right – not so fast. We had to go on one more de-tour before starting the actual touristing: Buying wetsuit repair goop (I’ll get to why in a second). On our way there, we passed the local gaming nerd den and just had to go in for a brief browse. It was called Dungeons & Donuts, and it actually delivered on both. Gaming was going on upstairs and there were real donuts to be had for the inclined gamer to absorb. Unfortunately, anything bought would have to be carried, so we left again to get to the actual errand. The goop was needed to keep both Nina’s and my own pair of main walking shoes from falling apart before the end of the holiday. The silicone goop is perfect to fix the soles of our super thin barefoot shoes, where they were wearing precariously thin. It would be likely quite hard to find good replacements without a major quest. Given that we opted for the newly acquired (and extremely appreciated) barefoot gumboots as our 2^nd pair of shoes instead of a backup, it was kind of important to keep us going (I ended up repairing all shoes as my final deed of the day – the rest of Ireland can come).

With all that out of the way, we were ready to get on with the sightseeing. A wander down Quay Street led us to the weekend market around St. Nicholas church. The Agent was asleep by now, but was almost woken up after we had arrived back on Quay Street, a bit unsure about where to go next: We were ushered out of the way and moments later ended up right in Galway’s Pride Parade! Good on you everyone – it was all smiles and rainbows, really cool to see. Only Number 3 took Umbridge with the volume of the whistles used to make some noise. A shame, otherwise the rainbow theme and Pandemonium should have been totally his thing.

With that literally out of the way, we pocketed some minor sights on our way to the city museum. Number 3 was totally hyped up about it. I am so proud! The museum was free, a nice change of pace, and air conditioned (believe it or not, an actual benefit on this day). Near the end, the Agent of Entropy was done with her nap and soon after we were out in the sun and afternoon heat (yes, almost 30°C) once more.

considering an offering to the temperamental sea godess …

Coffee time with treats was followed by a good long walk along the river and canals. We were debating staying in town for dinner, but slowly settled on a beer as a scene setter and quick dinner at camp. Before though, we had to bag Nina’s point of interest: The Hazel Mountain Chocolate Shop. On goes our quest to visit a chocolate-related venue in every country we travel to. Some great treats and a shelf-stable takeaway goodie later, I had one more idea to fill the afternoon: There was a recommended book shop basically right next door. I wanted to add to our English bedtime stories collection anyway while we were in Ireland, and this was an option to maybe even find a local author.

what a cool shop, great selection as well

We did find just that in “Imagine!” by Galwegian Partricia Forde plus a special request from Number 3: “Don’t Ask the Dragon”. What a cool and cosy place, stacked floor to ceiling with all kinds of books, from Antique to local Crime Fiction.

We abandoned our idea of a final pub visit – it was a bit awkward with the kids and no live music to be found yet at this time. Instead, I got to try out a local Bodhrán (my German-made one sounds better for half the price) and everyone got ice cream for dinner. The trip back home took a bit longer than needed due to some odd bus routing, but we got back just in time for the tent to have cooled down enough to get both kids to bed with enough time left for blogging and chores.

What a packed day …

Day 14 – How I learned to love the …

Let’s not talk about the campground much more. At least we were off early. Wisely, we allowed the kids to skip a shower, so only I got the “sterilizing chicken carcasses”-tempered water treatment.

Absent-mindedly walking around at Carrowmore

First stop for the day was Carrowmore – a megalithic cemetery complex just south of the city of Sligo. We skipped town, which looked quaint, as it just did not match our plans today. The stop was overshadowed by sincere anxiety about accommodation though, and about half of the two hours we spent there was consumed by a stressful search for shelter over the weekend. We had fully run out of booked sites, so starting from today, we had no good idea where we could stay the next nights. Trouble is that the heatwave brings the first good weather of the entire Irish school holidays, so everyone and their puppies is heading for the coast. How bad? Checking a meta site for “150km around Cliffs of Moher” came back with 0 free spots for Saturday night … websites had banners announcing they were full, and most would not answer the phone anymore.

So well distracted and starting to stress out the kids we shambled from grave to grave in brilliant weather, not really doing this astonishing bit of history proper justice. We saw “Maeve’s Cairn” in the distance, lining up with this site and other. What complex lives these other humans must have lived to do all this and how miniscule any window we ever get into these is. Imagine others complexly – how hard this gets when all we know is a few large stones, 30kg of bone matter and a hand full of artifacts. What did they sing about?

In the end, we at least found something for this Thursday – about 50 km further inland then we would maybe have liked. It was a special downer for me that an Eco Camp that I found an inspiration when preparing for the trip came back with a negative answer. We would have needed to book before leaving if we had to have any chance of actually staying there. We even considered leaving the coast and going inland, but there the camping infrastructure is so bad that it would be of equally little help.

Next up would be a 1,5hr drive east along the coast, to Downpatrick Head. Along the way, we would need to stop for lunch – and as we had left pretty late, the lunch stop was up pretty much right away. So after 10 minutes, I turned off the route, following a “viewpoint” signpost to the first real highlight of the day. The lunch spot, perfectly secluded with splendid views of the wetlands and foreshore, was almost too perfect. This would also have been a brilliant wild-camp spot, even for us. Lunch improved everyone’s mood significantly, and just seeing such a nice spot took the edge off the idea of ending up without a campground and bringing a possible wild camp back into play (technically illegal, it is still very much practiced by campervans along the Wild Atlantic Way).

It is close to the shore but still so far away…Flo for scale

The kids slept through the rest of the drive and we relaxed a bit. Downpatrick Head, with the spectacular freestanding Dun Briste stack, steep cliffs and blowholes was a great last stop for the day. Even the mildly disappointing coffee truck “Tea by the Sea” could not dent our improving mood. We had teatime and then headed out to the really spectacular cliffs. The kids got to walk around a bit. We had some small thrills at the edge high above the sea. Plus the mild weather made it very manageable for Nina, who might have not enjoyed thrashing breakers gushing 50m up through the blowholes as much as I would have.

I chose a slightly more western route back down to our campground – much to the dismay of Nina and especially Number 3. With the smaller, windier roads both got struck by severe car sickness. Number 3 only barely made it through the 1 hr drive without ruining our bedding right in front of him. In the end, we did arrive though. And what a brilliant arrival it was. Such a gem of a camp, with the kindest, most relaxed keeper imaginable. We got to set up on the grass, with power and a great view of the two resident donkeys on their pasture. The kids immediately connected with a few Irish kids two caravans down. It took us only 2 minutes to turn back to the groundskeeper to try and get us a spot to stay one more night. How things always fall into place in the end – we did get that second night confirmed. That would only leave Saturday as the real hitch – and that, we decided, we would manage one way or another, improvising as we went along. There is always the small adventure of finding a wild camp spot if all else fails … let’s download iOverlander one more time …

Day 11 – Black Sheep

I had worked myself up into a ripe old mood. What a horrendous campground. I knew of the downside (one looong line, with facilities only on one end), but I did not expect the price. 10€ “festival extra”, only that no one had told us on the phone about it. So we paid the extra with no time to even maybe go and enjoy the reason. Bottom line: Most expensive night so far, for a farcically bad camp. The view was good, but everyone was drunk – snoring and farting – and the loo was so far off that everyone else kept going there by car! To top it of, of course they would drive all the way past our end to turn their cars around noisily.

Breakfast and packing was enhanced by the sound and utter stink of the next door camper’s diesel started up and then left running unattended for 25 minutes! What is wrong with people?

I was not a good husband or cheerleader that morning, but we powered through it and got to Ireland’s northernmost point, Marlin Head, by 10am. There was a promise of great coffee and pastries served by a legendary food truck in the Lonely Planet, and when pulling into the parking lot, the truck at least was there on top of the hill. After a friendly chat we took off for a little 1km cliff walk to be (hopefully) finished off by second breakfast on top of the hill.

Hell’s hole was maybe less impressive than usual, thanks to the brilliant weather and 23° C “heat wave” currently hitting the North of Ireland. Usually, water pushes up this narrow rift in foaming gusts, but with almost no wind, there was not much of a show. Still a very scenic walk.

With almost no wind, Hell’s Hole was very tame today

The top of the hill did not disappoint and once again, we had some treats, coffee and tea before heading off again. The treats were pretty good, but the coffee was excellent and the service world class. Back at the car park we even managed to settle some of our eternal karma debt after chatting with an older Dutch couple on two sharp looking road bikes. She had slipped on the fresh split seal and cracked an indicator – something our handy supply of duct and electrical tape could help sort out in no time.

Lunch was a touch late, but we were well prepared. Even without picknick tables, the Grianán of Aileách along the way was an almost perfect backdrop. We dropped our picknick blanket and had sandwiches in this place that immediately made obvious why it had been the site of some sort of fortification for at least 2000 years. The views over Lough Swilly and Lough Foyle were spectacular, all the way over back the Inishowen Peninsula and to Northern Ireland.

We thought there might have been another opportunity for a stop on the 1 hour and 20 scenic drive up to our camp for the day, but with kids falling asleep and potty breaks, we just kept going. After all, the camp for the day promised to be an attraction in its own right. And for once, it held up.

The camp was set up in terraces up the slope of a hill with great views of a golden sand beach. The spot we got was great, with a serene view. There was enough time left for the kids to spend some time at the beach, getting their feet wet in water way too cold for my taste. To round it off, we had a beautiful dinner once again from a vegetarian travel cook book very good friends gave us as a present a few years ago. Halloumi and black beans, delicious!

First beach experience for the kids on this trip

Now hanging out, catching up on blogging and trip planning while the kids are asleep. The weather is still nice enough to be out without wishing for a pocket oven and a shelter. Good times.

P.S.: Oh, I forgot, the title: The Agent of Entropy has learnt that sheep are interesting as roadside attractions. Plus, black sheep are extra special, as they feature in two of their children’s books. So every damn black sheep we pass triggers about 25 hyped up: “black sheep, black sheep! Mama! Black sheeeeeeep!”. As a reminder, we are in rural Ireland … 😀