Category Archives: Travelling

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 21 – When a hike is not a hike

After our uber success last night (come on, laundry and cooking while camping is amazing!), we were slow to start this morning. The fog we’d seen last night over the bay had rolled in. Visibility was poor, rain came down and we had about one square meter of dryish space underneath the awning.

Getting the kids into rainproof gear, packing everything for breakfast at the camper’s kitchen to stay dry…all this took too long for our youngest who had the first accident of this trip. At a time when everything was wet anyways, moods were low and tempers easily flared. Poor her.

Lovely second breakfast in the summer garden of Petit Délice

Eventually we managed all the morning chores plus the extra work and left Inch beach for the second time. This time for good. Heading towards Killarney, the weather didn’t improve much. The rain turned into a drizzle eventually, but it still came down. I decided that we’d get a second breakfast or a coffee time in the late morning in Killarney. After walking around a little, we settled on Petit Délice, a small French bakery. They had seating space in their summer garden which luckily was covered so we had lovely chocolatey goodness and a warm tea. We also bought a baguette for lunch.

From Killarney we went south into the National park to Muckross House. Hiking in the National park is supposed to be lovely and really quite involved. While researching I found many awesome hiking trails…for adults. I’m just not comfortable with planning a day tour of 18km with our 4 year old. The Agent gets carried most of the time anyway.

An overcast, moody day for a hike. Both kids really loved the idea of riding in a jaundice car but they weren’t going around the lake. I asked

So I ended up with Muckross House. From here, there’s a 8.5km loop around the lake. That sounded doable and good. Flo made sandwiches out of the baguette to take along, we got to the start of the trail, had our lunch and the Agent promptly fell asleep in the carrier. So far so good. The hike was a disappointment though. Don’t get me wrong, it had lovely views, you just had to walk on tarmac all the time. It’s also advertised for bikers but I didn’t get that this would mean a sealed road for most of it. Bikes made so much more sense than to walk here that I felt pretty stupid to have chosen this “hike”. After 5km, we reached Dini’s Cottage our first waypoint. Number 3 was a trooper again, walking all five kilometers without too much complaining.

The Agent was asleep but even Number 3 couldn’t see over the sides of the bridge

Here, we sat down, had a drink and some ice cream for the kids. Though it is a loop, we had just reached the half-point mark. I couldn’t see Number 3 walking another 5 kilometers out of here again. Heck, even I didn’t really feel like walking another 5 kilometers on tarmac. Luckily, there was another option. When getting the trail map at the info centre, the warden mentioned that boats go to and fro between Muckross House and Dini’s Cottage. We might be in luck and catch a boat ride back with the kids.

I really hoped we would be in luck. Waiting around at Dini’s Cottage for over an hour, we weren’t. Every boat that arrived had a booked tour onboard to different locations along the lake. None of them were going back to Muckross House. Finally, we committed to walking. The first thing to do was walk about 300 meters away from the lake to see an old bridge. It was quite cool to see Old Weir Bridge. Getting back on the loop trail again, Flo moved into the wrong direction, towards Dini’s Cottage again. Frustrated with taking back our commitment to walking, I followed…just to see that Flo was talking to a boatman that had just arrived. While talking to him, a second boat arrive which (THANK GOODNESS) had space for us AND was going back to the House.

I paid right away just to make sure he’d take us back. Then we had another 20 minutes to kill at Dini’s Cottage before finally boarding and going back via the lake. Both kids were super excited about the boat ride. You got to see most of the track we’d walked on the way here from the water. A lot of the rocky landscape was hollowed out by the water.

Back at the car, we drove back a little towards the other side of Killarney again to an unspectacular, overpriced campground.

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 19 – Drifting around

The Forest Park was a nice spot and both kids were keen to go back to the playbus. So we took our time this morning to blog a little, let the kids play and go on a walk through the forest. The small loop track that Flo had picked didn’t lead through the forest unfortunately but meandered through the Arboretum of a now-abandoned manor house. Not quite what we had in mind for this morning.

Both kids absolutely loved the short walk through the forest. Number 3 made up fairy stories about their houses and furniture

From here, we went back to the coastal route. It was nearly lunch time already. After stocking up on groceries in a tiny supermarket (and gummybears. Always gummybears. Grandma had given a tiny bucket full of them to the kids before we left and it needs to be refilled regularly), Flo followed a roadside viewpoint sign to Carrigafoyle Castle. Another lovely picnic spot for us plus a “castle” for Number 3 to explore. It was actually quite cool to see how much of the ruin you could still explore.

Further down the coast we went, now in the county of Kerry. Kerry is full of things to do and see…just not right here. So we continued until we hit Tralee. The Lonely Planet recommended the Tralee Bay Wetlands Centre as an activity plus a location for coffee. We got to the parking lot, plugged in the charger and nearly collapsed. With the sleeping kids in the back, we seriously considered just taking a nap. Instead, Flo and I planned the next campground. The response we got was encouraging, basically saying “no need to book there will be spaces on the day”. This is our preferred way of travelling so I’m quite happy we can just see how far we get and then check for campsites there.

Finally, we went in. It was actually quite lovely to just walk around in the wetland. We saw a heron and a moorhen with chicks and lots of things that are common in Ireland. Number 3 had a sheet with all the flora you could see and the Agent had a sheet with all the birds you could spot…both of them took their jobs seriously.

Getting coffee was a harder task. The cafe in the Wetlands Centre was closed, the first recommended cafe in Tralee as well. In the end, we wandered around and had coffee in one of the many coffee places the pedestrian zone had to offer.

Our next scheduled campground was at Inch Beach at the start of the Dingle Peninsular loop. It had been a weird day without any real highlight but a lot of things to see anyway, so I was happy to just hit the campground a little earlier than we usually do.

It is right opposite the beach. The weather was still fine and I opted that we’re going to see the beach in sunshine. Flo protested meekly because going to the beach now meant we couldn’t cook dinner and had to improvise. However, the kids ran around ecstatically so this time, Flo also put his feet in the ocean.

On the way back, we chose convenient dinner from a fish & chips food truck at our campground. Expecting the usual grub, this one pleasantly surprised us with its quality. They only need to work on their trucks presentation a bit …

Most of the trees along the fairy trail were enchanted in some way

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 17 – Cliffs of Disappointment

We couldn’t wait to leave the campground in Galway. It didn’t feel welcoming at all. Instead, you had to pay for a hot shower and in the morning, we realized you even had to pay to use the campers’ kitchen. That was just a little too much for us. Even so, we met a friendly fellow traveller at breakfast to swap stories with. He’s lived in New Zealand for the last 23 years and he just joined our conversation when Flo was going on about the (Path of) Exile Con in Auckland next year.

We weren’t too sure what we’d get to do today. Planning wasn’t really in the cards as we didn’t even know where we’d end up sleeping yesterday. But there were plenty of options.

Number 3 had bugged us about wanting to see a castle for a while. We agreed in principle though somehow the time wasn’t right. Dunguaire Castle was on our way today…we didn’t stop. Again, it just didn’t seem right for today. We had just left Galway.

In the end, our first proper stop was my pick: Hazel Mountain Chocolate factory. Flo and I had already agreed on skipping the factory tour. Buying chocolate in a factory outlet is a totally different thing though. When we got there, a tour bus had just pulled in so we swerved a little and sat down in the café before hitting the store. The café was lovely, serving hot drinks and baked goods, full of chocolatey goodness. All of it came in lovely pottery, making the experience extra cute. As you can imagine, I was happy. The kids seemed happy, too.

In the store, the tour was about to start. What had they done all this time? Shopping? Anyhow, the tour guide invited us to come along which was amazingly friendly of her. Flo and I listened for a bit but it is hardly our first chocolate factory tour. So we browsed the wares, turning around whenever something cool turned up in the talk. Number 3 got to smell cocoa beans, Flo got a handful of single origin chocolate to try. When the kids waved at the lady busy with actually making chocolates, she came out and rewarded both of them with chocolate covered marshmallows. A visit can’t be more of a win than this.

Flo picked the next point of interest for today: The Burren National park. The Burren are a stony landscape that you can walk through or in our case, drive through. Flo is a fan of limestone so he was particularly looking forward to this part. At a road side car park, we got out to check out if we could walk around for a bit. Per chance, we’d stopped right next to the beginning of seven hiking trails, two of which were marked as easy and loop walks of only about 1.5km. Number 3 picked the white one which we walked in its entirety. We hadn’t actually planned a walk here. Thus, lunch had to be improvised. We had spaghetti leftovers at the roadside with recently bought chocolate for dessert. 😊

County Clare’s big draw are the cliffs of Moher though. The Lonely Planet (which I’ve been reading way more than Flo) already instilled caution in me, given its description of the place. In fact, they turned out to be the cliffs of disappointment. It’s a gigantic tourist attraction, no question. You queue to pay your ticket fee, are ushered to your parking spot, walk with the crowd to the wall separating you from the cliff edge, take a couple of pictures and leave again. Yes, the cliffs are high and yes, they are steep. The experience is almost lost in the crowds. Sliabh Liag was way more atmospheric than this. The best way to see the cliffs of Moher is probably by boat. We just didn’t want to spend that kind of cash on it. It’s not cheap.

From here, our campsite slowly came to mind. We’d booked a site in Doonbeg without electricity (nothing else was available) so the car needed to be charged if we wanted to start early tomorrow morning. The charger in Lahinch was luckily available (after a 10 minute wait), which even gave the kids an excuse to put their feet in the ocean one more time.

The Strand Camping Doonbeg wasn’t used to one night travellers. At least everything was set up to feel much more long term. Still happy that we had a place to sleep, we set up before the rain, had a lovely shower and brought the kids to bed.

I kept threatening to throw them over – they still trust me 😀

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 15 – Connemara on my mind

Having circumvented the camping crisis for today, we woke up to donkeys frolicking in fog. The campground took its time to wake up but we were ready for a daytrip to Connemara by 9am.

Flo and I had debated the best plan for today. The options ranged from having a rest day here where the kids have playmates to going on a full-on daytrip to see the Peninsular of Connemara. I guess I won as we were going on a daytrip.

Pretty impressive mountain all of the sudden

Number 3 was slightly unhappy to leave his companions but with the prospect of returning to play this evening, even he was ready for a car ride.

It took about 1.20h to get to the region of Connemara and we started with a photo stop at Kylemore abbey. It wasn’t much more than a toilet break for the kids, a bit of stretching our legs and taking a couple of pictures, as we didn’t feel like visiting “a crenellated 19^th-century neo-Gothic fanatasy”. We’re still holding out for the real deal of a clans’ castle.

We got great views from up here. Also thanks to the Irish heat wave no cloud could be seen

Next up was the “Sky road”. Not really sure what to expect, we started the loop road leading us to Clifden. In time for an early lunch, we checked for good picnic spots along the way. Suddenly, we came upon the perfect one: A viewpoint of the scattered inlets of Connemara with a sign saying “Sky road”. Having lunch there with a view was cool, plus we got to enjoy the sight in different “conditions”. It was super full for maybe 10 minutes, then we had it to ourselves for a while before the next batch of cars arrived.

Both kids fell asleep after lunch, so Flo and I put on our audio book and enjoyed the ride. We arrived in Clifden after about 10 minutes which was too early for coffee and our tired kids. So we kept driving loops along the coast, this time to Roundhouse. Skipping the Connemara Smokehouse, we headed to Gurteen Bay. The Lonely Planet said it was a lovely beach. I hoped the kids could have another magical beach experience there. Even before we arrived, it started to get crowded. Cars were parked as far as 1.5km before we hit the beach. That’s just not a great distance for the kids to walk for a short and sweet beach stop. When the beach came into view, it really was crowded. Everybody and their dog was out and about trying to cool down in this heat wave. With temperatures reaching 29 degrees, the Irish didn’t know what to do other than throw themselves into the ocean. People weren’t wearing many clothes to begin with.

Seeing the scene, both kids still asleep, we decided to pass on Gurteen Bay as well. The road trip still felt great, the audiobook was exciting and the way along Lough Inagh was super pretty. I took a couple of road porn pictures, Flo just enjoyed driving the car.

“You too, Mama!” The Agent putting her feet in the lake

When the kids woke, we stopped at a lake to put our feet in before continuing towards Belcarra. Both kids behaved so well during the whole day that we added another stop in Cummins for coffee. Flo found a place called “Devour bakery”. It was exactly what you think such a bakery would be.

Back “home” at Carra Caravan park, Number 3 and the Agent enjoyed playing with our neighbours’ kids again. Flo and I got some washing done, talked to familiar faces who kept coming in now. One family that we’d seen in Rossan was so happy to finally find a place to stay…they’d tried ten different campsites before they got to Carra. We’re still without a place to sleep tomorrow. I’m preparing myself for a night of wild camping and Flo is already checking out possible places to stop. Somehow, we’ll get through this Saturday the 13^th with 29 degrees in the Irish and UK school holidays. The booking sites already look better for Sunday and we managed to book the next two campsites in advance.

Trying to get the kids to sleep in a still hot tent was a bit of a chore especially since we had another gaming session on. In the end, the gaming session didn’t happen because the wifi couldn’t handle the call and roll20. By the time we gave up, the kids were sound asleep.

Flo and I took advantage of Flukie’s cosy pub to have one last drink before heading to bed.

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 13 – Goodbye Donegal

We were ready nice and early, having slept right next to the cliffs of Sliabh Liag. The Lonely Planet suggested to drive to the upper car park and then walk for about 500m to get some nice views. That sounded like a short stop with a great photo op. However, when we got there, the upper car park was closed off. The wardens told us that it’s a 2km walk to the upper car park or we could wait until 10am and take up the first shuttle bus. Waiting till 10am wasn’t an option and Flo was against taking the bus anyway.

The Agent of Entropy was carried in the baby carrier, Number 3 walked and we “hiked” up to the upper car park. It wasn’t too bad except for the fact that hiking on asphalt isn’t the greatest kind of fun.

We were the first ones up at the upper car park. The coffee and souvenir trucks hadn’t even opened yet but Flo already spotted “The sober bar” which sold non-alcoholic beers. Starting the actual hiking track was fun as most of it consisted of steps made out of natural stones. We soon realized that the views onto the cliff were best from the car park and we didn’t intend to do the whole ridge walk with two small kids. The next nice viewing area was our snack spot and then we turned around again, just in time for the first shuttle bus to arrive.

far enough for us, time to head back down – after snacks

It was lovely that we’d beaten the crowds. Bus after bus started to arrive at the car park. Since we’ve already been as high up as we’d go, we now sat down to have a tea, a cookie and that non-alcoholic Guinness that Flo had seen the night before.

Though this stop was more involved than we’d thought, it was a great one. Sliabh Liag is a cliff, going 600m down into the sea and is thus higher than the cliffs of Moher. The view onto the wall rising out of the water into the clouds was pretty amazing, though I can imagine that the views from the cliff top down are even more spectacular.

From here, our next planned stop was the beach at Rossnowlagh. But first, lunch. “The Rusty Mackerel” only started serving meals from 1pm onwards which was too late for us. Looking out for a bakery along the road, I checked the recommended cafes in Killybegs. Cafe Ahoy was recommended for its seafood chowder. That line alone triggered Flo’s taste buds so we passed the bakery and went there.

Happy to find a table quickly even if it was inside, we decided what to order. Being asked for our drinks order, the waitress told us that she can’t take our food order yet as there are a couple of tables before us. That was an odd statement without any further explanation. We sat there for 30 minutes with our drinks, without ordering food. Literally the second that Flo wanted to get up and leave, the waitress took our order. Hoping that now it would speed up the process, we spent ANOTHER 30 minutes there without any food. Seriously pissed, we finally got up and left. That was seriously shitty customers’ service…please let your guests know if there’s a long waiting time ESPECIALLY if they have young kids who will clearly starve if they have to wait for an hour.

An hour had passed, we still needed food, the kids were crying because they were so hungry. So we did what we should have done in the first place: We went to the bakery. It turned out to be a bakery/deli so we even had Sheppard’s pie, quiche and pasta salad for lunch and were done in 15 minutes. Cafe Ahoy, you might have been lovely but that was just not acceptable.

Finally, finally, with the kids asleep in the car, we drove to Rossnowlagh. It’s a beach along the way where you can drive your car right up to the water so it made the kids and Flo happy. To be fair, the kids were ecstatic to put their feet into the ocean again. Number 3 wanted to learn everything about jelly fish as this was the first beach where some of them had been beached.

like a dive-in movie. Extremely bizzare. Plus, everyone in camping chairs …

30 minutes later, we had to leave again as the tide was coming in. Some car owners didn’t make it quite fast enough and that their cars bathed in salt water from beneath. Not really a good thing…

But, we were also leaving county Donegal, the first county of the republic of Ireland that we’ve been to. It’s been quite a ride. Counties Sligo & Mayo are beckoning. Well, they will be tomorrow. Today we pulled up in a lakeside caravan park that was overpriced, basic and really nothing special. However, we had a long distance gaming session scheduled and needed power and reception for that.