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.

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).

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 …