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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 … 😀

On our way to the northern most point of Ireland: Malin Head

Day 9 – Chillax

“One night or two nights?” – “One” – “ok, thanks”. 15 minutes later, kids mingling on the playground … “could we maybe still make it two?” That was last night. We did not regret it. 7 days of travel with 7 different camp spots is taxing in a way. Taking a rest day takes the stress out of everything.

I will try to keep this short and sweet. The day was near perfect. Both kids got plenty of opportunity to engage and play with others. Number 3 made me really proud with the amount of English he practices with other kids and adults. His English has improved so much already.

jump into action every time a horse walked by (this is 2m from the tent)

We had two solid meals and a sweet breakfast treat to boot (I had the presence of mind to grab croissants at our last minute Lidl shopping). Scrambled eggs for lunch and mashed potatoes and veggie nuggets for dinner. Minor aside: There is this great line of plant based “protein” foods at our local organic supermarket. We had the “non-meat-balls” before and the nuggets for tonight. They come as a powder, to be soaked in water and fried up and they both taste excellent. More vegetarian food should be this good. As a bonus, they last forever and pack very neatly and only need water to prepare, so a great camping food all around.

Only one event broke the stride a bit: Puru Hiko’s 12v batterie ran flat one again at some point in the afternoon. What a stupid engineering oversight (DC-DC converter only triggers when the “ignition” is on). But this time, I come prepared. Bought a tiny power bank / jump start battery kit and coaxed him back to life without an embarressing round of the camp looking for a jump start from a stinker.

That was really it. Great conversations with some of our lovely neighbours, great play time for the kids and we got to catch up on sleep and chores. All ready to tackle the road again!

both XYs pretty tired – time for cuddles!

Day 7 – Heights

I loved our camp in principle. Council run, cheap and very conveniently located. Reasonably clean, and we even got the chance to do our first laundry. But the insane noise cars make going 80 to 100 km/h is quite something else. Unfortunately, as convenient as it was, sleeping 5m away from the A2 is probably a showstopper for most people. Me, I was fine. Trying to have breakfast with <80 dB background noise, that’s where I draw the line.

Still, this was the cheapest night so far, plus a hot shower for me and 100% charge for Puru Hiko. We gave the kids a bit of extra time to explore the huge waterfront playground and foreshore before heading on.

Remember, taking it slower – only one item today: Carrick-a-rede. Under 100km, we chose the slow road along the east coast and were not disappointed for it. It got Nina a bit antsy, as the site has timed slots for access, but I managed to deliver us there just in time.

The whole north shore of Northern Ireland is pretty neat, but a few spots made it to the level of tourist attractions. Carrick-a-rede was a nice but otherwise unremarkable island that is now visited as the site of a historical (and since fortified) rope bridge. It was initially strung up to help the local fishermen get better at eradicating salmon from these waters. Since the salmon is long gone, it got a second life as a minor thrill for tourists wobbling over 30m over the foaming sea. All tightly managed and access restricted by the National Trust. An organisation whose motto might be “our country’s natural beauty, preserved for those who can afford it”. Very British. So what, we can afford it by now …

We took a bit longer than the advertised 30 minutes’ walk from the car park – as the Agent of Entropy was eager to do most of it herself. Or maybe because I spotted the unmistakable gait of someone hiking to a sight in motorcycle boots! I had spotted Katinka’s (of @KatinkAdventure on Instagram) Transalp in the parking lot already. Looked like an overlander bike, and it was. She has been on the road a while – spiting Covid. We had a brief chat, as much as the kids would allow, and realised we both know fellow Dutch Overlander Peter (sans Leoni). Its really nice to hear that Peters business (www.bartang.eu) has reached that level of renown in the overlander community.

When it came to the big ticket item, Number 3 did splendidly – very brave and composed. The Agent refrained from jumping out the carrier and even Nina dared the crossing. Colour me impressed.

Just when it was time to head back, we were introduced to Ireland’s 90 second flash rain showers, full on including sideways rain. Given how unphased the locals were, it seems like something worth getting used to. Number 3 took it with surprising enthusiasm.

Even though we had unremarkable, overpriced brown food for lunch (seriously UK, what’s up with that?) I was still beholden to my promise of Spaghetti Carbonara from two days ago. So we went off, at 2.30pm, straight to this nights camp. Another neat working farm camp, which we are learning to keep an eye out for now.

After setting up camp, we had some coffee – the kids got to see the farm’s special feature of Alpacas and pygmy-goats and I had time to get dinner just right, fighting to keep the heat of our medium gas cooker against a strong northerly. Holiday proper has begun. Let’s see when it will feel like it.

Day 5 – Scottish Green

The day started unplanned and too early. Wind and rain had picked up over night and had me worried at time for our awning, still up. At 5am it turned out, the worries were not entirely unfounded. I woke to a new noise, unfamiliar even over the drumming of rain and wind so far. The constant rumble of wind had finally rattled open the zipper connecting the awning to our tent. Luckily, the pegs still held, so it was flapping wet and helplessly in the wind like a sea bird in an oil spill.

first thing checking if the animals are all still there

Nina and I got up in our PJs and jumped to the rescue. At least it was warm enough to not get cold and miserable while doing so. With the awning saved, storm cover installed we went back to bed.

At getting up time proper, the rain had let up enough for us to feel safe enough to bring the awning back up. After a bit of a rough night, the kids indulged on chocolate spread on the last bit of sourdough.

From here on, days will be decidedly less rushed with much less distance planned for each day. Today, only 250km to the last camp in Britain before leaving to Ireland. We took our good time, but the weather kind of helped to speed us on regardless. So even with another good animal watching session we managed to be back on the road by 9am. The weather had not improved much further and was not expected to before noon. We decided to turn this into an opportunity and go for a second breakfast in the first Scottish town on our way, Dumfries. The lonely planet app was helpful as always and provided a recommendation for great coffee and a good snack.

At the café, we weighted our options and decided to go for castle over forest park this time. Not too much of a tough choice when the option is called “Drumlanrig Castle Adventure Playground & Gardens”. The 17^th century Drumlanrig Castle proper was closed today, but the gardens and playground area was open and right the level of exercise needed for our kids. After a good session in the playground area, we got to explore the neatly maintained gardens as well. As it was past lunch (and nap) time now but both were still on pretty great behaviour and everyone got a round of treats before we moved on for the last bit.

As we had travelled north a bit from Dumfries, we were now heading across westwards off the main A75 on mostly single track roads and straight through the Galloway Forest Park towards our camp. Both kids fell asleep and Nina got carsick. I take that as a compliment of my driving. We did not stop again in the national park, which was a bit of a shame. But it was getting into the afternoon and Balloch O’dee campground promised to be a place to explore in its own right.

The campground definitively held up to the expectations. Great grass pitches with plenty of space to set up. The grounds, clearly inspired by the owner, gave of a splendidly relaxed vibe. To top it all off, there were plenty of fire pits all over the area, an indicator of how the day will end for us.

Number 3 once again made a new friend within the first 10 minutes and was on his absolute best behaviour for the rest of the afternoon. I could hardly have refused him when he asked to be allowed to have a bonfire as well after our quick and simple dinner (still getting great value out of that Iranian breakfast dish we picked up all those years ago), could I?

He bought the firewood and we agreed to have the bedtime stories at the campfire instead of in the tent. After putting the little ones to bed, Nina and I let the day fade out going through the remaining logs in our bag of fire wood. The sun had gone down and we got to chat, make a few plans and call it a night.

Day 3 – Range of Emotions

It‘s my birthday! But we forgot! Well, until we were in the car already, that is. First time in over a decade that I am not “home” to celebrate my birthday with friends. But holidays are short and we wanted to make the most of it. Plus, as a bit of a reprise of my childhood trauma, we are back in sync with the school holidays, which means my birthday is ALWAYS at some inconvenient time in the middle of them.

But back to the car – we left the campground in record time this morning, as we had a train to catch. Le shuttle eurotunnel to be precise. Departure 9.10am, arrive one hour early. Getting up at 6.30am as usual this meant breakfast in the car. But without an awning, we were even faster than that and on the road by 7.30am.

Much to our delight, the Eurotunnel is happy to deal with that to everyone’s satisfaction. Would you like to take the 8.35am instead, at no charge? Don’t mind if we do. There was just enough time left to grab an overpriced (but pretty decent) Starbucks coffee and munch down yesterday’s pain au chocolat (still excellent, obviously). Apart from the 20 min in the cue for the border checks (whee, Brexit!) that got Nina a bit worried for a moment, it was an absolutely smooth operation. Almost a bit too much, making this marvel of engineering feel a bit underwhelming as an experience. In – 25 minutes of gentle swaying in a dark tunnel, out and off.

With the time difference it was now 8.15am in England and not much in sight other than getting past London. We made it a proper push, stretching our range to one of the few fast chargers on the western route north (towards the A1). Just after Cambridge, with 40km range left, we pulled up to four Ionity hyperchargers … only to find them all offline! A call to the service line was no good. Two more fast-chargers from another company were at this service station, but full. In the end, about 20 minutes after we had arrived, the Ionity sprang back to life and we could proceed to a more relaxed lunch.

All should have been well, it was still early, only 160km to go and enough charge on the battery now. Campground was pre-booked, a pub to watch the game close by. But when we arrived, the warden took one look into the back of our car and flatly exclaimed: “adults only – you can’t stay here!” That’s it – good luck with your refund, not my problem (booked for 2 adults and 2 kids, obviously). Are you serious?! Its 2.30pm now. Breathe – double check. Not much nearby. Adults only … +45 camping … members only … what the !”§$% …

Then, Nina got the one we needed, kids almost mental in the car by now. We promised to get out, now its another 30 minutes plus the time spent searching. What a lot of horse manure. Although, in the end …

… 25 minutes later, at the new camp we had the warmest welcome and a big headshake from this warden for the behaviour of his colleagues. The space at Lupine Woods Camping is perfect for us – rustic but we have it almost to ourselves. There were only maybe 5 other places occupied and he had no issue with us charging the car. A bit of forest to roam free and explore and (as it turned out) other kids to find and play with for the little ones. And to top it all off, the wifi was good enough to stream the game!

So, with catastrophe nearly avoided, we settled in, made some new friends, had a real nice dinner that I cooked instead of oily pub-grub and got to sit down to watch the game. A loss, alas, but that would have been too perfect now, would it not?

P.S.: Dear England, I am not mad, just disappointed!

Day 1 – Word Processor

Hey – here we go again. Nina and myself are still not sure if we have the engergy to go for daily blogging again. No other way then trying. So I will give it a shot!

What trip kind of trip are we on this time? Well, its still with Puru Hiko, still with the roof tent and the whole family. We have 5 weeks, so we were looking for something a bit further off to make use of the time and enjoy some of that late-covid freedom. Our choice fell on Irland this time, with some light Brittany as a pallet clenser on our way back.

Everything until Belfast is pre-aranged, sailing on the 3th of August. A bit of a rush, but some slight post-Brexit resentment made the choice of dashing through England much easier. Then we have 24 days on the Island of Irland, until we get on another boat from Cork to Roscoff.

Day one was, dare I say, much of the usual. Packing drags on a bit, but we managed to leave before noon. Some crappy food and broken fast chargers later, we managed to make it to Aachen for a late coffee break. Nina wisely proposed to keep the first day on the shorter side, so from here on its only a short 30 minutes to the first campground.

Aachen, the short hour we spent there, was lovely. Number one had seen a bit about the cathedral on the “Sendung mit der Maus”, so we got him to buy into a tiny bit of sight-seeing after the massive piece of strawberry-cream cake. On our way back to the car (parked at charger try number 3) he even insisted that we must come back again as it was “soo nice”.

The last 30 minutes had both kids fully amped up, talking seemingly without even taking a breath in between. The camp ground is perfect for us, single field grass pitch attached to a small farm. No hedgerows, no permanet placements. Out on a lovely hill overlooking a few towns in the Limburg region of the Netherlands. A simple dinner with fresh bread, tent up, car charging. Let’s get this things started …