Saturday 25th December 2021

The table was set but unfortunately Ann was unable to be here this evening for our traditional 25th December meal. The food didn't taste as good as it did in previous years when there were two of us sitting down to eat it!

Roger.

Wednesday 1st December 2021

 This morning it was cold and grey at Fishguard.

There's certainly plenty of room to park here.

We returned home to Devon via the M4, The Severn Bridge (seen here) and the M5.

Today we travelled 241 miles (388 kilometres).

Our journey lasted from 29th September to 1st December 2021, a total of 64 days. We travelled 4171 miles (6715 kilometres) excluding the distance of the ferry crossings from Newhaven (England) to Dieppe (France), over the Gironde Estuary (France), from Cherbourg (France) to Dublin (Ireland), over the Shannon Estuary (Ireland) and from Rosslare (Ireland) to Fishguard (Wales).

That's all for now. Roger.

 

Tuesday 30th November 2021

This morning Richard took Ann and me over to visit the old church which he and Anne-Marie had converted into a house many years ago and is now lived in by their daughter Frances and her family.

Frances and her husband Ronan have altered the place quite a lot since they moved in.

Out the back of the church there is a prehistoric burial mound.

We had a chat with Frances who was at work so we didn't stay long. The we said our goodbyes to Richard and Anne-Marie and set off travelling south. Many many thanks to you both for your marvellous hospitality - please come to visit us in Devon if you can.

We headed south down the east coast of Ireland stopping off along the way for a cup of tea and some of Anne-Marie's amazing sponge cake which she had given us to help us on our travels. We headed to the Port of Rosslare. Here's our van lined up ready to board the ferry.

We were soon loaded onto the ferry which left on time at 18.15. There were very few passengers or vehicles on the crossing.

We got some fish and chips at the ship's canteen which were really nice. The crossing was a bit rough but we arrived at Fishguard in south west Wales on time at 21.45. We are staying tonight in a large free car and lorry park a few hundred metres from the ferry terminal.

Today we travelled 137 miles (221 kilometres) - excluding the distance we travelled on the ferry from Rosslare to Fishguard. We are at: N52.0016 W4.9924

Fishguard  Street View

 

 

Monday 29th November 2021

We had a very pleasant day at Richard and Anne-Marie's house.

They previously lived just across the road in a former church which they had converted into a house. Their daughter and her family now live in the church and they live in this house which they designed and had built for them in 2014.

Our van is parked round the back. Here's a view of the house from there.

I haven't done a jigsaw puzzle for years. I did this one today.

Richard collects books.

He has a lot of them.

Here are some more.

 

Sunday 28th November 2021

Before leaving Rooskey I noticed this small tree in the corner of the aire which had received some odd decorations and a bird feeder. We travelled east stopping to buy a few oddments along the way

This afternoon we arrived at my cousin Richard and his wife Anne-Marie's house near Trim in County Meath. They gave us a marvellous welcome and some lovely food. Tonight we are staying at their house. Here's the sunset this evening as seen from their kitchen.

Today we travelled 76 miles (122 kilometres).

Saturday 27th November 2021

 Today we headed east stopping to visit Connemara National Park Visitor Centre.

The National Park is quite small by National Park standards but there is some spectacular scenery here.

The Visitor Centre is by a small lake.

It's a really beautiful setting.

The only bit of Irish Language I could find was on the front of the Centre itself. Everything else was in English!

The display inside the Centre is very informative. This area was covered in pine forests but then humans moved in and either burned down or cut down the forest. This human induced environmental change led to the formation of peat bogs. As time went by wood for house building etc became scarce and the people resorted to digging logs out of the bogs, the logs having been preserved by the chemical environment beneath the surface of the bog.

There is a good range of wildlife living in the park. Red Deer had become extinct here but they were recently reintroduced here from another part Of Ireland.

It's a nice place to visit. There are some waymarked walking trails here but the wind was bitterly cold so we decided against taking a walk.

We continued to travel east through some really spectacular mountain scenery.

There was a sprinkling of snow on some of the mountains.

Eventually the land became flatter after we had passed through Westport. We travelled east on the main N4 road stopping for a cup of tea in this rather insalubrious pub car park.

We stopped for the day at the village of Rooskey. We are at an aire here. This is the view from the front of our van.

We are beside the River Shannon.

It costs 16 euros a night to stay here which includes electricity and water. We haven't bothered to connect to the electricity as with our large leisure battery and solar panel we seldom run short even if we spend a lot of time watching TV.

As the daylight faded there were some beautiful reflections in the river.

It's getting dark now.

Today we travelled 124 miles (200 kilometres). We are at: N53.8314 W7.9196

Rooskey   River View

Friday 26th November 2021

The super duper French style service point at Glencoh proved not to be that super duper after all. It's drinking water supply has broken down and you have to get water from a tap over the fence by the football pitch! Before leaving we talked to the British man from the very large very old van. He and his family live in the van full time. He is from south east England but is hoping to buy some land in Ireland and build a house.

We continued to travel along the coast of Connemara. We passed this small fishing port.

It was extremely windy today. I could really feel the van being buffeted around as we travelled.

We stopped at Roundstone for a cup of tea. Here's the view we had while drinking it.

The wind seemed to get stronger as the day went on. In exposed places the sea was very rough.

We stopped for the day in a nice free sheltered from the wind car park in the Centre of Clifden - the capitol of Connemara. We went out for a pub lunch.

Ann had chicken salad, I had fish pie - followed by puds - very nice.

There's something about Irish Pubs that is very satisfying.

Just outside the pub is this statue of the famous aviators Alcock and Brown who made the first transatlantic non stop flight from Newfoundland to a bog just west of Clifden in 1919. Their flight was an epic struggle which they only survived as a result of their all round class as aviators. If you're interested see: Alcock and Brown

After our pub lunch we bought some bread and beer and retreated to our van as the weather was very threatening. There were several hailstorms this afternoon but we are very sheltered here. The van is nice and warm and we have plenty of LPG to keep it that way.

Today we travelled 50 miles (81 kilometres). We are at: N53.4888 W10.0189

Clifden  Street View

Thursday 25th November 2021

At about 9.00 this morning we saw these two clients of Indie Campers, a campervan hire company, discharging the contents of their toilet at the edge of Doolin Pier car park. You can see the discharge is blue in colour meaning that not just sewage but toxic chemicals were both left on the edge of the car park. This kind of behaviour can only lead to the erection of more height barriers and more no overnight parking signs. I know that it is difficult at this time of year, campsites are closed, the few public toilets which exist are invariably locked, but if camper vanners have absolutely no alternative but to empty their toilet into the environment then they should do it unobtrusively in a place where no one is going to find it. Preferably dig a hole and bury it.

We left Doolin Pier and travelled north through The Burren.

This limestone landscape is very special and it does credit to the authorities that they have largely prevented the development of new housing here.

We stopped a couple of times along the way to marvel at the scenery.

Though we had been here before we were still really amazed at how wonderful this place is.

We continued to travel north stopping just south of Galway City to take on LPG. We bypassed Galway to the east and north of the City and then came west into Connemara stopping briefly at a small airport which does flights to the Aran Islands.

As we travelled further west into Connemara the scenery became wilder.

We stopped for the day at Glencoh. There is nothing much here apart from a Gaelic Football stadium. We can see this little lake from our parking place. This place is however a proper aire. It costs 10 euros a night to stay here.

There is a proper French style service point here.

This very large very old British registered van is also here this afternoon.

Today we travelled 88 miles (142 kilometres). We are at: N53.3859 W9.6120

Glencoh   Street View