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

 

Wednesday 24th November 2021

Today was a bit difficult. It was wet and windy in the night. When we were ready to leave Doolin Pier our van had developed a flat battery and would not start. We called out our breakdown service who started the van with jump leads and  advised us to go to the auto electricians in Ennis to have the battery analysed. Here's our poor stranded van!

We travelled south east to Ennis and parked at the auto electricians. They tested the battery and confirmed that it was on the way out. Very luckily they had the correct replacement battery for our van in stock so they soon fitted it and we were on our way. We  did a supermarket shop in Ennis and then retraced our route back to Doolin Pier where we are parked tonight.

Today we travelled 59 miles (95 kilometre).We are at : N53.0146 W9.4044

Doolin Pier     Street View

Tuesday 23rd November 2021

It was very cold and misty at Kilkee this morning. We bought some groceries and set off north. The mist soon lifted to reveal a beautiful sunny day.  We stopped briefly in Lisdoonvarna where we saw this statue in the centre of town.

We stopped for the day at Doolin Pier.

The whale's tail is a memorial to those who died along this coast.

The Wild Atlantic Way long distance road trip has a marker post here.

In summer it would cost 5 euros to park here overnight but the place is abandoned by most at this time of year and parking is free.

None of the boat trips to the Aran Islands and the Cliffs of Moher are running at this time of year.

The Samaritans obviously think this place is a suicide risk!

A couple of kilometres inland from here is this old round tower. It was the scene of the execution of a large number of Spanish sailors from the Armada fleet in the 16th Centaury. Their bodies were buried in a mass grave by the tower.

From here there are views to the Cliffs of Moher.

This area is known as The Burren. It is characterised by extensive limestone pavements.

Large parts of the car park here have been covered in stones thrown up from the sea in storms.

The shoreline provides some fairly poor pasture.

The Aran Islands are visible from here.

At about 16.00 the sun was still behind a cloud.

However it did come out of the cloud at 16.30 as it sank into the Atlantic.

I find it quite special to see a sunset directly over the ocean.

Today we travelled 52 miles (84 kilometres). We are at; N53.0147 W9.4046

Doolin Pier  Street View