Heading off again in Henry

Stage 1-Wandering through Ireland

We left home on August Bank Holiday Monday, in Henry the Hymer (our motor home), with a tank full of fuel and packed up for a trip through eight countries (well, technically 7 but we will be in England twice). Our final destination is Chris’ house in Spain in mid October but lots of adventure before then.

When I booked the Cairnryan to Larne ferry for 26^th August it had not registered that we would be going from Newcastle on a Bank Holiday!! Thankfully the traffic wasn’t too bad and when we got into Scotland we realised that for them it was a normal working day. We drove to the ferry port and parked Henry for the night, our ferry was at 7.30 am the next day. Cairnryan is essentially two huge ferry landings and the P&O ferry does seven trips a day across the shortest crossing to Ireland. The weather was wild overnight and I was nervous the crossing would be bad, but it was relatively smooth and we landed on time in Northern Ireland at 9.30.

A first visit to the North for the both of us and which was only very brief and worthy of a proper visit. Our plan for Tuesday was to fit in two visits before heading south, first a rope bridge, at Carrick-a-Rede across a volcanic gap that used to be used by fishermen to capture salmon. The wind hadn’t dropped and being on things that sway and wobble is one of my room 101 hates, into that category goes rickety old lifts as well. It was a beautiful day and as we walked towards the bridge there were lots of smiling faces so I decided it could not have been too bad. It was remarkably short and only on the return journey was it hairy but it took only a few minutes. 

The rope bridge

Next stop was something on my bucket list, the Giant’s Causeway. With no camper van parking at the site, more of that later, we had to go into Bushmills to the park and ride and that resulted in me arriving by bus and therefore getting a £1.50 discount as a “Green” customer!! Chris is a National trust member so he was free. The audio guide was very informative and the facilities at the centre were excellent, but only if you had a ticket. I have to say that everything about it should have made me go wow, the sky was blue, the sea likewise but it didn’t really hit the spot. Maybe it’s because you see all of those beautiful, haunting pictures when in reality it is mobbed with people and also it was a long tiring day and neither of us were at our best. 

Sitting on the Giant's Causeway

These two visits took up most of the day and so we decided to stay on the North coast and after a short drive through Portrush we found on overnight spot in Portstewart and headed straight for the pub where a restorative Singapore Sling was consumed. The smell of fish and chips, the promenade and the seagulls were too much of a draw so we decided to forsake our healthy meal in the van for fish and chips, out of the paper on the seafront!!  It was not to be; the fish and chip shop was the size of a postage stamp and had a small queue, maybe 6 people. My order was taken and paid for but then it was obvious there would be a wait.............the man next to me had waited 30 minutes for his. After 15 minutes and with food leaving the shop with only 3 people I decided to cancel, get a refund and go back to the van. The shop had 4 people working and in any other place would be churning out fish suppers in seconds. Our smoked salmon salad was delicious and better on the waistline.

Day two and my initial plan had us visiting Bru na Boinne, a Neolithic necropolis just north of Dublin and then heading over to Galway. On reflection that was a bit of a zigzag route and we decided instead to head towards Donegal and Sligo on our way to Galway and the Burren. The necropolis is 1,000 years older than Stonehenge and linked to the winter solstice and will wait for another day.

But first to more important matters, which required a trip to Asda in Coleraine, for three reasons, one  items of food, two cheap fuel and three internet and a coffee. Internet because I got my invitation to try out as a volunteer for the 2015 Rugby World Cup, at St James Park, where three games are being held. Initially I thought I would have to decline as the interviews were 30^th September to 3^rd October but as Chris pointed out we could delay our ferry to France, which serendipitously we had not yet booked!! Interview accepted and I will jet into Newcastle from Southampton for the day and then we will head off to Europe. Fingers crossed I get accepted.

We got to Donegal and were able to find a car park beside the bay, which is a miracle as we have quickly realised that Ireland is not motor home friendly. Loads of car parks and roadside lay-bys have height barriers of around 2 metres and we are nearly three. The helpful tourist office also said we could camp overnight there too. We wandered into Donegal, visited the quaint castle and decided not to stay overnight, heading instead to the coast. After an abortive attempt to drive to a beach, you guessed it the road suddenly came to end and there was a height barrier..........and no warning at the start of the 4k trip. Ah yes we had quickly crossed into Europe, aka Eire, and now have Euros, kilos and kilometres. The height barriers are to stop the gypsies and make life difficult for others.

We drove into Rossnowlagh, a stunning beach, and parked on a flat piece of land in front of two derelict shops. It was the only place without a sign that said hotel parking only. It is famous on the surfing circuit but not on a breezy August day, and we were the only customers in the Surfers bar ( and before the grammar police correct me, their sign not mine!!) which had some European football game blasting out but as it was also part of a hotel so we got to use the Wi-Fi. When I looked at out route down to Galway in our guide book I spotted Carrowmore en route. A megalithic cemetery which pre-dates the other one near Dublin by 700 years, making it 1,700 years older than Stonehenge!! 

Carrowmore selfie!!

Day three and we set off for Sligo, carefully taking our rubbish, following the signs about keeping the beach clean!! Eire is not over endowed with rubbish bins and we didn’t find one till mid afternoon!! Oh and don’t get me started on the recycling............or lack of it!! Sligo was meant to be a coffee stop but parking was almost impossible so we drove to Carrowmore which promised ruins, toilets and a tea shop. Two out of three isn’t bad and the coffee had to wait!! The site was fascinating, yet more collections of stones and you can see from the photo that I had a very able and knowledgeable guide. The fascination for me is often the why, how and what. The Nazca lines in Peru being a perfect example. Why was this used as a burial site and what about the connections to other sites that you could see close by?? No one really knows and of course on top of the archaeological facts is the good old Irish legend.

My trusty guide!!

Early September we will be in Cork for a house sit and we had a suggestion from our hosts that the Westport area of Mayo was worth a visit and there is an old railway line for cycling. We got to Westport and it was raining heavily so we quickly had a cuppa and then headed for Achill island, planning to stay at the campsite at Keel, empty our tanks, toilet etc use the showers ( the van shower is fine but not very powerful) and have some real electric for a night or two. The weather got steadily worse and as we got onto the island the rain and wind were bleaching down. A short stop to get some cash resulted in use parking up beside a B&B and paying 13 Euros for hook-up and water, but in a sheltered spot as the local butcher said Keel campsite would be wild!! We went to the local pub which had a peat fire going, yes in august, and I had a couple of halves of the black stuff. It was a pretty wild night and any thoughts of cycling the greenway were out of the window.

Day four and we set off for a weekend in Galway, first stop Newport for coffee where we also bought black pudding with seaweed and home baked soda bread. As we got to Westport the rain was getting worse and we picked up a couple of hitchhikers and dropped them in Galway. The traffic in the city was crazy and we twice followed directions to the campsite without success. I later found out that it had closed.

Change of plan, we headed for the Burren and Dooilin where we knew there were two campsites. Driving was pretty scary on the narrow roads and we were soon realising that the Irish are not the best drivers, especially the wizened old folks who can barely see over the steering wheel. O’Connors campsite in Doolin is on the riverbank near the Fitzpatrick pub and has very good facilities, which we needed after 4 nights of wild camping. We got settled in and went for a wander and checked out the local buses. In the evening a few beers and a bit of usic and then we had the black pudding with seaweed followed by staek, both of which were delicious. All washed down with a nice bottle of Zinfandel, a gift from the US from Vicki. Cheers!!

Day five and we got the bus to the Cliffs of Moher a stunning viewpoint and wonderful visitor centre, and only 4 Euro if you travel to it by public bus, creative green thinking!! I preferred this to the Giant’s Causeway!! We walked 8k back to Doolin along the cliffs, windswept and rugged it was a beautiful walk and although a little grey we had no rain. Back for a cuppa and a snooze and the pub beckoned again, a group of young musicians were playing and one of the girls had a lovely haunting voice. Chris cooked one of his signature dishes, stir fried lambs liver with noodles and we finished off with goats cheeses and chilli jam.

Today we are heading further south, we have finally found a map with some wild camping spots so we will go down towards Loop Head and spend a couple of days, hopefully doing some cycling  before getting the ferry to Tarbet,  ( half an hour but avoids the Limerick traffic). From there we will head towards Tralee and then to our final destination on Friday, which is Macroom west of Cork.

Take care whatever you are up to

Norma xx

The twiddly bits round NW Scotland

I used to have a boss who's favourite expression was "I'm not interested in the twiddly bits around Norway"-by which he meant cut the bull and get to the point. Well I have often looked at the map of Scotland and thought how interesting those twiddly bits look. 

So on 10th July Chris and I set off in Henry on our Scottish adventure, it was also to be a test of how Henry would fare on a longer trip and we wanted to do more wild camping. 

Well, wild motor homing, and as Henry is equipped with toilet, shower, water heater a big tank of clean water and waste tanks and 12volt power ,we knew we would be fine. Scotland also has it's "Right to roam" which allows you to camp as long as there are no signs to the contrary.

Henry above Drumbeg

I knew before we left that the two things we had no control over were the famous Scottish midge and the weather, the former were a bit of a pain and we were so lucky with the weather. 

We started off in Glencoe in the mizzle and camped above Loch Leven and woke the next morning with fabulous light on the loch making it look like a mirror. We could only look from the van as there were midges everywhere. We had a good day walking and camped at Kinlochleven, paid £17 for a fabulous view but poor facilities and horrendous midges. We decided to try and avoid the inland lochs!!

Day 3 we drove towards Fort William and who should we bump into but Steve and Laura and our old camper Ruby!! They were in a layby after wilding it for 3 weeks and as our trip ends in Edinburgh , their home city, we will meet for a drink. We stocked up a bit in dull and busy Fort William and headed up past Kyle of Localsh and Plockton and parked above Strome Ferry. It rained all night so we couldn't use the picnic tables in the car park!! I was starting to think maybe this was a bad plan.........

Although I had mapped out a rough route it was not written in tablets of stone and we detoured to Applecross. The 21k from Shieldaig took us just over and hour and so began our adventure on single track roads , with passing places!! We parked up in Applecross and enjoyed fish and chips from the airstream camper that belongs to the pub and the weather was starting to improve, Skye was appearing from the clouds. The road ends about 5 miles from Applecross at a place called Toscaig so off we went. We parked up on the pier for the night, out came the sun , and the wine and I sat and read the paper as Chris went fishing for mackerel. He didn't catch any but we enjoyed a chat with a lovely local couple and had a nice evening and two seals popped in to say a quick hello. 

We bought a cadac gas barbeque before we set off, our van has an external point linked to the gas bottles and it has proved to be a great buy and will come into its own when we are in Spain as it has a burner, grill plate and wok so I will cook outside.

Day 5 and 6 we decided to use the campsite in Applecross, which at £24.50 was a rip-off. The rain started again so we decided the only option was the pub for the afternoon!! Tuesday was better and we managed to walk for a few hours, visited the walled garden and the sun decided to shine.

Day 7 started with heavy rain so we set off towards Gairloch. Our first stop was Sheildag and we bought hot smoked salmon and fresh langoustines from the smokehouse. The langoustine were live and Chris went to get them from the loch. They wriggled around in the plastic bag in the fridge but at £10 for a dozen they were better value than £17-27 prices we saw in pubs. 

We managed a quick walk at Torridon in between the showers and got to Loch Maree. Level parking on the loch side and a toilet block made it a good spot BUT about 7pm the midges appeared and what a swarm. That put an end to cooking the langoustine outside and we had the hot smoked salmon instead, it was delicious. 

The next morning the midges were worse and in the very short time Chris was out of the van switching the gas off he was mobbed by them. When he came back to the van he had a halo of midges and we spent 10 minutes spraying and swatting them!!

We got to Gairloch on 17th July and organised a boat trip for 3pm, hoping to maybe see otters and Minke whales. We then checked out Poolewe and had coffee and free wifi in the hotel. Mobile signal was proving to be as elusive as the whales.  We knew Gairloch was the last sizeable village for a while so did a bit of stocking up and bought some sirloin steak at a fabulous local butcher. This is our view from the van......

Art farty shot of Moray Firth from sentry point at Fort George

The boat trip was lovely, the skipper was from Nottingham and was very knowledgeable and it was good to see the area from the sea. Even though we had moved peninsulas Skye was still in the background. The otters and Minkes didn't appear but we saw seals, porpoises and some wonderful birdlife. Our camp that night was a car park above the bay and the view was stupendous,Chris cooked the langoustine which were so tasty but he lost interest quickly in getting the flesh out of legs etc!! We went to the pub and watched the sunset, without too many midges.

From Gairloch we drove back to Poolewe and parked up the van and did a fabulous 10k walk in the sunshine and then afterwards on to Firemore beach, it is £5 per night but there are no facilities just a fabulous beach. We got settled and then cycled to Cove , during WW2 the Russian convoys were based here. The steak was delicious, eaten outside and washed down with a bottle of red wine. We did have constant background noise to slightly spoil the fabulous view, the couple nearest to us, in a caravan, bickered constantly and swore endlessly. Made you wonder why they were together!!

Saturday we drove to Gruinard Bay onto a basic but clean campsite, right on the beach but it rained all day so we chilled, read the Guardian and did a bit of cleaning!

Our next port of call was Ullapool and we had a good overnight stay, campsite was poor again but did get to use the laundry. We ate out and had mussels and local cheese and then a lovely music night in the Arch Inn which we shared with a friendly Aussie couple.Well most of it was lovely until the end when the bagpipes came out-not my idea of good music!! Ullapool allowed us to fill up with fuel and shop in the supermarket. 

The next few days were my favourite part of the trip, we drove to Achiltibuie and parked on the beach. The views across to the Summer Isles were just breathtaking and we had glorious sunshine. We did have a bit of an incident en route and lost a wing mirror and then the other one was dropped on the changeover......... Our second day we cycled and the views were just stunning. In the evening we went to the local village for a music session, lovely singers and musicians including a 7year old girl who sang in Danish and her dad translated.

Henry camped on the beach

Chris admiring the view

Next day we continued further north and eventually parked at Drumbeg in a car park with toilets 2 minutes away. Nice coffee shop, pub and village shop. In the early evening we watched a family of otters down in the bay, not as close as I had hoped but otters none the less. Another music evening, led by the same guy as the previous evening!! One of the good things about NW Scotland is the availability of good beer, hand pulled and always local. 

Scourie was our next destination and we camped on the shoreline in the best campsite of the trip. Excellent facilities, spotlessly clean and wonderful laundry. Not to mention the view and the sunset. We even ventured into the sea, for minutes, it was pretty cold and full of plankton and krill. It is good to access campsite facilities from time to time but other people can be irritating, the guy next door just let his waste water run on the ground under his van and another one just let his dog run around!! On our second day this fabulous van pulled up , about £100k worth and the family got out followed by 5 dogs-who then went swimming in the sea. Can you imagine the smell in a camper van!!

Sun setting at Scourie

We were soon getting to our final NW destination Durness, pretty disappointing and nowhere open for a cup of coffee!! It was one of my big grouses about the NW, lots of places had such strict opening hours food 12-2.30 and 5-8pm and heaven forbid if you wanted anything outside of those hours. As tourism is one of their biggest earners it might be time to think about moving into the 21st century. A bit of customer service training wouldn't go amiss either, they do either happy and wonderfully helpful or miserable and dour. with nothing in between!!

We rejigged our plan again and headed east and spent the night at Tongue, the rain was back again. The next morning it was still raining so we went to the Tongue hotel and had a lovely Scottish breakfast and used the wi fi. We went to the Falls of Shin and watched the salmon leaping, a fabulous sight and way to difficult to catch a photo of them. We set off south east for the last part of the trip to see the dolphins in the Moray Firth.

We headed to Dornoch,a pretty little town but very touristy and full of tour groups. We parked for the night on the estuary at Skelbo, fabulous seals and amazing birdlife. 

We headed towards Cromarty and on the map you could travel to Nigg and then get a short ferry across to Cromarty. Good plan, except the map doesn't show that Nigg is industrial with an oil refinery plant. We got the ferry anyway, as foot passengers, it only takes 4 cars, and we spent a few hours in pretty Cromarty. Massive disappointment the cruises to see the whales  only had one place at 4.45 (too late to get the ferry back) none the next day and one on Wednesday. I was in a miserable mood as we had given up our lovely quiet West coast and the one thing I wanted to do was not possible!! We got back to the van and stayed on the peninsula in Hilton in a firth-side position. Our only neighbours were a couple form Whitley Bay in a converted ambulance.

After the dolphin disappointment we decided that we would go to Chanonry Point and hope the tide was right for the dolphins. It sure was, there was a whole pod, leaping and diving and tossing salmon around. Serendipity!!

Dolphin at Chanonry Point

Happiness reigned and with huge smiles we hoped to go to the camping and caravanning club site in Rosemarkie to empty our waste tanks and toilet and fill up with fresh water- a member "perk" for £7. Not on this site!! So we headed for Nairn and stayed the night for £20 and the club site was excellent-lovely friendly staff and excellent facilities. We went into Nairn on the bus and it was pretty depressing apart from discovering Caorunn Gin, absolutely delicious and made in Scotland.

We had a lovely cooked breakfast in the van, topped up the water and headed to Fort George. It is still in use and in wonderful condition . It was built after Culloden to control the Jacobites but took a while to build and was never needed!! It still houses Highlander regiments. Fascinating day.  Another night in a car park, this time in Thomalin where we camped totally undisturbed. 

One more day of our trip left and we were heading south again , we stopped off at the fabulous opsrey centre in the Abernethy Forest and were luck to see these babies. It is a great place with knowledgeable staff and powerful binoculars.

Baby osprey at Bridge of Garten

 Our last night was spent in Dunkeld, a place I had visited as a young lass in her early twenties......happy memories!! The main car park had a rear section perfect for an overnight stay. We had a drink in the Taybank hotel sitting in the sunshine and then got sorted and went for an Indian meal. It was very tasty and made a nice change not to have washing up!! Back to the Taybank for the music, a group of fiddlers and that was it. 

On 1st August we drove to Penicuik, SW of Edinburgh and we are here till 10th August helping out on a helpx stint.

So how was it overall?? A stunningly beautiful part of the UK and still so much more we could have seen. Miles of single track road, which Henry managed well ( and Chris with some pretty impressive driving) and lots of opportunities to wild camp. 

Looking back I was disappointed with the quality of Scottish campsites. I don't mind old as long as they are clean and most weren't. I think as well because Henry is such a step up for us we don't need sites as much. 

The sun made a huge difference, it would have been a different trip if we had experienced constant rain. July is a bad time for midges and Smidge, sold everywhere, does not work!! 

Overall I am a bit schizophrenic about the Highlands!!

If you want to go back in time to restricted opening times for food, things shut on a Sunday and limited "customer service" and a" take us as we are" then the Highlands are for you. 

Or a place with great local music, fabulous fresh food, great beer and breathtaking views and wonderful wildlife opportunities then that too is the Highlands.

Take your pick!!

Next stop the Giant's causeway -we sail Cairnryan to Larne on 26th August.........

Take care

Norma xx