Ireland 2014

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martinjdover
Posts: 103
Joined: September 28th, 2014, 8:57 pm
Location: Poole, Dorset

Ireland 2014

Post: # 1286Post martinjdover
October 2nd, 2014, 10:40 pm

Travels in my Defender Demountable Camper 2014 – the Emerald Isle.

We travelled to Belfast via the Isle of Man, where we spent an enjoyable week. When we arrived in Belfast we did something we would not have dreamed of doing twenty years ago – I drove down the Falls Road. This is one of the streets that has large murals depicting the troubles and I stopped and took photos of some of the murals. These murals have created an industry where cab drivers do murals tours and give a commentary on what was depicted. Belfast is pretty much closed on a Sunday so we headed north out of the city towards the Antrim Coast.

Our first objective was the coastal path north of Whitehead that I had seen on BBC’s Countryfile programme last year. This was constructed in the 1800’s to encourage tourists to the area and the path was built out of the cliff through caves and across bridges. It had fallen into disrepair but since the programme the path had been rebuilt and reopened.

We very rarely stay on campsites and much prefer doing our own thing but sometimes needs must and for our first night on Irish soil we stopped near Larne at a super site to do laundry duties. Next morning it was the Antrim Coast Road which totally lived up to expectations as it hugged the coastline and passed through some pretty coastal villages.

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Larne campsite

We did the tourist bits and I walked over the Carrick a Rede rope bridge

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Carrick a Rede

before moving inland to look at the famous Beech Lane near Ballymoney. Ballymoney is also home to the Dunlop family and we went to see the memorial to Joey Dunlop who I had cheered to success in the TT races of 1983.

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Beech Lane

He inevitably died in a motorcycle crash whilst competing in a road race in Estonia in year 2000, RIP Joey you were “Yer Maun”.
We then returned to the coast and to one of nature’s wonders - the Giants Causeway. The car park for the Giants Causeway visitor centre is about a mile from the actual site and a bus runs a regular service up and down the hill. We, therefore, had to wait until after the service had stopped at 9pm to take the truck down for the essential photo.

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Giants Causeway

That night we wildcamped in the car park for the Dunluce Castle and whilst Jan made dinner I explored the area that was accessible with Anya. There is a huge cleft in the cliff below the castle called the Mermaids Cave and in the half-light this was really spooky.

Next morning we headed west to Downhill Beach which is open to vehicles and I drove for miles along the almost billiard table smooth sand. It is really strange, however, how light the steering goes, especially if you haven’t lowered your tyre pressures.

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Downhill Beach

We then rejoined the tarmac and made our way to the Loch Foyle ferry and the crossing into Southern Ireland. Our first destination was Mizzen Head which despite being in Southern Ireland is the furthest point north in Ireland.

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County Donegal beaches

We had started coming across signs for the “Wild Atlantic Way” and it turned out that this was a new-for-2014 fully signed route which precisely followed the west coast that we intended to follow - Jan’s job as navigator therefore got a lot easier. If you are travelling the route northwards you follow the (N) signs or, as we did, the (S) signs for southbound travellers.

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Wild Atlantic Way signage

We were immediately struck by the enormity of both the landscapes and seascapes we encountered. This, and the relative lack of traffic, made travelling the Wild Atlantic Way a visual feast and a very enjoyable experience. The diversity of terrain we came across was amazing and we kept remarking on where we had encountered this type of landscape before. This included, almost predictably, the Scottish west coast, the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and the Northumberland hills – but less predictably Canada’s west coast of British Columbia and the barren wastes of Novascotia!

As before we wildcamped in some fantastic locations, mostly by the beach with Anya having some lovely runs before bed chasing rabbits through the dunes – her idea of heaven!

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Woodland wildcamp

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Coastal greenlane near Sligo

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Driving on the beach

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Clifden wildcamp

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More beach driving

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In the mountains

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Galway peninsular

Just south of Galway we headed inland to the amazing landscapes of The Burren. This has massive exposed limestone pavements with a considerable number of antiquity sites – the most famous being the Poulnabrone Dolmen where in excess of 30 “bits” of bodies were found. I must admit that we were rather surprised at the small scale of the stone tomb as in the photos we had seen it looked huge but it was in fact only about twelve feet long, six feet wide and five feet high.

We crossed the Shannon Estuary between Killier and Tarbert by ferry and entered the more well known tourist areas such as the Dingle Peninsula and the Ring of Kerry. The roads did get busier but never too congested to be enjoyable. There are two routes to Dingle from the north – the relatively low main route and the Conor Pass – the highest drivable pass in Ireland. I decided on the latter as it sounded more interesting.

I didn’t realize that there were any restrictions on the pass until I passed a couple of signs informing drivers that the max weight on the road was 2 tonnes and the maximum width 6 foot 6 inches. Ummmm, I thought I was pushing it a bit as we weigh in at just under 3.5 tonnes and my width is just over 7 feet. I decided that if we were challenged I would pretend that I hadn’t seen the signs. All was going well, the road was wide and the gradient not too steep and after I was committed (you may say I should be) I had to keep going onward and upward. The road got narrower and narrower and steeper and steeper ending up just a single car width dug into a cliff-face - with pull-ins so you could pass opposing vehicles. I had the overhanging cliffs against the near side of the camper which made judging how close I could get to the cliff difficult, particularly when I had to allow opposing traffic to squeeze past – then there was the issue of cyclists also going uphill at about 5mph!! We eventually made the top of the pass and, with a sigh of relief, I pulled into the viewpoint car park. I heard several people mumbling about how the feck did that get up here. Suffice to say once was enough and if we travel that way again I will avoid taking the camper over the Conor Pass!

At one of our lunch stops we came across a Toyota Series 70 camper owned by a Swiss couple who have taken a year off work to drive around the world. Ireland was part of their European trip and was a shakedown before having the truck shipped over to Canada. We checked out our different living arrangements and there’s were far more utilitarian than ours, but well thought out and executed. Their truck, like my 300Tdi, had been chosen as it was the last of Toyota’s non-electronic engines and, despite being a 2006 model, it had only covered 70,000 kms. They were amazed that mine now had over 240,000 kms under its tyres.

West of Dingle town is a lovely drive around Slea Head. The road is superb with photo opportunities, and pull ins, every few hundred metres – well worth doing if you are in the area. This is also where the films Ryans Daughter and Far and Away were filmed. Just east of Dingle is Inch Beach which, again, is open to traffic and we had fun belting down the 6km sandbar playing in the softer sand where others drivers feared to tread.

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Inch beach

The Ring of Kerry lived up to its reputation as a scenic route with stunning vistas all the way around. The only issue was the traffic. As we were doing it anticlockwise we were going the same way as the tour buses and, even in the 130, I kept catching them up. Apparently doing it clockwise is even worse because you then end up meeting the buses head on which can be awkward on the narrow twisty roads.
One interesting place we visited in Kerry was Valencia Island, which sounds as if it should be off the Italian coast rather than Ireland. This is where the first viable trans-Atlantic telegraph cable from Newfoundland was landed in 1866 which was followed by 100 years of use before communication satellites took over. There is also a quarry on the island which has been working slate for centuries. The Louvre in Paris, the Houses of Parliament and many other famous buildings are roofed with slate from Valencia quarry.

South of the Ring of Kerry is the Beara peninsula and this, though less well known, is also fantastic. At the extreme west point of the peninsula is the only cable car in Ireland which allows visitors, and livestock, to access the off-lying island of Dursey. It made me smile that the people being carried were instructed that they had to close the door themselves before they were winched 30 meters high across to the island (I’m not sure who does it when its only livestock being transported)!

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Pub carpark camping south of Skibbereen

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End of Wild Atlantic Way - Kinsale

Our time in Ireland was coming to an end and we were now on the south coast and we completed the Wild Atlantic Way in the town of Kinsale. We then headed east to Rosslare and the ferry back to Pembroke in Wales. Our Land Rover related adventure was not, however, complete.
We were one of the last vehicles to be loaded onto the ferry and by the time we got up to the information desk the ship had sailed. This meant we could not put Anya in the kennels which were on a different car deck as the area had now been sealed. We were therefore escorted down by a lady called Patricia. Whilst we waited for the door to be unlocked I told her we often had a group of people at the side of or vehicle some wanted to talk about Anya and some to ask questions about our demountable camper which is based on a Land Rover. Patricia went on to tell me about one of the captains who had recently driven to Australia in his Land Rover before returning home and selling it. I asked if he was called Simon Maple and Patricia was amazed that we knew him. Simon’s Defender was an ex Southern Electricity 130 which was prepared for him by Douglass Motors in Wimborne, Dorset. We had been in contact with him and also followed his adventures on his “Trip to Oz” website. Unfortunately Simon was not on board as he does three weeks on and three weeks off but Patricia treated us to complementary tickets to the Club Lounge and, as we approached the Welsh coast, she sought us out and asked if we’d like to go up to the bridge. We didn’t need to be asked twice and we were soon up with the Captain-in-charge and we watched in awe as he took the massive vessel up Milford Haven and inched it in gently into its berth at Pembroke Dock. I had a lot in common with the captain and, in the lulls between his actions, we exchanged photos of our dogs, motorbikes and yachts.
Having looked up at ferries from the deck of my yacht for many years it was really interesting looking down on boats from 11 stories up! This had been a fantastic way to end our trip and it would not have happened if it hadn’t been for a strange set of coincidences and my demountable.


Water crossings: 7 ferries, 2 big bridges, 2 very big bridges and a multitude of smaller crossings
Mileage driven: 2363
Fuel consumption: 25.6mpg – pretty dammed good I reckon
Last edited by martinjdover on October 9th, 2014, 12:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

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zildjian
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Posts: 22048
Joined: September 8th, 2013, 3:30 pm

Re: Ireland 2014

Post: # 1304Post zildjian
October 4th, 2014, 8:22 am

Like the 'having a go at steering the ship' part especially,
also we noticed your springers is a lot slimmer than ours.


I did maybe think about shopping out the satellite dish, as both you and I would be considered less than purists for carrying one by other people on here :D

hope I placed the images in some sort of order here

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rubberrat
Posts: 935
Joined: August 25th, 2014, 7:54 pm
Location: North Norfolk - Near the coast

Re: Ireland 2014

Post: # 1309Post rubberrat
October 4th, 2014, 1:40 pm

Brilliant travelogue. I must do my Europe/ Greece one now I have something to work to.

We too have a Springer, that's three of the membership, are they compulsory? Mines fat/lazy/stupid though.
Chevrolet 3.0 LUV Tischer Trail 200

martinjdover
Posts: 103
Joined: September 28th, 2014, 8:57 pm
Location: Poole, Dorset

Re: Ireland 2014

Post: # 1322Post martinjdover
October 4th, 2014, 7:24 pm

Thanks for the positive words on my report - which was a modified version of something I wrote for my Land Rover club magazine.

Anya our springer is certainly not fat or lazy - she comes from working stock and being the runt of the litter she has always been much smaller than her brothers and sisters. Although we dont work her she has it all "in there" and bounces around the heathland setting up anything she can find. She loves chasing rabbits and deer, and in Ireland found the sand dunes particularly interesting.

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zildjian
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Posts: 22048
Joined: September 8th, 2013, 3:30 pm

Re: Ireland 2014

Post: # 1328Post zildjian
October 4th, 2014, 8:49 pm

We have the other Two,
both rescue's one indeterminate age 13 maybe
the other about 5
great company, and because they're intelligent, easy to work with fortunately

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