The Wild Atlantic Way

We decided that doubling back wasn’t worth it and began to head North.

One thing that’s hard to grasp here is the scale of things. We have a map of Ireland we use to pick our next stops and its a BIG map. Imagine our puzzlement then when we pick a place thinking that in our US map book it would be 150 miles away only to find that it’s only 30 or 40!

Then to our further puzzlement when we put it in the GPS it tells us it will take 2 hours.

Completely against what our instincts tell us. How can that be?

Irish roads! We drove from Doolin to Clifden and it was exactly 100 miles, mainly on N roads. Some of it was 4 lanes. It took 4 hours! And we stopped only briefly for fuel.

If you plan on a motorhome vacation in Ireland you better brush up on your driving skills. The map breaks down roads in Motorways, National roads and Regional roads. Shown as M…., N….., R….. with a number.

Motorways are the equivalent of US Interstates and there aren’t many of them. The ones we have been on were around Dublin. They were 4 lanes and very busy.

National roads I suppose are what would be the US highways at home. These are 2 lanes but narrow enough in places that you have to be brushing the hedges at the side of the road to let a car (Or worse a truck!) come the other way. Very twisty. With most vehicles being stick shift you better be good at changing gear too.

Even more importantly you better be good at starting on hills without rolling back, as there are lots of stop signs on hills and the car behind will be close, because everyone else is an expert at hill starts and expects you to be too! Fortunately I learned to drive in UK on a stick shift. There hill starts are a vital part of the driving test. If you roll back an inch you fail the test.

Which brings us to the Regional roads!

These are tiny! Even if 2 lane they are barely wide enough for 2 cars to pass.

We have been on some single lane roads where the trees ON BOTH SIDES were brushing the sides of the rig! When a car or truck comes the other way (To cries of “Oh my God”) then hopefully there is a wide spot for one of you to pull into, otherwise one of you has to back up to the last one you passed!

Narrow country roads

There is class of roads signposted as L roads which are even smaller. The only time we have been on them is when we missed a turn and got lost. This happens fairly regularly because the signs aren’t always obvious, sometimes they are in Gaelic(!!) and our GPS likes to wait until the very last second to tell you to turn. These roads don’t even get numbered up on the map.

If you are concerned about getting scratches on the side of your motorhome, Ireland isn’t the place to drive it!

I mention this because our next few stops were on a route called “The Wild Atlantic Way” which runs up the West coast and in and out of lots of rocky peninsulas that get hit by the big winds and waves coming directly in from the Atlantic.

A castle out in the middle of nowhere

Pretty mountains

The ones we drove were the “Ring of Barra”, “Dingle Peninsular” and part of the “Ring of Burren”. They are very tight twisting roads and very popular with tourists, so you can expect to meet huge tour buses coming the other way around blind bends at regular intervals.

Free camping in the back of a pub

None of that detracts (Much) from the beauty of them and we stopped where we could to take pictures.

By researching some of the free apps we had downloaded and Britstops, a pay site that has select places to camp, (Like Harvest Hosts in the US) we found some great free campsite.

The Dingle Peninsular

Great views

One, a pub of the Dingle Peninsular called Paidi O Se’s had a narrow lane beside it that led to one of the prettiest beaches we have seen so far.

Paidi O Se's pub

The beautiful beach behind the pub

Another in Foynes at the base of the Ring of Burren was at a museum celebrating the days of flying boats. Foynes was the Eastern stop on the first transatlantic passenger route from Newfoundland to the Shannon River. They had a reconstruction of a Boeing Clipper which re-created the aircraft interior and flight deck, The Museum was the actual terminal for the flights with a control tower on the roof overlooking the river.

A replica flying boat

The original control tower

Inside the replica

Outside

We had an “almost” stop at another place in Tralee at a windmill. They let people camp free and we actually stopped and were getting ready to settle down when we realized it was only another 50 miles to Foynes so we got back on the road and stayed there for free instead! We found a great pub just up the road and had some excellent fresh Sea Bass for dinner.

The "almost stop"

We have got into the habit of spending 2 nights dry camping then picking a commercial campground where we can empty our tanks, take on fresh water, do laundry etc. They cost between roughly $20 a night and $50 a night. What you have to watch for though is that they charge for showers and although most seem to be around $1, some are free.

Laundry has cost up to $25!!

The campground at Doolin

Ferry to the Aran Islands

The camp in Doolin was right on the Atlantic Ocean. Surrounded by high dry stone walls, it looked across the small harbor from which small passenger ferries took tourists and residents to the three Aran Islands. These remote and somewhat bleak islands are famous for the Aran knitwear produced there. It was an experience but somewhat spoiled by the amount of tourist buses packing everywhere and everything with milling crowds.

Tiny fields enclosed by stone walls on the Aran Islands

We stumbled on this hilarious Hen Party in the pub

Cliffs of Moher from the sea

It may seem like I’m getting jaded and I am, the tight roads and tourist trap places do start to wear me down.

I was restored when we pulled into Keoghs Pub in a tiny place called Ballyconneely. Seemingly in the middle of nowhere this place was the site of 2 “firsts”. The first ever non stop flight across the Atlantic wasn’t made by Lindbergh in 1927. It was first achieved in 1919 by 2 British aviators Alcock and Brown. They took off from Newfoundland and landed (heavily enough to break the airplane) in a bog just up the road from the pub.

Nobdy knows who flew the Atlantic non stop first

The other first was Marconi, an Italian radio pioneer who transmitted the first signals across the Atlantic from within yards of where Alcock and Brown had landed.

Little know pieces of history that fascinate me.

Heading north we stopped to visit the drop dead gorgeous Kylemore Abbey. Still an active monastery, it is set by a lovely lake and surrounded by hills.

Kylemore Abbey

We both wanted to push on North across the border into Northern Island where some famous places waited and some old memories of mine wanted to be revisited.

Rhosguill Caravan PArk

First we had to visit a particular place that came up completely by chance as we were looking at the North Westernmost corner of Ireland. When I tell you what the place is called you will understand why we had to visit, we headed for the Rosguill Caravan and Holiday Home park in … DOWNINGS!!

And a very nice place it is too.

They named everything in town after US!!!

In Gaelic too!

We had a problem with a propane leak and it emptied a couple of cylinders while I tried different things like rubber wasters, rerouting the hose and tightening things down a time or two, each time thinking I’d fixed it. Just before we crossed the border into Northern Ireland we saw a motorhome dealer at the side of the road and pulled in.

After a little messing around with yet more washers and a can of leak finder he discovered it was the BRAND NEW hose that had a pinhole leak so we replaced it and headed out.

Northern and Southern Ireland are separate countries, Southern Ireland for example has all the signs and speed limits in Kilometers. Northern Ireland has them in Miles.

Southern Ireland has pubs everywhere! Northern Ireland has a lot less.

We bought a new gas cylinder in Northern Ireland because strangely enough they told me at the motorhome place that the threads on the big bottles in the south are different than those in the north and in England! But it gets stranger still because all the bottles are made and filled in Belfast which is in Northern Ireland!!

Then we headed for a few places I have been to before but Barbara hasn’t. In 1963 at the age of 13 I spent 2 weeks on an RAF base in Ballykelly at summer camp with the Air Training Corps (Royal Airforce Cadets). They took us to a little coastal town called Portrush where they had us get into our swim gear, fitted us with RAF life vests and kicked us in to the FREEZING cold harbor.

Looking down on Portrush Harbor

The object was for us to swim to a life raft, get into it then be “Rescued” by an RAF rescue launch. All good fun but I have never felt water so cold.

Giants Causeway

Once we warmed up they took us to see the Giants Causeway from the sea.

And 59 years later I’m back.

I wont be doing the swimming this time however!