Saturday 11
th July
Well today was the day when we left our 'fixed abode' lives behind and hit the road. We were kind to ourselves and had a small sleep in. When we got up we had a number of jobs to do including transferring our clothes and our pantry of food into the van; trying to get a small load of washing dried, which proved very difficult as the weather was not kind; and cleaning our room. Marie was home in the morning so we said our goodbyes to her. After lunch, when we'd managed to get all the jobs done, we walked out the door of the home where we lived for nine months to start our four month road trip.
We didn't get too far too quickly, as there were traffic jams in Limerick, and by the time we negotiated these, grabbed a few groceries, filled the diesel up, and checked the tyre pressure, we were leaving Limerick at about 2:30pm. The weather was foul – windy and rainy. We had decided to take a fairly direct route to Rosslare, so headed towards Waterford, which in on the Southeast coast of Ireland. Em found a nice camp ground, 'The Apple' between Cahir and Clonmel. We arrived just after 4pm to find a lovely camp ground in the middle of an apple, pear, and berry orchard. When we arrived and got our site we were also given a bottle of their fresh apple juice which was fantastic. Unfortunately the weather was not any better there so we just sat back in the van for the afternoon and evening, and started to settle into our new home. It was nice to finally be on the road. As we were both rather tired from the busy past couple of weeks we were in bed rather early.
Sunday 12th of July
Day two took us from 'The Apple' campground to 'St. Margaret's Beach Caravan and Camping Park' at Rosslare harbour.
We woke to a nicer day at 'The Apple' with blue sky, but there was still a cold wind. After getting up, showering, and having breakfast we went to their shop and bought some more apple juice, as well as some fantastic cherries and raspberries, which didn't last too long as we drove down the road.
We got on the move just after 11am and headed to Waterford, then up towards Wexford and Rosslare harbour. We went to the harbour to check where the ferries docked, then found our camping ground. It was a nice camping ground with a view of the Irish Sea in the distance. The afternoon fined up, and we just pottered around doing odd jobs like gluing a few things in the van; re-organising our cupboards and lining the shelves with rubber slip-stopper; sorting through the mountain of keys that came with the van; and Em even did some hand washing.
It was nice to again be able to potter around without anywhere to go before our real travels start.
