We bought our tickets
for the ferry to and from Ireland online, we were able to find a fare
with P&O for £89
for an 8 hour journey from Liverpool to Dublin which we discovered
when we got on the ferry included 2 great full meals, our journey
back from Rosslare to Pembroke was with Irish Ferrys and cost £124
for a 4 hour journey with no extras, go figure!
We arrived at the
Liverpool Docks in the middle of the night and parked at the
terminal and slept there. Our ferry left at 9.30am and arrived in
Dublin at 5.30pm and we were given a full cooked breakfast at the
beginning and another full meal an hour before we arrived in Ireland
and as many hot drinks as we wanted all the way too, wow!
Heading straight out of
Dublin in the rushhour traffic wasn't the best idea but we managed it
after finding a service station with a carwash to take off the layer
of salt now on the car and buy a map. The roads in the countryside
are not wonderful, narrow and quite rough but the scenery makes up
for it. We headed for Northern Ireland as we have decided to do a
loop anticlockwise to Rosslare. Parking areas are easy to find and
hardly any have signs saying no overnight camping so travel here is
going to be even easier than England. We had a small look and drive
around Belfast then headed on out into the countryside and the
northern coastline where we viewed the Giant Causeway and met another
couple of Kiwis.
Londonderry was a
really interesting place to visit. A walled city that in 1688 was
involved in a 6 month siege the survival of which is celebrated every
year to this day. We walked the walls of the city and stumbled upon a
wonderful museum where we learnt the history of the apprentice boys
who shut the gates against the army of King James who they feared
were on their way to massacre all Protestants.
Donegal is west of
Northern Ireland but not part of it but is part of the Republic of
Ireland. There we saw valleys and moors empty of houses, animals and
trees, beautiful beaches and cute towns. We roved back into Northern
Ireland crossing towards the huge Lough Neagh where we slept on its
banks for a night then continued through the County of Fermanagh
stopping for a day in Dungannon to spend 7 hours in McDonalds using
their internet and sorting pics and doing the blog and emails etc,
time just flies! We treated ourselves to a movie while we were there
too and the next day stayed at a motorcamp and washed and dried all
our clothes.
Heading out towards the
coast again we tried to follow unusual roads that would take us to
interesting places or viewing points. Following one road we ended up
in a wind turbine farm! Out of bounds but the views were marvellous
out over the Fermanagh lakes. Heading toward the coast we made it
just in time to 'Eagles Flying' a private enterprise that looks after
birds of prey and puts on a show of flight each day. We were
introduced to Eagles, Vultures, Falcons, Owls and Kestrels and they
flew over our heads and landed right beside us. Unluckily the weather
which always seems to be threatening decided to break and the show
had to be ended a little early but what we saw was great.
Out to the coast and
down and around to Galway, we just drove through there and carried on
south. In Limerick we got to attend a street party complete with mardi-gras parade. We kept mostly to the coast in Kerry and Cork and visited the 'popular' cities and places. The most interesting of them all, we thought, was the Dingle Peninsular otherwise it was all a bit ho hum, sorry to anyone who is inordinately pro Ireland...
All the time in Ireland it was either cloudy or windy or both and when we saw the sun it was usually accompanied by a cold wind. We never got into shorts or took off our jerseys outside. Prior to our trip over Ireland had had a couple of weeks of wonderful summery warm weather but it disintegrated the moment we landed. On Thursday 8th we tried to enjoy a Clipper Festival in the city of Cork in the rain and cold and the next day headed inland over a mountain range. At the top we were in mist with no view and decided we had had enough. We drove to Rosslare and asked if we could change our Monday 12th ferry tickets to a sooner trip. They put us on the ferry leaving in a couple of hours for no charge and we thankfully returned to the British Isles.
