Busfest 2015

As promised by the website, we did indeed have a vantastic time at Busfest! We saw some brilliant campervans and now have lots of exciting ideas for Amelie.

Sam loves the syncro vans, but we don't quite have that budget at the moment, so he just wants to make Amelie a little bit higher off the ground and give her bigger tyres.  However, what with her rather large head (or as most would call it, high top roof), I am worried she might look a little oafish if she was much taller, and more like a monster truck than the sweet little camper I want her to be!  So we have made a compromise... if we can get a smaller high top roof for Amelie at a reasonable price, then Sam can do his monster truck thing to the wheels.  The current roof was damaged when we bought it so we needed to get that sorted anyway.  So most of Busfest was spent taking sneaky photos of other T25 roofs!

We've established that we like the Holdsworth, Carthago and Sheldon roofs.  So watch this space!

Ireland video

Folkestone

Just back from a lovely weekend away to Folkestone with our friends Liz and Chase.  We stayed at the Little Switzerland which had stunning views.

Our first year with Amelie...

Exciting news!!  Amelie has just passed her MOT with flying colours - no advisories! 

Our insurance is up for renewal on 8th August and we had put a maximum mileage of 5000 miles on last year's insurance.  Last night I decided to see how many miles we've done this year... 4930 miles - pretty close!

Amelie has taken us on some fantastic adventures this year.  From 'local' trips to Cornwall, Brighton, Broadstairs and Devon to places further afield - Switzerland, France and Ireland, we have loved (almost) every minute!   

Our first hitchhiker, Ballykissangel, Glenmacnass Waterfall and Blessington Lakes

Having chatted about hitchhikers earlier in our trip, when we saw one yesterday looking for a lift in our direction, we decided to go for it and pick him up. He was a chef who had moved from the city for a quieter life, but his car had packed in. He gave us some tips on what we could cook on the two van hobs.

Shortly after dropping the hitchhiker off, we accidentally took a wrong turn into Avoca, which was the place that Ballykissangel was filmed! We had a drink at Fitzgerald's, Sam is too young to know the series but I loved it!

Later we headed to the stunning Glenmacnass Waterfall.

Initially we had planned to wild camp there, and there was a lovely spot to do so, but we got there so early that we decided to keep going, and we ended up finding nice place with views of Blessington Lakes. On the way we drove along Sally Gap, as suggested by the hitchhiker, which was beautiful.

Lough Derg and Kilkenny

After our scary night on Omey Island, we treated ourselves to a proper campsite by Lough Berg. We underestimated how choppy this 'lake' would be... paddle boarding was hard work, and we were definitely doing 'kneel up paddle boarding' rather than 'stand up paddle boarding'

The next day the weather was still bad, so rather than doing more outdoor activities we drove to Kilkenny. We had a bit of a worry on the way as the brakes seemed to suddenly disappear as I was driving, but it meant Sam got to use his new jack from Campervan Culture and they seem normal now.

Kilkenny was brilliant, we climbed the Round Tower at St. Canice's - an early Gothic cathedral with good views of the city, then went to the Smithwick's Experience. We learnt about the history of Smithwick's beer and the brewing process. We also learnt that if you order a 'glass' of beer in Ireland, it means a half pint.

We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant then headed to a pub that a man in a shop had recommended to us where a three piece band were playing traditional Irish music. The pub was called John Cleere, we thoroughly recommend it if you're ever in Kilkenny! The man in the shop also informed us that there were no parking restrictions at the Black Abbey car park over night, so we wild camped there. It never feels as wild when you're in a car park though! Still, we had a good sleep and have just enjoyed our third McDonald's (for the free WiFi, of course!)

Omey Island and the storm

We had been told about this island you could drive to at low tide at the very edge of Connemara National Park called Omey Island. After failing again to know about tide times we luckily arrived at the right time and edged across the sand. With not much on the island we found a fantastic spot to camp for the night overlooking a small beach and bay. Perfect.

 Amy went off to take some pictures and video of the bay whilst the sun was out and I was given the task of the nights dinner.
With the wind starting to pick up we got stuck into my wonderful creation of baked Camembert with chorizo and mushrooms all done on the braai.

Not a bad view for dinner. Little did we know this was the calm before the storm. At around 10pm, a storm started that lasted the entire night. The van was rocking in the wind and we ended up driving a little further inland for fear that the sand bank we were on might crumble. The lightening lit up the whole van, just through the windows in the high top. It was pretty scary! As soon as we were both up, we drove off of the island. Because of all the rain and the incoming tide, the drive across the sand was a little more damp under foot than we were hoping for, but Amelie made it! So Omey Island was both the most beautiful and most terrifying place we have camped yet!