BACK ON THE ROAD
After our usual winter brake from the motorhome and with our winter sun trips out of the way it was time to get the van back on the road. I took the van from the yard back to the side of the house so we could give the van a good spring clean there were no winter mods this year so just the usual top to toe clean.With work and the cold wet spell to be honest I was lacking a bit of motivation to actually go anywhere.I did eventually bite the bullet loaded the mountain bike into the garage and spend a night in Carlingford on my own. Polly was working nights so was not available, it was as bleak as I thought it would be for a Wednesday night in march I was the only van on the marina that night ! I did however enjoy a pint and a chat with some locals in Juniors Bar up near the church at the top of the village. The following morning I had a nice couple of hours in the hills on the bike I got caught in the rain and had to cut my spin short .... but as they say the worst day in the van in better than the best day in the office.
We have been busy planing for our longer trips later in the year, we now have 2 ferry trips booked. The first trip will be to Northern France in late spring and later in the year we hope to get back to Spain and on to Portugal we have never been to Portugal in the van but more on theses adventures nearer the time.
After the high excitement of the birth of our first grandchild we decided we couldn't let Easter pass without getting away for a few nights so plans were set in motion it was agreed that we would head off on Easter Sunday for 2 nights we were hoping that our VW friends could join us but there was no dog sitter available to them so we would be flying solo.The plan was to wing our way in the direction of Lough Derg and see where the road would take us.The M50 was very quiet and we had a clear run down to the M7 we did swing off the motorway around Mountrath just to see a bit of the country we managed to avoid the toll but this wasn't the reason for the detour, there was a brief discussion about rerouting to Kilkenny but it was decided to stick with plan A. Our first stop was into Domineer there are some of the excellent waterways Ireland facilities in the area including a black water dump we were going to stay but it was a bit quite with not a lot going on so we headed for Garrykennedy.
Garrykennedy (another spot with WI services) was buzzing at first we were afraid we would not get a parking spot but as we were leaving the bottom carpark the perfect spot in the corner freed up but before I got back around a van that was in the carpark before us and was obviously watching the same spot slotted in before us .... the joys of motoring lol. But at least we were able to slot into the space they had vacated. I had rang ahead to confirm Larkins Bar was still serving food (which they do until 8pm) so we just pulled the hand brake and headed for the bar where they found us a table in the restaurant in-spite of them being extremely busy we were treated to a top notch meal, its hard to beat an Irish pub grub for quality and value we are blessed we some excellent eateries around the country I can definitely recommend Larkins Bar . After our meal we headed for the bar where we were greeted with a full on Irish session there must have been up to 30 players coming and going with some lovely singers and dancers as part of the fun this made of a super evening .We got chatting to the couple with whom we were vying for parking with earlier and had a good giggle about it . It was nice to have the motorhome chats with them they were very well traveled it was lovely to hear of there adventures. We finished off the night with a pint in Roy Breens bar next door all in all a very nice day .
After a quite nigh the plan on Easter Monday was to visit Ballycuggaran - Crag Wood Walk just outside Ballina/Killaloe but before this we took the opportunity to do the short forest walk in Garrykennedy this is a short 1.7km loop with some nice views of the lake, a perfect way to clear the head from last night's crack. As we were passing the lovely Rapido of Úna and David the couple we chatted to last night Polly decided to tap the door and say our good byes but as tends to happen a lot in van life we got deep into chats about life and all things motorhomeing and before we knew it the 4 of us were back in our van with teas and coffee putting the world to rights... Another reason to love van life you get to meet some very nice people I really enjoyed our coffee morning with a very nice couple I do hope we bump into them again on our travels.
So after saying our good byes it was back to the business of the day to climb to the highest point in Clare.It was now quite late in the day but with the extra hour of daylight we still had time for the 2 hour hike up to the top of Moylussa. There are 2 parking options for this walk one down by the lake the 2nd is up a narrow fire road which takes you to the trail head we chose to use in the upper parking as it was bank-holiday Monday the parking was full when we arrived but there was a lot of coming and going so we soon got parked up out of the way, we got a quick bite to eat pulled on the walking boots and away we went, The hike itself is quite demanding with some super steep sections near the top but it's doable for anyone with average fitness the views are spectacular, there is a shorter loop if you don't feel you're up to the full climb. We managed to avoid the rain and completed the walk in just over 2 hours.
We then made our way back to Kilaloe a regular stop for us we joined 2 other vans overlooking the Shannon the walk had taken its toll so we just fixed some dinner and headed to bed and had a restful night. The following morning it was time to head for home before we left we headed over the bridge to the Pitstop cafe for breakfast we always try to leave some money in a area that welcomes us, we then done the river walk before hitting the road for home..... bringing an end to another great couple days doing van life !
What we learned : Always make the effort to say hello to you're fellow travellers , as you get older the hills get steeper or at least it feels that way !
Until next time happy camping and don't forget to wave !
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