Category: Uncategorized
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Nuvilla – A Rustic Rest
The Santoña docks in Bilbao at 8 a.m. The plan is to find a camperstop in Bilbao for the van and head off to the Guggenheim Museum in the centre of town. I’ve always wanted to go to the futuristic designed art gallery by the estuary. We bowl up to the camperstop on the edge…
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Ireland’s Southernmost Port, Rosslare, to Spain’s Basque Bilbao
Rosslare Port has been a feature of my life since the years of the old St. Columba, without stabilisers, bucking and ducking on the wild stretch of sea between Fishguard and Rosslare. The port was a small little shed in those days where Uncle Scotty would chat to the dock workers before strolling out to…
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The Slow Road to Kilmore Quay – A Wonderful Meanderings
We leave Cashel in Tipperary and drive along the River Suir, through Clonmel and Carrick-on-Suir, a route that connects historic sites such as Cahir and Ormond castles. The river valley itself is tranquil with kingfishers and herons swooping over its waters, wild salmon swimming, and kayakers paddling down it. We swing by New Ross on…
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Walking in the Footsteps of Kings, Bishops, and Monks in Cashel
Yet again, we pull into a favourite stop off of ours – O’Brien’s Camping and Caravan site in Cashel, overlooked by the famous castle and rock. The castle was once the stronghold of Brian Boru, the first High King of Ireland. My father used to say we were related to royalty, which always confused me…
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Over the Cousane Gap onto the Wild Atlantic Way and Bantry
As we stop by the rugged Cousane Gap through the Shehy Mountains, we’re surrounded by ferns, bracken and blue hued hills. A noticeboard provides two explanations for how the gap formed: the scientific one, and the mythic. My scientific partner-in-crime favours the version whereby ice from the last Ice Age carved the gap. I favour…
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Wexford Town’s Vikings and Love-Inspired Monasteries
We bowl across to Ferrybank Campsite in Wexford – that finger of land out in the bay, with curlews calling, Godwits pecking and Oystercatchers trilling. Just across the bridge from the campsite three church spires pierce the clearest of blue skies. A huge golden harp marks the end of the promenade. All around the town…
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Moreish Moraira – Petrified dunes and stunning bronzes – Alicante’s coast offers up its artistic treasures
We drive through orange and olive groves, round hairpin bends, on a rugged mountain road to Moraira in Alicante. The sun shines, the cycling teams are out in full, some from Spain, others from France. Why I think it helps to squeeze myself into the narrowest spot the in van as it tries to navigate…
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When Wild Winds Send Hidden Treasures our Way in Alicante’s Elche
When the van is rocked by a banshee of a wind in Fonts de l’Algar, we decide to hotfoot it out of the Alicante mountains. But, with southern Spain having been hit by seven storms in six weeks, the whole of the campervanning fraternity seems to be heading to Alicante. We manage to snatch the…
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Farewell to Catalonia and Hello to the Province of Alicante
We cycle along a circular route from the promenade in L’Ampolla through the hinterland, following the olive grove route. The road is a rollercoaster. Sun shines on mountains terraced with dry-stone walls. I’m amazed at the skill and strength it must take to balance them, so that they nestle together and hold tight. The walls’…
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Languorous L’Ampolla – the town on the borders of the Ebro Delta offers up cliffside walks, saltmarsh and lagoons
Our dash from San Sebastian to the Mediterranean town of L’Ampolla involves battering rain in Zaragoza’s only campsite open for miles. The drive from Zaragoza to Lleida is forbidding, with its bleached fields and mountains mined away to resemble a row of bad teeth. But my heart lifts as we turn off at Lleida to…
Campervan Therapy 