Campervan Therapy

Glendasan River The textures of schist, shale, pink veined marble are clear in Glendasan River’s waters. The sudden silver of Galena shines from the river bed as I leap across the stepping stones. Water boatmen scud across the water, and circles radiate out from small fish surfacing. St. Kevin’s Way St. Kevin’s Way takes us…

Himself groans as I shout ‘Follow that brown sign.’ But he slings the van up the winding military road, over the purple heather-clad mountain, from Laragh to Glenmalure as if he’s in a Hollywood car chase.   Shekina Sculpture Garden The only sign that we may be at the Shekina Sculpture Garden is a granite…

Wexford Wildfowl Reserve We follow the signs to Wexford Wildfowl Reserve down and round a twisting, turning road for an elastic ‘2 kilometres’.  The van squeezes under the arched arms of oak, hawthorn and beech.  At the North Slob’s harbour, Wexford town stand across the water, a heron flaps by, an egret’s wings are snow…

Tagoat – IOAC Camping This is the kind of corporate campsite we’re not too fond of, by the N25 to Rosslare Port, but it’s a gift for families, with high-wires, archery, and kayaking. I decide not to partake of the axe-throwing. Seán glues himself to MAPS.ME, essential for walking when there’s no footpath signs. We…

West along the M4, first the clouds roll in, then they blanket the sky. By the time we reach the Pembrokeshire National Park, the rain is horizontal, the wind howls. But the hedgerows blaze with hydrangeas, fuchsias, montbretia, ox-eye daisies, purple loosestrife  – a far cry from our Sussex garden’s sun-bleached plants. We cross an…

Essentials: Our bikes are on the back. The Michelin 1:250,000 scale book maps of France and Italy, and AA Ireland are on board, to prevent the dulcet tones of the lady-in-the-SatNav sending us down goat tracks, which has occurred much too often on our tours. One final essential: much to Seán’s despair, a department store’s…