From bangers and mash to baguettes and smelly cheese

17th September - Clifdon, Ireland

Again, rain and very windy. Tiny roads which make for scary driving as we worry about our huge mirrors and tyres. Missing all the scenery with this rain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

18th to 20th September – Kilarney, Ireland

 

We got up fairly early as it wasn’t raining and I drove us off the scary “red” roads through to Galway. The scenery was beautiful, kind of rugged wilderness with reds and oranges of autumn, greens and lakes. Drove on as the weather was clear, through Galway with a stop in Ennis for a quick sausage roll and a stop in Adare (known as the prettiest town in Ireland) for a scone in a thatched roof coffee shop. Not too sure about the title “prettiest town in Ireland” though, there was one section of the main road (where we stopped) that was prettier than the rest but that was about it.

 

We kept on going to Kilarney which turned out to be a very touristic town. To our delight, we managed to book a tour for the Ring of Kerry so we can leave BB in the safety of the caravan park and not tackle the tiny roads again. Took a relaxing day off (from nothing...), slept in, cleaned a bit, I de-rusted the bikes and we went round for a ride. We found a place to fix the spokes on my back tyre and headed back to BB



Our Campsite




 

On the ring of Kerry tour the roads were pretty tiny so we were happy we were in the bus and someone else was driving. The tour took us all the way around the ring with a stop off for some baileys coffee... which Nat liked. Its normal black coffee with a shot of baileys and a layer of cream on the top. Apparently you are not meant to stir the cream in, but drink the coffee through it. Anyways, Nat was sold!  

 

 

 

 

 

Stopped off at some sheep dog show. Three border collies who are trained to round up sheep. The show only had 5 sheep but demonstrated the different commands. They each have different command signals so one guy can control the dogs at the same time. It was pretty cool if you like that kind of thing.

Yeah the picture doesn't really do it justice, the dogs were moving and not just napping next to the sheep, you had to be there I think.

 

We stopped off for lunch which was amazingly expensive, 35 euro for lamb stew and boiled ham (both of which tasted better than they sound), although Nat nearly broke a tooth with some hard rock like thing in her mash. The tour was ok, but I would have to say that Isle of Skye was heaps better. 

That night we went into town for dinner and drinks. We ended up seeing a lady from the tour in the pub (michaelagh) and joined her for a few drinks, turns out it was her 50th although she looked nothing like it! Finished around 1am when the pubs closed and both felt like shite the next morning.
 

 

This one is for you mum!

21st September – Dungarven, Ireland

I think Nat was feeling the effects from last night as the drive seemed more difficult than most. We ended up in Dungarven after passing through Cork where we couldn’t stop because they have bars across all the car park entrances, even the park and ride system, we think it’s because of the Irish travellers (gypsies). The sun was out, it was an amazing day with beautiful beaches.

 

Unfortunately the caravan park along the beach was shut so we ended up in another one down the road. Sun was out so it was time to give BB some loving and clean all the tar off him, I think it took us about 2-3 hours.

As I was cleaning I heard this almighty thud, at first I thought Nat had broken something again but instead Nat cracked her head into an open window and really twisted her neck. Nat went through her typical 4 stages after something like this: the initial pain, absolute HULK-like anger, sadness and then to Benjy for a cuddle. I have learnt not to go in too early during the HULK- like anger stage……nothing stands in her way and she takes no prisoners…….

 

Nice View

22nd to 23rd September – Wexford, Ireland

Tried to stop in Waterford but again no parking and it didn’t really look interesting. Camped up in Wexford for two nights, again with foggy, drizzle weather. Since our internet package didn’t include Ireland we enjoyed the strong wifi connection and had a family Skype day. We also extended for an extra day to hopefully see some sun when we left for Dublin.

The foggy weather was a shame as we couldn’t really see some of the country side, I think we may have missed a bit of the scenery.

Our location for the family Skype day

 

24th to 26th September – Dublin, Ireland

 

Arrived in a pretty nice caravan park just outside of Dublin. The sun was kind of out so even though it was 3pm, we headed into town. After a 45min bus ride we made it. Walked down O'Connell street which is just like a mall then went back across the river to the other side of town called the Temple Bar. Cobblestone streets with lots of nice pubs and restaurants.

We checked out a pub for some drinks and live music and then onto the Old Stonehouse for dinner and more drinks. I had my first Irish Bangers and Mash which was awesome and Nat had her favourite cottage pie. There was an awesome Irish band, one guy on the guitar and another on a flute and whistle. The flute guy was bloody crazy, so fast with his fingers. They worked the crowd really well, even had a screen that showed the lyrics for some of the songs. I was that impressed (and perhaps drunk) that I bought their CD. We are hoping that it still sounds good when we are sober.

 

 

 

 

 

We caught the last bus back around 11.30pm. The caravan park was absolutely swarming with rabbits, they were everywhere!! We crashed out and had a lazy day the next day, food shopping and clothes washing.

We were lucky enough to be in Dublin on Arthurs Day, which was first celebrated about 5 years ago marking the 200 year anniversary for Guinness , the day was so successful that they have it every year (named after Sir Arthur Guinness…apparently). It has caused some criticism by the “drink aware” group but by looking at the Irish people, if it’s not Arthur’s day it will be something else. 

We headed into town just after midday, checked out the castle and some old buildings around the town, we had lunch at the oldest pub in Ireland, The Brazen Head which has been getting people drunk since 1198!! We then checked out O’Connell street again and took some photos of the O’Connell monument for Mum.

 

 

 

We then headed to the temple bar area for Arthurs day, we both got some face painting done and "cheered" to Aurthur at 5:59pm as per the tradition, we met some Irish birds and a Canadian couple who are living in Dubai. We had dinner at an Irish pub where I started to sweat due to the ridiculous burger I was eating, and forgot about my  face painting, we continued the pub crawl and also met an Aussie bar owner from Perth here on a three day pub conference.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The atmosphere was really good with loads of people drinking on the street and live music everywhere, was a good way to say goodbye to Ireland.

27th September – Chester, England

 

We got up super early, 6am. Very unusual feeling for us on this trip so far. It was still dark and there was a thick fog in the air. Not making it easy to see at all when combined with sleepy eyes. Good thing Nat stuck with to her “no drinking” policy last night. We eventually made it to the port after Brenda took us on a very annoying route through town. We ended up stuck down a small street confronting a semi that wasn’t going backwards and couldn’t get past us. It took some manoeuvring as I directed Nat backwards into a small space. Had one scary moment when I was trying to signal Nat to stop reversing (as we have no back windows) but she wouldn’t stop, my gestures were more and more serious and I couldn’t understand why she wasn’t stopping. Finally, before our bike rack came into contact with the parked car, the truck driver honked the horn. I then realised that I had folded the passenger mirror in and Nat couldn’t see me.

The ferry ride was better for Nat with the new sea sickness tablets and some sleep.

We arrived in Holyhead and the sun was out! England must have known we were coming back, we drove into Chester, which we both thought was the best town we have visited so far. We walked all the way around the town on the old Roman wall, finally a “walled city” that was true to the name.

The town was like walking back in time, old style streets and buildings with the surrounding walls and 1000 year old Cathedral. It almost felt like a movie set.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We found a caravan park nearby which looked a little dodgy but we stayed anyway. There were many……long term campers. We may have only thought like this because of the Irish gypsy show we've been watching but they seemed to match the stereotype. We stayed with BB and kept him under lock and key all night.

28th to 29th September – Bath, England

 

We had another semi early start to leave the scary caravan park. I drove us down the motorway for about 3 1/2 hours. Booked caravan park on the way which was just outside of Bath. We set up camp and went for a walk through the nearby streets.

 

The next day we rode our bikes into Bath which was along the river Avon to the Pultney Bridge. It is a beautiful bridge with shops along the top. We walked through the Bath Abbey and checked out the town. Already was on par with Chester for our most favourite city in the UK.

I checked out the Roman baths while Nat continued to check out the town. The baths were awesome, the exhibition took you through all the exposed ruins which included the main larger bath area and the smaller steam rooms and smaller baths. They had heated floors and all.

 

 

We stopped for yet another cream tea, rode out of town to check The Circus and Royal Crescent, designed by John Wood back in the late 1700's. All very nice. Rode back to BB, and enjoyed some red and more Doritos (I can’t help it, only 1 pound for a bag)

 

 

 

 30th September – Torque, England

 

We headed down south towards the Dartmoor National Park but the weather was super foggy and then we saw on the map that it wasn’t suitable for caravans so we opted out. Drove down towards Torque instead. (the English Riveira) Stopped off, walked around the harbour, had a huge ice cream and then headed back to BB. We drove on through Paignton and to the caravan park. Unfortunately we followed Brenda into very small one-way farm roads, Nat was not liking this one bit and needed a drink when we arrived at the caravan park.

1st October to 2nd October – Brighton, England

We'd been chatting to our neighbour a bit last night and this morning we were rewarded as he gave us a copy of his book. The book is called “When was Jesus really born?" He said he'd seen us reading and thought we might be interested. Nat kindly said it’s not really our thing but then he mentioned he'd written it. What can you say, have to take it. Maybe we looked lost and he thought we needed to find god... hmmm.

We left late, weather was grey and foggy again. The roads turned skinny towards Dorchester

 

where we stopped for a walk around and lunch. Nice little town. Have to say the English towns appear to be more appealing than the ones in Scotland and Ireland. I took over the driving to give Nat some stress free travelling and we continued on to Brighton so we could stop over for two nights instead of having to drive again tomorrow.

We walked to the Brighton jetty and then walked to the marina for lunch. We bought loads of vegemite and some fosters ready for the Frenchies.

 

 

 

3rd October to 6th October – London, Abbey Wood

 

We arrived at Abbey Wood caravan park and the weather wasn’t overly good. We hung around BB for the afternoon and planned our London trip. 

Next day we left early on the train into the city. We bought a day ticket which allowed unlimited trips on the bus, train or tube. We first visited HSBC who skilfully sent the replacement security key to Australia instead of the London bridge office as per our request.

We took the tube to the War museum. Some of the exhibitions were closed but still had some interesting stuff. The Holocaust exhibition was really good, it really went into detail, very easy to be depressed once you go through it all. We learnt that the hatred towards the Jews all started from the hatred by the Christians, they were killing Jews long before this. They blame the Jews for killing Jesus who was apparently was also a Jew….yet again another awesome side to religion that makes no sense.

We continued on to Big Ben, the cathedral, 10 downing street (well it’s a gate at the start of downing street) and other common attractions in Westminster.

Nat’s feet were apparently “killing her” and started to show signs of a crazy person with unbalanced hormones who didn’t know what she wanted but whatever I said wasn’t it………so I took her home and put her to bed. It was a long day after all.

 

My first tube trip

 

Steepest and longest escalator I've been on

Another early start the next day heading for the portabello markets. This place was packed out and mostly with Spanish or Italians. We walked the full length and treated ourselves to some cake on our way back into town.

 

 

 

We walked through hyde park, saw Buckingham palace which wasn’t overly interesting. It was almost underwhelming in the end but we can cross it off the list. We continued into town, Trafalgar Square, m&m world which was insanely busy and we still couldn’t find any pretzel m&m's.

 

 

Luckily Nat was feeling better today so we had a few beers at a small pub and had some awesome Thai food at the Banana Tree for dinner. A few more pubs and tried to take some night shots of London. We even treated ourselves to a ride on the merry go round. I don’t think I’ve seen Nat laugh that much before, I think you had to be there and to be drunk.

The next day I was finally going to get my Ferris wheel ride, the London Eye. Although very touristy, it was pretty damn good. We had an awesome clear day and could see all of London. Nat and I both enjoyed it. We would even do it again next time we are here but perhaps at dusk as the city lights are coming on.

We caught up with Matt (old school friend of Nats) and Tommy for lunch at a Mexican place.

Nat really enjoyed catching up with Matt, still the same nice guy as he was in school apparantly. Seems to be enjoying life in the UK. Tommy left for errands and we continued to Southbank with Matt for more drinks. Had a good laugh, reminded Nat of a party she had a her house when they were younger and he got drunk the first time and feel asleep on the pool fence. Funny! maybe we'll see them again during the year.

 

 

 

 

Nat and Matt

7th October – Le Crotoy – France

Another early morning to drive and catch the ferry. Approaching the border control I drove straight past the first booth to a shouting French man, pretty funny. He stamped the passport with no questions asked, phew! I don’t know if it’s because of Nats passport but I wasn’t going to stick around to find out. Then we managed to get on the earlier ferry cause we were 1 1/2 hours before our departure. Bring on the French pastries and baguettes!!!!!!!!

We found a caravan park along the coast and we now realise that we were spoiled by the sites in the UK, this will take some adjustment. Weather was pretty nice. We walked along the beach and I then started to teach Nat how to juggle with some balls we bought while in London. It’s a lot easier than it looks and Nat started to get the hang of it.

 

Nat's first juggling session

8th October – North of Euro Disney, France

Stopped of at Amiens for a look around. Amazing Cathedral in town. Very gothic and different to the ones in UK. 

 

 

We found a caravan park just north of Disneyland and again we are still getting use to the lower standard. If you wanted to use the toilets you had to bring your own toilet paper, soap, paper towel and in some cases even a bloody toilet seat!

 

9th October – Disneyland!!!!!

 

Thanks to a generous gift from the Frenchies, we had tickets for Disneyland.  We finally found the car park where we could stay overnight after driving around in circles. We didn’t realise that the camping spot that we found in our camping book was the actual car park for Disneyland.  Nat took her motion sickness tablets (which seemed to work) and headed in.

We aimed to do all the fast rides that were marked in red on the map and then any other family attractions we could fit into the day. It was an awesome day!!

First ride was space mountain, fast as anything in the dark with loops and drops and lazers…really cool…well really cool for those who keep their eyes open. Nat was not looking too bad but was a little pale on the way out. We did the tea cups, Indiana Jones ride, Peter pan, buzz light year, Thunder mountain, Aerosmith rocken roll rollecoaster and the ghost hotel which was the only one that I felt a bit queezy afterwards. In saying that it was still awesome. It’s based on a haunted hotel, you are seated in a lift in total darkness, you feel it rise up to the next floor (which is really about 5 or 6 floors), the doors open and you can see down this long corridor and ghostly figures at the end, the doors close and you are in darkness again as it continues upwards, the doors open and another ghostly figure appears, the doors close…..its black…..and then …….BOOM you free fall and then stop….then free fall to the bottom, it then takes you all the way to the top and when the doors open you at the top and see outside and then …BOOM down you go again. So cool but was very glad when it stopped. Similar to other vertical drop rides but in the darkness with the haunted theme made it the best for me.

 

We also saw a stunt show which had cars and motorbikes doing crazy tricks, was pretty good but I was hoping for people to jump out of windows and stuff.

 

My feet were soaked through by the end of the day, it wasn’t cold just a little damp. It was a good day to do it actually because the crowd was down and we didn’t have to wait more than 5 to 10 minutes for any of the rides, the next few days were freezing too so we were glad we went.

Thanks Frenchies!!!
 

 

Our campsite

Signed Metallica guitar at the Aerosmith Rock n Roll Rollercoaster

 

 

 

 

I think I look more goofy than goofy

10th to 11th October – Beauagency, France

Three hour drive south and we entered Loire valley. Staying at our first proper camper spot along the river which was absolutely free and somewhat better than the previous ones we paid for, although there was no toilet.  We went into the small town where we found a hot water bottle for natty, thermometer and shoes for Nat also, Finally!!!

This is when the true camping starts, using our water and toilets more frequently and learning how to sit on the toilet such that you get a hole in one on most occasions!!

 

 

Our first real free campsite along the river

 

 It was a popular site

 Nat being a scarecrow in the crops....love the expression

12th October – Soinge des Sologne (Frenchies Party)

On our way to the party we stopped at the Chateau de Chambord which was amazing.


 

 

Chateau de Chambord

We also came across these guys

We arrived at the party location before Aude and somehow we had the right place. We met Aude’s brother Tibo and his partner Anna who live in Zurich Switzerland. Made it sound pretty good so who knows, maybe we can find work there next.

We were starting to be known as the gypsies as during the party we brought some washing in from BB and used the machine in the house, felt a little strange but you gotta take the opportunity where you can.

Party was fun, full of Frenchies most of whom are very French. We hung out with Tibo, Anna and the two Sebastiens or “brick shit house and the builder” in the kitchen most of the time. Was a very entertaining night,  especially trying to explain that being built like a brick shit house is a compliment ….he was huge. By the end of the night we were hearing “shit house brick” “shit brick” and some other funny alternatives. I even treated them to some fosters, not sure why I bought it but I think I wanted to bring some “Aussie” beer to the Frenchies, went down well actually, although even they know we don’t drink it at home.

We finished around 2am and it was the coldest we have experienced so far. Our new thermometer read 6 degrees inside BB in the morning, I woke up half outside the covers in a state I have not experienced in a while, thank god for the beer. From what we read it was about 1 degree outside.

 

13th to 14th October – Blois, France

The next morning we left the house around midday and headed for Blois. The camper place was right in town and was only 5 Euros. The sun came out for first time in a while so we managed to hang out the clothes we had washed at the party and dry them out.

The next day it rained all day again. We both had our first shower in BB, it takes about 30min to heat the water and about 6 min to use it all. However the shower is just big enough and at 3 min each there is plenty of time.

We caught up with Aude in town and went to her parents place for dinner. Nice cosy two storey house where Audey grew up. Dinner was really nice, had a laugh with her mum and headed home around 10.30pm.

 

 

 

15th to 17th October – Bracieaux, France

With plans to catch up with Aude at the end of the week, we decided to explore the area a little bit. The plans didn’t quite work as I woke up with a mean man cold. So we decided to head to the caravan park only 20min from Blois so we had power and showers.

An engine light came on when we drove out which is never a good sign. Luckily we drove past a fiat dealer so we stopped and booked BB in for a check-up the next day. The garage was opening from 2pm onwards and we were there at 5 minutes to 2, raining with the door locked they looked at as and continued on their way. 5 min past they finally unlocked the door and let us in. When we asked if they spoke English (in French) they then asked if we spoke French….why the f---ck would we ask in the first place!! They were a bit rude and started to talk to another customer without finishing with us.

Despite the attitude the day before we dropped BB off at hospital around 2 to a much friendler atmosphere, I think once you cut through the crap they are mostly nice to you. By 3pm he was finished. Luckily it was only a split air hose. The computer in BB must be pretty sensitive but just happy that he's ok. We drove back to the camping and Nat cooked me some chicken soup. Again rain today so not much to do.

 

Nat made some new friends

18th October – Blois, France

Left just before midday to check out the Chevenry castles. It was pretty nice, I think it was the one featured in the Tin Tin Cartoon. They also had about 100 hunting dogs in an enclosure….very smelly.

 

We stopped off at Aude's place for hot drink, goodbyes and to pick up the much anticipated security keys from HSBC. When we got there we realised we'd left the cap to our water tank at the camping site so our water had been splashing out everytime we turned right, so we drove back and thankfully it was still there.

Damn you....but thank you for still being there

Meanwhile Audes mum was kind enough to dry our clothes as well as yet again the dryer was not working and the clothes didn’t dry overnight.

So we finally had our cup of tea and Audes place, said our good byes to her parents and then was invited for dinner and drinks in town with Audes friends so we stayed in Blois again.

We met some more of Audes friends and had dinner in town, nice night with mixed French and English conversation. We said our final goodbye to Aude (I think this is number three now) and headed home.

19th October – Amboise, France

Walked into town to check out the music store. We finally bought my guitar which is a mixed classical and folk guitar. It was about double what I thought I would spend but was mindful of buying some cheap rubbish thing….which this thing could still be anyway. Another goal for the trip in addition to the juggling task.  

We walked through the markets on Saturday and grabbed a baguette, some croissants and a millefeau for desert and headed back to BB. We drove into Amboise which is a nice small town along the loire river. We parked BB in the second camper place we found (not the one tucked away behind some buildings inhabited by a Mohawk skinhead).