Ireland Road Trip- not the start I hoped for!

I've been talking about touring Ireland ever since we first got a motorhome. It's one of those places I've never had much chance to explore and I've heard so many wonderful stories from people who've been that it's always been on my bucket list. If we've not met before, hi I'm Kat. Five years ago I quit my job as an air traffic controller to get the time and freedom to travel more. I live in my motorhome full-time but I've only recently started having solo adventures. In fact Ireland will be the second big road trip I'm doing on my own. Well, Mac my dog will be with me. But first I've got to get there. I am supposed to be driving up to Hollyhead to get the ferry across to Dublin and it is thick snow. I woke up this morning and the van is just... Is my dog really going to hump? Look puppy, we're in a quandary here pup. Could we have some care and attention? Well that ruined the tone didn't it? But I still am in a quandary because I don't want to drive the motorhome. I can't, I can't stop looking at him. I'll be back. So back to the quandary now that the dog is occupied elsewhere. Basically I either drive the motorhome from here in the south coast of England all the way up to Hollyhead which is in North Wales for those of you who don't know and although the roads are mostly good and will probably be fairly cleared, the whole bit through Wales goes past Snowdonia. It makes me really anxious because it is thick snow up there and the forecast is that it's going to get worse. So I either do that because that's what my ferry's booked for and I've just checked and I can't transfer it to a different route and I could push it back a few days but he's had his tapeworm already which cost me like 60 quid and if I push it back more than a day I'm going to be outside the five-day window that he has to have to have the tapeworm before he goes across to Ireland. So that's option one is just do it, which in my gut I'm saying I'm not entirely happy about or option two is I book a whole new ferry route that goes from Fishguard across to Rosslare because the southern part of Wales has got much better forecast and the snow is due to clear in the next day or two and I can get a ferry across there. I can also get a ferry with Stenaline that's got a pet-friendly cabin on. Apparently that's quite a new thing for them so I am tempted to go and try that out but that's going to cost me an extra £250 and I can't get the money back from the first ferry. So it's definitely one of these head versus heart things. What's really frustrating about this is I'm a planner, I like to not properly plan my trips but I like to at least have an idea of where I'm going to go and things I want to see and sort of a vague structure based around the things and the places that I want to visit and I haven't had the time because of the NEC show and various other commitments that I had in February, I haven't had the time to properly plan the island trip yet. The only thing I had planned was the ferry and now that is the first thing that I'm going to have to change. So I think I'm going to change it. I think in my heart it's the right thing to do because the weather up north is just going to be awful. Right, okay, let's make a commitment. I'm going to go change the ferry. Right, we're going to Rathlair. Yay, we're in Wales! One done, spent the night at the Mumble. Really great stopover. Look how the sea is, it's very stormy though. Bit windy, £6 for the night which you cannot complain at. We've had a good walk, had a bacon sandwich and we're going to go off to Fishguard and get the ferry. It's going to be a bit stormy, a bit choppy I think but we're in a pet-friendly cabin so it will be okay. Are you ready? Are you going to sit in your seat? No, we're not going to sit in a seat, come on. We've made it to the ferry, it's a bit stormy, it's a lot stormy. This may not be the best crossing we've ever had. After a bit of a bumpy start it actually flattened out and we even turned up to Rathlair in thick fog. And then, just like that, I was an island. I decided to spend my first night somewhere near the Hookhead Lighthouse as I heard the views there were incredible. So that's where I headed first. Oh, sunny and island! It's the best kind of storm because it's so windy and it's sunny. Oh, good! You can't park up overnight right outside the lighthouse. There are signs everywhere forbidding it. But there is space for a couple of motorhomes just down the road. I was actually there while a local fisherman was there and he said not a problem at all my love, you stay overnight. So I did. Good morning! So I had a very pleasant night at the Hookhead Lighthouse. It got a bit breezy at one point but other than that it was pretty good. And now we're off. Well, we're doing a bit of a strange detour today because it's going to get really stormy, really, really strong winds this evening. So today we're going to go find a beach now and come back and have a play on. I've left Hookhead really quite early because the road down to Getherhill was quite narrow and I didn't want it to get busy. But there is not a soul around at that 8 o'clock in the morning. There's not a soul around. So we're going to go try Duncannon Beach which I have been told is beautiful. And we're going to go see what that's like. Can you hear that rain? You don't want to go for a walk, do you? Blink if you want to go for a walk. Really? It's been a wee bit blowy here. So we parked up at Duncannon Beach and I only meant to go there for, I don't know, an hour or two. And I actually found this incredible spot that was just tucked in this little tree bit. And it was actually totally protected from the wind. So I knew that 50 mile an hour winds were coming and I was like, OK, there are no signs here saying that you can't stay. So I stayed. And so I've been here for about a day and a bit. You can't do that. You're attached. Oh, I even took my light while I'm chatting. So we've been here for about a day, day and a half. And what I did, one of the things I love most about motor homing, is that I planned to have an exploring day yesterday and then a work day today. And actually I just swapped them around. So yesterday I did loads of work and then to the morning while the wind was still at 50 miles an hour. And then we're going to do exploring today. And then tomorrow I plan to have a work day. It's going to be lovely and sunny and amazing. So we're going to have an exploring day then. We're going to go up into, well possibly into the Wicklow Mountains actually. That might be a really good day to drive like the Sally Gap and the Mountain Road. And what's it called? The, I think it's called the Wicklow Road. You can go to all that. But today we're going to go see Tintern Abbey. Was going to go into Waterford, but it's not the kind of weather to be wandering around. And I've got him. So I think we're going to just stick to natural places for a little while. So yeah, we're going to miss out Waterford on this trip. I won't be back. There's too much to see. I've only got a few weeks and I can't see everything. So I'm having to make some tough decisions on what I want to see and what I don't want to see. So yeah, going to miss that out and then go towards Wexford, do Tintern Abbey. And I want to go do, oh, I think it's called Curacaloo Beach. It's where Saving Private Ryan was filmed. Those opening scenes, those incredible opening scenes were filmed on this beach. So we're going to go see that. And then we're going to go find another park up, probably near a beach, but it should be on the eastern side. So it should be a little bit more protected. But yeah, it's really nice being able to be flexible. It's one of the things I love about not having any campsites, but I can make it all up. So I've been off grid now since Sunday, Monday, six days, six days. We're doing all right, aren't we? We're doing all right. Batteries are going well and we are now going to get driving. So come on then, let's go into the store. How pretty is this? Right at the end of it, it's an abbey. I mean, that is pretty. I can't believe you make me laugh. After the abbey, I continued driving east and parked up on the banks of Curacaloo Beach. This is where those incredible opening scenes from Saving Private Ryan were filmed. Can you believe that was 25 years ago that film came out in 1998? This is possibly one of the best beaches I've ever seen. Incredible. And then on to the final stop of the day, up some very narrow lanes to Clogger Cove. It's not the best park up I've ever stayed in. The car park was sloping, but it was pretty enough on the beach and it was quiet for an overnight stop. Good morning, I'm up really early. Next time we find breathtaking mountains, beautiful waterfalls, wake up in snow and I discover just how difficult it can be to empty your toilet and waste responsibly in Ireland. Make sure you subscribe to find our next videos and thanks for watching. See you on the next one.