Wild Atlantic Way- I may have made a mistake..!

Hi, I'm Cat. I live, work and travel full-time in my motorhome and right now I'm exploring the wonders of Ireland. I've already been in this beautiful country a few weeks, so if you've missed the first couple of videos be sure to go back and catch up. But today I'm starting the Wild Atlantic Way, the world's longest and arguably most famous coastal road trip. Join me as I explore some of the incredible scenery along this route, including the famous Mizzenhead and the infamous Healy Pass. Is it possible in a motorhome? I guess I'll find out. Good morning, we are in Kinsale, which is technically the start of the Wild Atlantic Way. And we're going to go spend a couple of days, a lot of days, a lot more than a couple of days, exploring the Wild Atlantic Way, aren't we? We're going to work our way around and see where we get to and see how far we can get in the time we've got. It's one of these weird things because you kind of want to do everything and see everything, and I don't have enough time to do everything and see everything, so I'm just going to potter and see the things that I want to see. And today I'm hoping to get all the way down to Mizzenhead, which may be a mistake because there's an enormous storm coming in. So that is the plan. I always have a loose plan, but we'll see, see what I can find along the way. Right, onwards. Here we go, this is the centre of Kinsale. It looks like a really pretty town actually. I'm not spending a huge amount of time here because I've got a whole lot of other things to be getting on with. If I tried to share with you every beautiful view and place I visited, we'd be here all year. But one of the first highlights along the Wild Atlantic Way was definitely Red Strand Beach. You can park up a few motorhomes right on the side of the beach for free, no cost overnight, there were no services, but what an incredible view to wake up to in the morning. You could also swim in the sea if you were brave enough, and there was a mobile sauna that was available on the beach. It does get booked up, so you might want to book a slot up in advance. I was lucky and there was one space left for me, so I joined this group of girls between going from the sauna into the sea. They were a lot braver than I was. I spent a fantastic night here, and I highly recommend it if you're visiting out of season. Next stop, somewhere really famous. I'm at Mizzenhead. It's a bit windy, but look! And we saw dolphins! There were dolphins here when I got here. There were a couple of German guys. They were like, look at the dolphins! And I saw dolphins. That was kind of cool. It's a funny thing traveling. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed today. I think I've just suddenly realized how long the Wild Atlantic Way is, and it's a long way to drive on your own. Not just the driving, but the navigating, and the finding places to stop. It's amazing, and I'm loving it so far, but I'm feeling a little bit intimidated by how far I've got to go, and how little time I've got left, because I've got to be back for the Peterborough show, which is in about five weeks. I've got to go all the way up there, which should be perfectly doable, but it's just a very long way away right now. So tomorrow I'm going to go around the Ring of Birra, or the Birra Peninsula, I think it's better known as, which involves driving the Healy Pass. I think that's a little bit of where the overwhelm's come from, because I genuinely can't find out if it's a suitable road for motorhomes. Like, nowhere seems to say whether or not you can do it in a motorhome. It's making me a little bit anxious, so I'm going to apply the same rule to this that I did to Applecross up in Scotland, which was basically just do it early before the rest of the world wakes up, and then I can see what it's like. So I think some chocolate is required, and then maybe some sleep. After a night of extremely heavy rain, I got up early the next morning to tackle the famous Healy Pass. This road was initially built to help prevent starvation during the famine, but was renamed for one of the area's famous politicians. It's perfectly doable in a motorhome, but if you meet anyone coming the other way, the roads are quite narrow. So I would suggest you get up early in the morning and do it before everybody else is up and awake. The views are breathtaking. It's nowhere near as difficult as Applecross is in Scotland, but it's definitely well worth doing. The whole pass is only around eight miles long, and it's called the R574. You could drive it in about 20 minutes, but there are so many stunning spots to pull over and take photographs. It will probably take you much longer than that. In my opinion, the southern half is way more fun, although there are some beautiful mountain views from the north. But you could easily drive down, turn around and come back the other way. What I did instead was go across the Healy Pass, then turn left and do a ring around the Beara Peninsula. Then we're back on proper roads again. Plenty big enough for two big vehicles. A quick stop at the Cashel Kilty Stone Circle to stretch Max's legs and be amazed by the incredible view, and then I carried on around the peninsula towards Crasseltown. Why do I keep finding really ridiculously steep paths in woodlands? It's crazy. At least I'm going down this one, I suppose. This section of the Beara Peninsula was just breathtaking. As you can see, the roads are narrow, but they're perfectly doable in a motorhome, and there are passing places if you meet anyone coming the other way. Holy moly. Dunene. Hello, Dunene. Stopped here for a bit of lunch, which was a sandwich and a packet of Watsit. And then I continued the circle around to Crasseltown Bay, where they have an approved motorhome stopover point for the night. So there we go. That was the Beara Peninsula. It's now one o'clock. I started, I left just near Mismahead at eight. So five hours to get all the way up there, do Healy Pass, go all the way down around the coastline and back with lots and lots and lots of stops. It's impressive. It's impressive. So I'm going to go check out Crasseltown Bay and then figure out what I'm going to say for the evening. Crasseltown Bay is a fishing village with a pretty view, and it's got some pubs and shops if you want to use them. But for me, the highlight was most definitely the creperie, the open of an evening and gave you delicious cheese and ham pancakes. The glamorous side of life on the road, when your dog throws up while in the passage of footwell and you've got to scrub it. It's very pleasant. Luckily, he was soon back to his old self. Next time I take on the famous Ring of Kerry. It's beautiful, but I discover why you should only drive it in one direction if you've got a larger vehicle. If you're not already subscribed and would like to know when the next video comes out, then hit the button. Thanks for watching and I'll see you soon. Take care.