Longest drive yet!!

We woke up today and felt a little weary. We could have both slept a lot longer, but we had some serious driving to do today. As we rubbed our eyes and stretched for the start of the day we took a look out our windows and were surprised to see that during the night someone had driven in and set up a tent beside us. I heard none of this during the night, which leads me to think that the person in the tent must have been a very accomplished tent-setterupper, as he (or she) would have had to have done this after midnight (I know this as I was still awake at midnight, I am a real detective!) in the pitch black and cold and did so without waking us. I on the other hand, if faced with this challenge, would have woken all of the community with my unlady like words and then my wails of desperation as I gave up on setting the damn thing up and instead wrapped myself in it for the night.

Our plan today was to stop in at Galway; we’d heard good things about this town and thought that by getting up early, skipping brekki (the plan was to get some in the city) we’d have ample time to check this place out before moving on. What a terrible idea that had been! The traffic trying to get into this silly town was banked up further than the eye could see and negotiating round abouts was sheer hell. There was practically no movement on the round abouts and when it did move at snails pace so many people would “beep” you (or do rude signs) that my nerves were shot and we had to pull over for a little break! We gave up on the thought of Galway, and I’m glad we did in the end. As we pulled over for some petrol Chris got chatting to the attendant who said that it had taken his girlfriend over an hour to get to Galway, and they were only a 10 minute drive from there! We later found out that there was a boat festival on for the long weekend, hence so many people. For us to go in would have been hell, really! Finding a park for our van (but first finding a car park!) finding the city centre, negotiating all those people, it would have been too much, we were glad to move on in the end.

We drove for some time, along the back roads once more, missing a few turns here and there, but no matter, it was a lovely day and everyone we met and spoke to seemed to be in high spirits. We looked at the map and realized that there was a ferry that could take us across the river Shannon, which, if we drove around, would take us about 3 hours, we decided to take this cheat and found ourselves relaxing in the sunshine as the ferry chuffed us along the Shannon River, it was bliss!

We’ve decided that while on the road we will camp one night by the road, next night at a camp site so that we can shower/wash clothes etc, and tonight was a campsite night, so, picking a destination on the map that showed the camp signs, we head off with high hopes. We drove and drove and drove… and where there was meant to be a camp site was… nothing. We hadn’t passed the dang site; we doubled back and checked, there was just nothing. By now, after 8 hours of straight driving, was more than a little irritating, so we decided to move on to Tralee, where we were sure we’d find a camp site or two. And we did, though they were all full. Moods were becoming highly irritable. We decided to try one last site and while they were COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY PACKED TO THE TILT they took us in. Ahhhh, a shower was beckoning! For 1.50 Euro you get 6 mins worth of water… I haven’t taken this yet, I’m waiting for the right time, I can’t waste it. I shall do it just before bed, when hopefully all the screaming toddlers, obnoxious children and sullen teenagers are out of my way, when all the parents who are too red from the sun and too loud from the drink they have consumed have retired for the night, when there is peace and quiet, then I will take my 6 min shower and relax!

written by

Chris and Emily on May 30, 2009 from Castlegregory, Ireland

from the travel blog: Europe 2009

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