PART ONE OF JOHN BALKWILL’S T
Irish wild rover Vasco’s tour of Ireland wasn’t all spent on whiskey &beer
Words and pictures by John Balkwill
I
often tell admirers of my car how much she has changed my life – the number of new friends I have made through owning her, and the places she has taken me to that I could never have
envisaged.
Following on from my extremely enjoyable and adventurous tour around the UK last year, which you may remember reading in previous GROWLER magazines, I decided this year to further my travels and in April set off from my home in Cornwall to drive right round the whole coast of Ireland in an anticlockwise direction.
staggering about and bouncing from bulkhead to bulkhead as they made their way to and from the (so called) duty free shop!
On our arrival at Rosslare, we were given
a foretaste of what we would encounter for the first week of our tour – heavy rain and lashing winds. The sky’s were heavily overcast and visibility so poor on the way to the first B+B at Carnew near Gorey, that it was impossible to see if we were passing any spectacular scenery, hence no photographs of the first part of the journey.
My first impressions of
Ferry nice: Queuing at Fishguard for a rough crossing to Rosslare
At first light, we (my car and I) set off from home and managed to reach Fishguard well in time for that afternoon’s ferry. I enjoyed the three and a half hour
crossing as it was quite rough, so having spent most of my life in the Merchant Navy, it was good to feel the sea under my feet again! It was amusing to see some of the other passengers without sealegs,
6 GROWLER SEPTEMBER 2016
the roads were rather disappointing. I was really surprised how badly pot holed the roads were, and as we rumbled our way on this first part of the route to
the north, and I became quite concerned whether the shock absorbers would last the complete circumnavigation! Fortunately, in other parts of Ireland, the roads did improve, and were silk like to drive on! Like most of the B+Bs in which I stayed, the first at Carnew was excellent. I was given a genuine warm welcome, my car was much admired, and after a comfortable night apart from one occasion (later), I
Towering beauty: The tower of Glendalough
➥
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66
