May The Road Rise Up To Meet You!
O
ur Editor Kirsty Johnston and her husband headed off on a motorhome
adventure with Glamper UK...
My childhood memories are filled with weekends spent camping across Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and Europe. My dad was a motorbike racer, so we usually spent the weekends camped out in a field in the back end of nowhere… but looking back, they were some of the best times of my life. Everything was more carefree, we didn’t care that there was no TV and the gameboys were abandoned the moment we parked up. Pitching the tent was all part of the fun, picking the best spot - dad always tried to find ‘higher ground’ so we didn’t get washed out if it rained, and mum always unpacked the flask of tea and peanut butter and cheese sandwiches first…. which by the way, is the best sandwich/ toast/cracker topping combo ever! My dad gave up racing when I
was about 16, and we never took much interest in camping after that. Holidays to the Canary Islands were a new thing to us… and we enjoyed visiting the islands year after year. It’s been almost 16 years since I’ve been camping and to be honest, I’ve gotten used to the more luxurious side of travel, so when I was invited to take one of Glamper UK’s motorhomes for the weekend, I really wasn’t so sure if it would be for me. Oh, how wrong I was!
Glamper UK are a leading
provider of luxury motorhome rental throughout Ireland and we were kindly invited to take the Imala 615 Autotrail Luxury motorhome for the weekend. Glamper have a great selection of
luxury class motorhomes on offer at their Northern Ireland depot. They are a family run business who pride themselves on going the extra mile - no pun intended - and there are no hidden costs. Everything you need for your motorhome adventure is included in the price including all the essential extras which some other firms would charge for. Glamper want you and your family to enjoy your trip with minimum stress and maximum relaxation. We picked up our luxury hotel room on wheels from the Glamper base in Ballymena. The tank was full,
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a goodie bag of essentials (including toilet roll and coffee) was already onboard, and we got the full run down of how to operate this impressive piece of kit.
It is fully equipped with a
shower room - containing a full sized enclosed shower, toilet (with removable cassette for disposing of waste) and sink. A large water storage tank onboard carries enough water to do you about three days (in my personal estimation).
Disposal of the waste materials and refilling of the water tanks is super easy to do. Simply open up the cap at the side (like you would do to put in petrol) and pop the hose into the hole, then wait until it fills. The water will spurt out a little when it gets full. To empty the grey (waste) water, just reverse into a drainage bay and open the tap underneath the motorhome - it looks just like a garden tap. The cassette (for the toilet waste) pulls out from a locker at the side - simply unscrew the cap and empty it down the sluice, then use the tap at the sluice to rinse out the cassette a couple of times. Glamper provide handy sachets to pop into the cassette when you are finished rinsing out, meaning there’s no
smells and no messy blue liquid! Most campsites offer grey waste and
sluice facilities and if you are interested in trying ‘wild camping’ I would recommend that you spend one night every day or so at a campsite, just so you can sluice out and refill your water supply.
With new found confidence, we set
off for the north coast. First up for us was a stop
at Glenarm Castle and Walled Gardens. The Walled Gardens at Glenarm are one of Ireland’s oldest walled gardens. With its own special place in history, Glenarm Castle is a true national treasure, and has thankfully reopened its Walled Garden to visitors after being closed during Northern Ireland’s
first Covid lockdown. We were lucky enough to get a glorious pocket of sunshine for our self-guided tour. Face coverings were not required in the Walled Gardens (only inside the gift shop and cafe), however visitors are asked to maintain social distancing throughout the Gardens. Glenarm Castle is the home of the
Viscount and Viscountess Dunluce and their family. The present castle has been in the McDonnell family since it was first built in 1636. The McDonnells have been in Glenarm for nearly 600 years and the Estate has been in the family for 400 years. Before taking up full time residence at Glenarm, the family lived most notably at Dunluce Castle. The charming Tea Room at Glenarm is located in the old Mushroom House and is open daily. I enjoyed a relaxing cup of coffee while my husband tucked into a bowl of hot soup after our walk. The Byre Shop is also worth visiting for some unique gifts and crafts. We picked up a print of one of the Countess of Antrim’s famed illustrations. You can also purchase the full Antrim McDonnells book, reproduced in full colour and imaginatively illustrated by Angela, Countess of Antrim. The book tells the story of the McDonnell family from their beginnings in the Scottish Highlands and Islands and subsequently of the rise to the illustrious and warrior-like Sorely Boy in the 16th Century. The rain clouds returned as we left
Glenarm and headed to Portrush where we would spend our first evening in the motorhome ‘wild camping’. The brilliant thing about a motorhome is that you can stop for a cup of tea and a snooze pretty much anywhere… including the side of the road! We stopped off at a picnic area for a cup of tea enroute to Portrush. The luxury motorhome is equipped with everything you need for camping on and off the grid. Off grid camping, or wild camping as it’s known, is when you are reliant on the motorhome’s facilities, and since the Autotrail has everything you need, from solar powered fridge-freezer, onboard toilet and shower to gas cooker, hob and solar powered TV, we settled in for a cozy night with a cool beer.
The bed is located above the cab of the motorhome and you use a ladder to get up to it. Very nostalgic - my husband and I reminisced about the days we both had bunk beds! The bed was super comfortable and we had no problem sleeping. There is a special bit of material attached to the underside of the mattress that you pull up and clip into place to prevent you falling down - you’ll be nice and secure. There is also a little side light that you can turn on and off up in the bed if you want to read for a while or need some light for a widdle
in the middle of the night. The first stop on day two of our adventure was Portstewart. It was a bit rainy, but we seemed to hit dry patches everywhere we stopped - the luck of the motorhome was with us! Portstewart is an upmarket tourist
haven with a spectacular beach, a gorgeous harbour, great restaurants and lovely cafes. It’s a great spot to sit and watch the world go by with and ice cream or a doughnut… and a call for ice cream was first on the agenda! Some might call us mad for having an ice cream on a chilly day, but honestly, can you even say you have been to Portstwewart if you didn’t get an ice cream and walk along the promenade? We popped into Roughan’s Gelato for a vegan scoop. And of course, we couldn’t walk by Guilt Trip Coffee without picking up a doughnut, or two! I picked a vodka, cranberry and lime one - sweet, sticky, gooey and delicious!
Then it was off for a drive down the coast towards Bushmills. Bushmills was named, in the 17th Century, after the River Bush, a revered river that starts in the Antrim Hills and flows into the Atlantic Ocean at Portballintrae, and a mill that was powered by the river.
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