The Wigg Visits Ireland
Some Say that His Eyelids Close Sideways and That His Blood is Green...I Don't Know, But They Call Him 'The Wigg'
Irreverent Ramblings From a Photographer Who Lives In His Dethleffs. (Actually he takes fabulous photos, but he can get quite grumpy from time to time......and he is great fun and very witty!) (The opinions offered here are purely those of the author and not necessarily of the Dethleffs Owners Club)
Summer 2009
I am starting to write this stuck in a queue on the M5 at the Glastonbury turn. Yes it’s the concert weekend; I am not going, for someone who considers Wogan a bit racy, it’s not my scene.
Summer seems to be on us with a vengeance. The sun is shining, shirtless youths are peeing in the hedgerows, and the campervans are out. I have waved at at least two today both Dethleffs, a very smart blue one, and a very old one. Since my last communication I have done a trip to Ireland. We, (the good lady decided to accompany me) had our ferry crossing booked from Fishguard through the Caravan Club, by far and away the best way to book. We had looked at buying online, but in the end contacted them and they saved us the best part of £200 on the fare, and were able to get the right time we wanted to cross, so we found ourselves at Fishguard at 9.30am for an 11 o’clock crossing. We parked up and waited. After about twenty minutes a nice young lad, aged about ten, asked us if we had been weighed? How rude,. he sent us off to a weighbridge, where we weighed in at 3400kg. I didn’t know that 1000kg is about a ton, so we were 31/2 tons. On our arrival back in the queue our 10year old told us we were to heavy for the fast Cat crossing, the limit being 3000kg, news to us. I like any resourceful husband, did the only decent thing and made the wife and her luggage stand out side (in the rain) but we were still over the limit. It would seem the Speedferryies had not informed the Caravan Club that there was a weight restriction on that crossing so we were put on a normal ferry that was due to sail at 4pm. Now I am sure if you live in Fishguard you love it, but I must say we struggled to occupy our time from 10am until 4pm, in the rain, in a car park at the port.
The crossing was fine. We were due to park up some 30miles inland. For those of you who don’t know I photograph holiday cottages, so I am often able to park up outside the cottages. The little cottage was up a track and the turning was trickey. Now whatever you do in Ireland never drop your front wheels off the tarmac. I did and went straight into a bog, with not a soul within miles, what to do. I had brought a set of the mats that you use when the grass is wet to stop you skidding, they did the trick, it was a struggle but we got out.
All in all we liked Ireland, not as pretty as we had expected, but we were restricted to the man roads, I still don’t think you can improve on England, Wales, Scotland and of course Cornwall. Before we went we were given all sorts of horror stories, the roads are dreadful, and the road signs are non existent. Rubbish, we found the roads really good, the driving was a pleasure, and the Irish drivers were so polite and easy going, there is not the rush over there to get to the front of the queue, and as a result there are no queues. They have a really good idea we could employ in this country. The main roads are excellent, smooth and wide, however when you get to a town, they are dreadful, all the towns have been dug up for years and the roads patched, no new resurfacing, its only after a few days you realise there is no spending in towns, the roads are so bad you dare not go faster than 20 and if you do you will shake yourself and your car to bits. What a cost effective way of traffic calming.
The whole exercise was successful and lucky for me the weather was good. Our return to “Blighty” was via Dublin to Holyhead. We got to the port early again, no trouble with weight this time. With a few hours to burn settled down to a good lunch (in the van of course) and a DVD. The ever present German coach party pulled up alongside and as expected peered through the windows at us. We were watching Band of Brothers....ups.