Wednesday, 19 December 2007

2007 - Travels with Big Bertha


Big Bertha arrived in January and with deja-vu sat on the drive-way until March, when we were at last able to go to Canterbury and try everything out. At least the weather was good to us this time and we even had visitors for Sunday afternoon tea at the picnic table out in the sun.

By April we had organized our first trip 'overseas' - we were to join a Club Rally in Ireland, another first as we had never rallied before. On the 18th April we left home to drive to Fishguard in Wales ,some 320 miles away. We decided to break our journey at Newport and as we had some time to spare spent 3 days there. It was a lovely site in the grounds of Tredegar House and we had the run of the park without any public once the gates were shut in the evening.


We left Newport and drove to Fishguard where we joined the queue for the 14.00 ferry behind a motorhome towing a little car behind it. We did not realise at this stage that we were both bound for the same rally site in Ireland! We were surprised at how easy it was to drive on to the ferry, find our seats in the Lounge, eat our lunch, drink coffee and doze our way across the Irish Sea. We arrived at Rosslare around 18.00 in grey drizzle and set about following the map to the nearest campsite at St Margaret's Beach....only to find that Irish maps bear no relation to the actual drive! After much difficulty and 30 minutes later (should have been 10mins according to the directions) we found the campsite along with two other motorhomes that had been on the ferry with us. We had all taken a different route! The office was closed, it was raining...we wondered what to do next, when a fellow appeared from nowhere, said '17 euros each please and park where you like'. We found a hardstanding in the swirling mist rather like the moors from the Hound of the Baskervilles, and set about putting Big Bertha up. After about 10 minutes another fellow arrived with a tray of coffees and biscuits, saying he was from the caravan next door and had been there 2 weeks. Once we were sorted we took the tray back and sat chatting for about 1 hour - they were so helpful and gave us lots of tips about Irish roads, driving and all the best campsites. We went back to Big Bertha in the pouring rain, put the heating on and had an early night.......we had arrived in Ireland.....what a welcome!

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