Off to another country today … Ireland; I’m really excited. Another ferry ride and the start of a mini adventure within our adventure. We started the day with cereal in the hostel and raced out the door to catch the Stena Line fast ferry from Holyhead Port to the Port of Dublin. We had a 8.20 boat and needed to be there an hour early.  We arrived in plenty of time since...

The forecast for today was grim with gale force winds and rain ahead.  Best thing was … we weren’t in a tent!  Around the Anglesey YHA is a campground so there were many people that would have to suffer the day in a tent.  We had to sort out a booking error first thing because for some reason we were being charged for breakfast when I hadn’t booked breakfast.  We always...

We left Snowdonia in the morning with our final destination to be Holyhead on the island of Anglesey.  We had two nights booked at the Holyhead YHA so we could catch the ferry to Dublin, Ireland on Thursday.  On our drive we popped in at the Inigo Jones Slate showroom to look at slate.  I have included a number of photos of the slate floor tiles and stepping stones. If...

We left the Llwyn-y-Celwyn YHA in the Brecon Beacons National Park and headed into the town of Brecon.  I was keen to finally send another parcel home with all the Christmas decorations I had collected whilst in Europe.  I headed into the local post office which was part of a supermarket and waited in line.  I couldn’t try out the parcel packs etc since they were all behind...

We all had a good night’s sleep in our lovely upstairs bedroom with ensuite. We had thought that given the weather forecast we would be spending the day inside and trying to find indoor activities for everyone, but we were pleasantly surprised when we woke to find a fine day and in fact the rain really didn’t bother us much at all when it did fall during the day.  There is...

We woke up and got ourselves organised and out the door for our short drive to the Brecon Beacons National Park.  With this hire car agreement we paid for the additional driver. Just out of the city Steve pulled over so I could drive!  Aaah.  In the last 6 months I have only driven twice, both right hand drive cars; one drive for about 10 kms and the other about 1 km if...

I was woken by a little voice calling ‘Patrick, Patrick’.  It was Bradley loudly whispering to wake Patrick. Harris was up and gone at 6.30 am to wake up Charlie in their tent and when Bradley woke and realised the big boys were already playing, he needed to wake Patrick quickly!  The four boys headed off to their ‘den’ in the forest within the campsite.  Harris informed me...

The main reason we found ourselves in The New Forest National Park was so that we were close to Southampton to meet Pat and Roy, a couple we met in Cambodia who live in Lymington.  Roy works for a company called My Boatshare (www.myboatshare.com) that sells vacation weeks on sailing charter boats.  He had said if we get to Southampton we would be able to go out with them...

Next day was fine and sunny so we hopped in the car and headed to the first beach we could find which was Avon Beach.

It was a mix of sand and rocks and full of English vacationers.  I sat on the beach and read the book I’d been given by Debbie in Paris; Harris hired a kayak for ½ hour and bobbed around; Patrick enjoyed some rock hopping but managed to hurt himself 3...

Out of Newhaven and off to Croydon we went. The tv news reported there were road closures and problems so we thought it better to be out the door as early as possible.  We needn’t have worried because we made it to Croydon without any major issues and we had time to fill in.  Sadly we returned our Renault Scenic hire car to the depot and gained a Holden Zafira.  Whilst the...