Rainy day at Donegal Castle

We've been lucky with the weather so far this Ireland trip, but after yesterday we're guessing things are back to normal for the rest of the trip. That's okay... we have raincoats and umbrellas!

Oh, yesterday evening I posted our June expenses... you can read them here if you missed the post... https://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2023/06/june-expenses-higher-than-budget.html

June Expenses - higher than budget!

We spent the entire month of June touring Ireland in our motorhome, other than the five days we were housesitting north of Dublin.

At the end of May, we told you that our budget for the month of June was a paltry $1,490 CAD (€1,032, $1,125 USD). 

While the budget was ambitious, it actually would have been under that if not for four different unexpected large expenses!

Not exactly what we had planned!

We got up and drove right away at 6:30am Thursday morning, and when I fired up Max a warning light came on that said the pressure was low in the left front tire.

I thought "that's odd", because I had only checked and topped up the pressure in all tires two days before. 

Trying to figure a plan!

Well, it looks like we're definitely going to have a visitor in August. We haven't booked it yet, but we think we've devised a plan to have grandson Cameron (12) come and tour some of Europe with his grandma and grandpa.

Most of the logistical problems relate to the fact that they live near Halifax, Nova Scotia and there aren't many direct flights from Halifax to anywhere across the pond. He can only fly direct to either London, or Frankfurt.

I think we must be approaching a record number of beautiful, free overnight spots!

Regular readers know that we don't use campgrounds very often, especially when they are as expensive as they are here in Ireland. Max is self sufficient, and we don't have the need for all the services a campground offers. 

Plus, Ireland offers so many gorgeous free overnight possibilities!

There are three defibrillators along the route...

Not much in the way of sunshine yesterday, but we still got out for another big uphill climb without getting too wet!

When we had climbed Diamond Hill the day before, we had been talking to a local lady who said we should also climb Clough Patrick... Ireland's Holy Mountain. Nora, whose driveway we stayed in had also mentioned this hike to us so we thought we had better include it too providing the weather was good.

We had a busy day, with photos to prove it...

Lots of photos!

Our first stop was the town of Clifden, but the parking situation on a Sunday morning wasn't the best for motorhomes. We ended up doing a little grocery shopping at the local Lidl, and moving on to Clifden Castle and not really seeing the town at all. 

But, we would rather spend our time walking around the countryside than walking around a town anyhow.

On our way to Clifden, but we never made it

Clifden is supposed to be a picturesque little tourist town surrounded by breathtaking scenery. Sounds great, so we were on our way there but we got sidetracked... by the breathtaking scenery along the way!

Partly our fault though because we didn't get on the road until around 11:00am.

Friday evening out at the pub

It kind of drizzled on and off all day, and we didn't leave the motorhome until about 8:00pm in the evening!

But, we were due for a relaxing day of doing nothing... and there's nothing wrong with that every now and again. I got caught up on some internet stuff, and got our ferry to Wales booked.

A beautiful day in Galway, and now doing some driveway camping!

It was a gorgeous sunny day yesterday here in western Ireland! 

Wednesday night, we had been parked a few miles east of the city of Galway. I found us a good free parking spot just north of the city, but it would mean a 3.5 km walk just to get to the central area. But with hardly a cloud in the sky, we decided that was our best option.