Ireland's Hidden Waterfall

Just west of the town of Killybegs is Ireland's Secret Waterfall... or sometimes called Ireland's Hidden Waterfall. I just happened to notice it while I was searching Google Maps for things to do in the area.

Pretty easy to see why it has the name that it does. First, there's limited parking in the area. There's a roadside viewpoint that many cars stop at, but most people don't know to go for a short walk. There are no signs advertising this natural attraction. And, most importantly, it can only be accessed right at low tide.

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.

Travel planning and the weather

As full time travelers, we do a lot of our planning around the weather. The ideal for us is to have shorts and t-shirt type of weather with daily high temperatures between 18C and 25C (64F to 77F).

The problem for us is that we also want to visit countries that are outside of those parameters! So we sometimes have to bite the bullet and put up with temperatures or weather conditions that are less than ideal.

Cliffs of Moher, part 2

Up and on the road early again, and we drove right away into the touristy town of Doolin. Every second building is a bed and breakfast or hotel or guesthouse. 

Doolin is the starting point if you want to walk to the Cliffs of Moher from the north heading south. It's also where the ferries set off from if you want to visit the Aran Islands.

The Cliffs of Moher. Worth a visit, however...

There's a beautiful walking trail at the Cliffs of Moher, but the challenge is finding free parking at what has become a very popular and touristy natural attraction.

But we are resourceful, and we don't mind walking!

From one graveyard to the next

Sunday morning, we hung around the graveyard for a while. It was such a nice peaceful spot. A local farmer walked by with his dog and was tending to a herd of cows across the road. Ruth went out and spoke to him, and he apologized if his cows bothered us in the night!

Really nice guy, and we had a good chat with him. Everybody we meet here in Ireland is so cheerful.

We met Max two years ago today!

We were reminded this morning that today is our second anniversary with Max. He has been a great travel companion, so I thought we should show some of our highlights with Max over the past two years.

We picked him up in Dulmen, Germany on June 18, 2021 right in the middle of the Covid pandemic. 

Boy, did we ever get dumped on!

Well, we managed to do 90 kms (54 miles) worth of driving yesterday, but it still feels like we didn't get very far. 

We started off heading to the beach town of Ballybunion where there are some colorful cliffs and sea caves that we wanted to see. We didn't check the tide schedule beforehand, and simply got lucky... the tide was all the way out!

I figured I had better go get this looked at

Long time readers will remember when we had our eye surgery in Turkiye. Time flies, because believe it or not that was two and a half years ago!

And for that period, we have been totally happy with our eyes. Well, until a few weeks ago I noticed that one eye was a bit funny. 

Gorgeous scenery

We figured we had better get a move on if we're going to make it around Ireland and back to Dublin by the middle of next month. We've already decided that our onward travels on this particular trip won't include Scotland. It would just be too rushed for us.

Instead, we're going to make our way back to Dublin by mid July and take the ferry from there to Holyhead, Wales. 

The most westerly point in Ireland

We woke up yesterday morning to heavy fog. It's kind of pointless doing a scenic coastal drive under those conditions, so we did the short drive into the town of Dingle and parked at the local Lidl grocery store and waited for the 8:00am opening.

We did some grocery shopping (once again, cheaper than we expected it to be) and sat out the fog until we noticed it starting to burn off around 10:00am.

Made it to the Dingle Peninsula

I was looking at some of our website statistics the other day, and noticed that 35% of our readers use a mobile phone to access Travel with Kevin and Ruth. That's higher than I thought it would be. Given that, I thought I would pass along a little tip.

When you visit us on a desktop or laptop, you see the full version with the nice header picture. But when you visit us on a smartphone, you will typically see the abbreviated "mobile" version.

Tough hike to the highest point in Ireland!

We got up at 6:30am and drove the narrow single lane road up to the parking area for the hike up Carrauntoohil... the highest mountain in Ireland.

We had our breakfast at the parking area, then packed our backpacks and set off at about 8:20am. We had read that the 12 km (7.5 mile) hike would take between six to eight hours.

We're going to get an early start and go for it!

We got up at 6:30am Sunday morning, and the first thing we did was to drive the short distance to the parking area at the Gap of Dunloe. It's a popular spot, and we wanted to make sure we had somewhere to park Max, especially on a Sunday when it would likely be busy.

And the plan came together just like that. We got a good parking spot for Max, and yes it did become busy!

Hiking up Torc Mountain, Ireland

When we were in the parking lot for Torc Waterfall the other day, I had seen a trail leading up Torc Mountain. We didn't have time to do it then, but decided to return yesterday to do the hike.

Weather conditions weren't great... but we needed some exercise! The temperature was pleasant, but there was some wind and it was overcast, although there was no rain to speak of in the forecast.

The trails are absolutely beautiful

First stop of the day was to head up to the parking lot for Torc Waterfall. From there, several trails lead in various directions. Most of them seemed pretty quiet, but there were quite a few people on the short waterfall trail. 

You can stay overnight at the waterfall parking lot, but there is no cellular access.

The Rock of Cashel, and on to Killarney National Park

One of our facebook fans mentioned yesterday that it's hard to absorb the ages of some of these ancient buildings. Being from Canada, where an old building might be 200 years, we are always amazed when we are in structures that are maybe 800 years old. It's truly hard to comprehend. After all, we were taught in school that history began when Christopher Columbus "discovered" America in 1492!

I remember the first time this really sunk in. We were in a big church in Czechia that was built around the year 1100. I mean, we had been in old buildings in England quite a few times before, but this was when I really started thinking about it.

Glad we made a stop at Cashel, Ireland!

We headed out at exactly 10:00am. First stop was at a Tesco Extra grocery store where we did a bunch of shopping, then arrived at the checkout to find they didn't want our business.

Tesco has a "Club Card" where you get fairly big discounts on some products. The card is free, so just about anybody shopping there would have one. You'd be crazy not to. 

Insider tour of an Irish dairy farm

Our break here at the house sitting is now over, and we're ready to hit the road again this morning. We're going to head fairly quickly down to the southern part of the west coast, and pretty much resume where we left off... back on the Wild Atlantic Way.

Our first plan when we get there is to go to Killarney National Park and do some hiking. 

Ireland is very tidy!

Well, our time here at the house sit is going by quickly. One more night, and we're back on the road!

Max is all cleaned up. We just have to put everything back in its place, make the bed, and he's ready to go. Our hosts will be back here this afternoon sometime, and Ruth is making dinner for everyone this evening. 

Living like normal people

While we love living and traveling in Max, house sitting and looking after someone's dog or cat gives us the opportunity to live like normal people, with access to normal shower and a washing machine. And given the price of doing laundry here in Ireland, we had kind of saved up in the dirty clothes department. 

It also gives us a chance to do a deep clean on Max. While Ruth spent a good chunk of the day doing laundry, I emptied out Max's storage area and vacuumed and wiped it out. Then with access to a ladder and a supply of water, I got up on the roof and gave it a good scrub.

On our own with Juno the dog

We had a late night, so the family all straggled down for breakfast at various times. A hairdresser showed up and did the ladies hair because of course they were all off to a wedding. So, a busy morning around here.

And, another beautiful blue sky day!

Arrived at our house sitting and met Juno the dog

The morning started off cloudy and overcast, and a little cool. But by lunchtime the sunshine arrived and it became another beautiful day here in Ireland.

We drove about twenty minutes to arrive at our house sit out in the countryside. We're only about 30 kms (18 miles) north of the center of Dublin as the crow flies, and yet we're totally out in the country.

Exciting news!

Regular readers will remember this past January when we headed to the rarely visited country of Mauritania and rode the iron ore train through the Sahara Desert.

Well back in March, we signed up for another crazy trip to another rarely visited country. Received word this morning that it's definitely a go, and provided we're approved for the visa and permits (which looks likely) then we are off to Turkmenistan in October!

Portrane Cliff Walk

We did a long drive of about 14 kms (8 miles) yesterday! Just for a change of scenery, really. Although, I had read of a cliff walk path that looked interesting.

Yet another gorgeous day. All of these beautiful days are starting to make weather news here in Ireland because it's rare to have such a stretch of them. And they are expected to continue for at least another week.

May Expense report... just under budget. Sort of.

We had a budget of $2,650 CAD for the month of May, and we spent $2,455 CAD ($1,808 USD, €1,700). 

Pretty happy with that, considering we started the month in Spain, we brought Max on a 28 hour boat ride, we toured the entire south coast of Ireland, then drove all the way across the country and spent a couple of days touring Dublin. I'd say we did really well!

Have a look at our plan for June...

Wow, today is the last day of May. We arrived in Ireland May 8th, so we've already been here for three weeks. 

Our original thinking was that two months in Ireland would be enough, but now we're not so sure!

It sounds kind of morbid, but we wanted to see the bog mummies.

Yet another nice day here in Ireland. A little cooler, but still with mostly sunny skies. High of 17C (63F).

First off, we had to do a little grocery shopping. We walked about 1 km over to a Tesco grocery store, and picked up what we needed. As we left the store, Ruth reminded me to check the receipt to make sure everything was the way it should be.

It was not.

A busy day exploring Dublin, Ireland!

We like to walk cities because you see so much more. And walk we did! From where Max is parked to Dublin Castle in the central area is almost 4 kms, then another 3 kms past that is the old Kilmainham Gaol (Jail) Museum. Plus all of the wandering around. Then 7 kms back to Max. So we did at least 16 kms (10 miles) in total.

So many tourists and immigrants in the central area though. It kind of reminded me of Prague, where it's rare to meet an actual Czech person!

Into the big city of Dublin

We had another delicious breakfast in the hotel, then packed our things in Max and said our goodbyes to the rest of the wedding party and guests. 

Then we did the short drive over to historic Castletown House. Again, we made use of our English Heritage Pass to take advantage of the guided tour of the house itself.

We've been so lucky here in Ireland!

One of the benefits of staying in this fancy hotel is that we get a full breakfast included. And I mean full... it's done buffet style, but there is a large selection of items. We had stayed up fairly late the night before, so we slept in a bit and went for breakfast about 9:30am.

And we ate so much for breakfast that we didn't need any lunch!

A wedding story...

We got up and drove again Thursday morning... about two hours on the motorway to the outskirts of Dublin to a town called Leixlip.

We're staying at the Leixlip Manor Hotel. A fancy place! Not the type of accommodation we would normally stay at, but we're here for a wedding. Let me tell you the story of how this came to be...

Cahir Castle and the Swiss Cottage

We got into Cahir early, well before any of the shops were open, and we found a perfect parking spot right in town beside the river. 

We're finding that because most motorhomes end up on the coast, there are very few inland. Actually, it makes us want to rethink some of our routing because although the coast is beautiful, there is a lot to see inland as well. 

Italy by Train: Tips for an Unforgettable Trip!

Italy is a country rich in history, art, gastronomy, and breathtaking landscapes. One of the best ways to explore all that Italy has to offer is by traveling by train. With an extensive railway network, the country provides a convenient and captivating experience for travelers. Italy is located in southern Europe, with a peninsula extending into the Mediterranean Sea. It boasts an impressive diversity of landscapes, from the Alps mountains to the beautiful beaches of the Amalfi Coast. Italian art is also world-famous, with artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Botticelli leaving a lasting legacy. 

Heading towards Dublin

It's pretty slow going on the backroads of Ireland. But once you get on the motorway, you can cover ground quickly, and you soon realize that Ireland is actually a pretty small country.

So, we had to make our way to the motorway, and that meant going to the city of either Cork or Limerick. For no particular reason, we decided on Cork.

Our wedding wardrobes are coming together

Up and on the road at 6:30am again to beat the traffic. Not a long drive, just about 40 minutes from our peaceful overnight spot at the cemetery to the Westlodge Hotel Motorhome Park.

Campgrounds in Ireland are pricey enough... usually ranging anywhere from €20 to €40 a night. We would rarely have the need or desire to stay in a place like that. But there is the occasional dedicated motorhome parking area that is €10 ($15 CAD, $11 USD) a night and has a service area to empty your holding tanks and fill your fresh water tank. If we can't find a free place to do those chores, then this is the next best thing.

Fantastic hike out to Dunlough Castle, and two good deeds for the day...

We had been in the very touristy visitors center at Mizen Head on Friday and decided that we didn't want to spend the €7.50 each for the tourist experience out across the bridge. We knew there had to be a nice coastal walk in the area that didn't cost, and yet was a similar experience. And we were right!

Just as we were leaving the parking lot, we met a guy riding a bicycle and asked if we was from the area. Sure enough, he lived just 20 kms or so away. We told him what we were looking for, and he was quick to come up with "Oh, you have to go out to Dunlough Castle!"

Exploring British Columbia's Hidden Gems: A Traveler's Guide

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Mizen Head, the most southwestern point in Ireland

We were up and on the road early Saturday morning. Sunrise is now just after 5:30am, so we can easily start driving when we get up at 6:30am. The narrow Irish roads are much more enjoyable at that hour when there's not much traffic on them!

We were headed for Mizen Head, the most southwestern point in Ireland. 

We needed some wedding clothes!

It's just about time for us to head up towards Dublin. We are going to a wedding on May 25th in a town called Leixlip that is located just 20 kms or so west of the center of Dublin. We're going to stay in the nice hotel where the wedding is taking place for two nights, so it'll be like a little mini vacation for us!

Before we left Kilbrittain, we went for a nice trail walk through the woods into the village.

Another beautiful coastal hike

We sat by the sea and had our hot drinks and breakfast, then headed off on a hike to the Old Head of Kinsale lighthouse. 

Once again, a beautiful morning, but we could see some clouds rolling in and they were calling for the wind to pick up.