The day started like all good days do, with a Whiskey tasting at Bushmills Distillery, the oldest in the world.  It seemed rude not to buy a couple of bottles and some Bushmills related souvenirs

We then headed of to a National trust beach for lunch.  Seemed a great idea to drive our enormous camper van onto the beach with all the other cars, right up until we got stuck and needed to be pushed by a bunch of locals to escape.  Lunch was pleasant, although windy, but more importantly it was lovely for the kids to play in the water.  I never knew that Ireland had amazing beaches, but they do; excellent sand but the water is still very cold

After being pushed of the beach we headed to the next site; but it was a bit of a challenge getting there, as every road we tried to go down ended up in a diversion. 4 Hours later we’re in the campsite just on the UK / Ireland boarder, over looking an amazing lake. I took the kids down for a walk and we met a nice couple fishing which the kids really found interesting, particularly when the lady caught something.

We went to dark hedges it had a fairy trail at the beginning that was nice. But when we got to the real bit I took in a feeling like it was a mysterious trap. I felt spooked having that feeling. Partly avoiding wasps nests. Knowing I’d be safe we had a picture taken even though it was creepy.

After we went to a rope bridge not knowing that we had to have a 2 hour wait! Finally we managed to get on the rope bridge we saw gulls diving. On the way back I did star jumps on the bridge mummy went all giddy and didn’t like it.

A weeny bit later we went to the giants causeway, it was giant size amazing! I kept on running and jumping, I found it really FUN and tiring.

Then we went back to the campsite with the enormous play area.

Rebecca 😁

It is very odd waking up in your campervan parked on the street outside a mates house. Still considering the amount of alcohol that was consumed, mostly by Li, it was a cunning idea all the same

Headache in place, we shared breakfast with Nicola, said our goodbyes and then headed north, Belfast bound. The Actons has told us of a Titanic Experience that was worth a visit, so as it was on route it seemed a shame not to stop off

Hours and hours of driving! Eventually we arrived, managed to avoid all the low barriers to get in the car park by finding what appeared to be a piece of wasteland to park on. The experience itself was quite good, loads of history about how the Titanic was built and kitted out, plus a ride to take you around the shipyard as it would have been back then. We also boarded the only remaining White Star Line ship in a dry dock next door. Souvenirs were purchased including a t-shirt for William and a hoodie for Rebecca, and we left after 2-3 hours. Worth the effort if you’re in Belfast but I wouldn’t go out of the way to see it

Continuing our journey up into Northern Ireland we were greeted with more flags on every street, house and lamppost than you can ever imagine. Our site for the next 2 days ended up being the best of the whole trip, Ballyness, in Bushmills. Lovely site with the best play area that you can hope for. Rebecca and William immediately made friends and we’re out until 9:30 playing. Lovely stuff!

After a late night catching up with Simon and kids were up late too, we packed up to head off to Powerscourt.

Met up with Nicola and Danny at Powerscourt and we had a lovely walk around the gardens and the kids played nicely together. Unfortunately whilst taking a lovely photo by a tree of the kids, they disturbed a wasp nest on the ground and poor Rebecca got stung twice. Thankfully she didn’t have an allergic reaction.

Headed on to the new distillery opened at Powerscourt and Tony managed a couple of minute tastings and came out with a bottle of his first Irish Whisky of the tour.

Headed back to the Acton’s household for BBQ dinner albeit Simon was cooking in the rain, had a lovely meal and a very late night drinking. We decided to camp out in the camper van outside their house which was weird.

We woke up in the Starbucks car park.daddy went to get food because I was very very hungry. Then I got out of my pyjamas

We had to get on the move, to catch the ferry. On the ferry we got breakfast it was very yummy. William and I went to the cinema to watch a movie, which was “how to train your dragon the hidden world”, we thought it was good then after we got off the ferry.

Once we got out of the ferry we were in DUBLIN, now we were in Ireland!

We drove to the camp site, there was a play area at the site, then we went into town. William and I took our scooters into town. Uncle Simon and his family showed up after we got back. Charlotte and Uncle Simon stayed in their tent next to us.

Rebecca 😀

We went to get the camper van, I thought it was really boring and then daddy struggled to drive it home. I was so excited to see what it looked like on the inside and outside although I didn’t like the big sign on the side of the camper van which said camper rent.

We drove off, I felt as if I was going to live in an advert for two weeks! We went on and on and on until we got to Wales but it still went on and on. Daddy said we were going to stay in a special place which other people may call a Starbucks car park. I was very tired by then.

Rebecca 😀