Despite further storms hitting Ireland we take a wild boat trip over to a magical island in West Cork.
We are Tom and Iz - a couple from Cornwall who decided to hit the road and embrace a new way of life, living and exploring in our tiny home on wheels, La Bamba. We invite you along with us on our adventures in our weekly vlogs. We love to embrace adventure and soak up nature every day! We're currently traveling around Ireland in our transit van along the Wild Atlantic Way. Ireland has really stolen our hearts; come along with us on this week's episode as we continue to explore wild West Cork. If you've missed our travels so far - check out our previous episodes, we upload weekly on a Sunday at 5pm :)
This week we wake up to a very stormy Bantry during the tail end of storm Eunice. We head to Skibereen to meet our friends Kate and Jake who travelled out to spend the week exploring with us. We head to where we are staying for the next few nights and we end up having a powercut on our first night, so we spend the night by the fire chatting.
Our first day of exploring takes us to Loch Hyne, a beautiful salt water lake, where we take on the Knockomagh Wood Nature Trail, and we enjoy the calm after the storm. We introduce you all to Kate and Jake and Jake treats us to some interesting facts about jakes favourite bird, the gannet! We continue our stroll around the lough and are just blown away by it's beauty! After a quick coffee break at our bnb we head off again to Toe Head. We indulge in a hot tub dip that evening and a warm cooked meal by Jake and Kate!
The next day we head out to Baltimore where we are due to catch a ferry to Cape Clear. Isabel and Kate are nervous when the captain tells us it is going to be extremely uncomfortable and rough! But we are only in Baltimore once and we wanted to go and see Cape Clear! We head right out into the choppy waters. It was a very rough crossing but quite exciting too! We all get completely soaked but the sun comes out on Cape Clear and we venture out to do a big looped walk around the island. We spot Fastnet rock, where a lighthouse lies that was built from Cornish granite slabs! It is the most southerly point of Ireland and lies 6.5km southwest of Cape Clear island.
We find little piglets, horses and ducks on the island and just soak up Cape Clear's calming nature. We meet someone who lives on the island and he tells us all about the annual storytelling festival on the island, we are determined to return for it someday! After a cider at the local shop, we take the return journey back to mainland and our crossing that afternoon was a lot calmer!
The next day ,we enjoy our last hot tub session before moving on to our next bnb for the rest of the week. On our way to our next place to stay we drive up to the summit of Mount Gabriel, and to our surprise La Bamba manages to drive all the way to the top! Now that saves the ol' mountain legs! We admire the views and feel exhilarated by the strong winds!
We arrive at our next house for the last bit of our week with Kate and Jake and we can't believe the drive to get there - right along the sea's edge! We discover a wood fired sauna and Jake treats us to a little tune on the guitar, then that evening Tom proceeds to thrash us all at Catan!
We wake to snow the next day and head to Mizen head, where unfortunately the visitor centre is closed but we can still take in the breath taking views of the raging sea below the cliffs! Unfortunately Three Castle Head is closed at the moment too for environmental reasons due to erosion due to high numbers of visitors. We were recommended to visit by lots of you lovely viewers so we must return when it's open another time! Our next stop is Barley cove where the floating walkway to get across the water is closed but we still get to appreciate a walk across the sand, despite the bitter icy weather! We feel we have earnt a cold pint in O'Sullivans pub in Crookhaven. That evening we enjoy the perks of having an oven and Isabel makes a hearty oven baked meal for us all.
Our final day with Kate and Jake has the best weather of the week so we head to Sheep's Head Peninsula to set out on the Glanlough Loop, a 15.4 km walk taking in the views of the Beara Peninsula from afar. Poor Kate ends up thigh deep in a big bog but we trek on and have a much awaited picnic. To our delight the pub at the carpark where we finish is open so we soothe our aching legs with a refreshing cider. We try out the bnb's wood fired sauna and natural cold water pool on our final night together, and sadly have to say goodbye the following day to Kate and Jake. We move back into the van and get back into the swing of living in a small space.
Thank you so much for watching and if you did enjoy this episode please consider liking the video and leaving a comment to say hi below! Hope to see you again next week where we continue our van travels along the Irish coast!
Iz and Tom x
12 мар 2022
