Day 1 – L’derry to Sligo

I’m not someone you’d describe as a morning person, but this morning I had to be, I was told we were leaving L’derry at 8am sharp, so up and ready I got, avoiding a cranky boyfriend. We got off to a successful start, on time, petrol filled car, tunes blasting. ‘It’s like dat’ by Mariah Carey came on, knowing lyrics to songs isn’t a strong point of mine to be honest, but my bf was disgusted when I started singing ‘I like nachos’. And of course I like nachos cause they are corn snacks, duh.

On this trip I’m chief navigator and I haven’t made any wrong turns as of yet as I’ve always got our map at the ready. One problem though is that the map is ridiculously big. It takes up the whole car if opened flat. We both had a big LOL at the matter.

We arrived at Glenveigh National Park (first of 5/6 we are visiting on our road trip) at 9am. We were the only people there. Obviously the rest of the world had a bit of sense and stayed in bed. It was raining, not too badly though, just a bit drizzly. We decided we would walk to the Castle and gardens which the map said was 4km away. It was definitely not, but I didn’t complain once so I reckon it earned me a few browny points. Half way through the walk I encountered my first wild pee of the trip. Like the pro cub scout I am, I made sure the direction of the blistering wind was in the right direction to blow my urine away from my ankles. If only I had my mum or dad to pick me up to pee like they did when I was younger..

On the way to the castle, numerous cars and buses passed us. All the passengers looked warm and cosy and got there before us. I knew I was going to have to persuade my bf to get the bus back. I put on my angel smile and blinked my gorgeous mascara-less eyelashes as any make-up that had been previously applied was now half way down my face.

Once we eventually got to castle we went straight to the reception, which was filled with Europeans hovering around the amber lit fire. We missed the next tour of the castle so instead we explored the outside, where we came across a really cool infinity-like pool. Next, we headed to the walled garden which had lots of fruit and vegetable trees/plants. We both stole an apple here. I know..rather rebellious. Lock us up and throw away the key.

All that smiling and fluttering of eyelashes paid off and we were on the bus back to the car and on the road again. We took the narrow back roads through the Derryveagh Mountains. We came across a few sheep that were covered in spray paint, clearly on their walk of shame home from last nights UV party in Pulse Letterkenny. We headed in the direction of Donegal Town, passing Glenties (supposedly the smallest town in Ireland), Glenesh Pass (hugely disappointing) and Killybegs.

Once we arrived in Donegal Town we sat in the car and had lunch, which consisted of cucumber, peppers, apples, crackers and hummus. With our energy levels topped up, we walked about the town, through the diamond and down to the quay. Although it’s small, it seems a fun little town as all the shops blasted music- ohhhhhh yeaa party.

Back in the car, we headed towards Sligo, firstly making a quick pit stop at Rossnowlagh for a walk on the beach and then another in Bundoran. Bundoran is just an Irish version of Portrush, filled with ice cream vans and amusements, which we both enjoyed, well sort of… I asked if we could go on this one ride and at the sound of a yes, we hopped on. Much to my boyfriends surprise is wasn’t just a little mary-go-round. He started screaming, shouting he was going to die as he believed the rusty metal wouldn’t be able to hold his weight. Unfortunately, it did and we went on his favourite ride, the waltzer, to make him happy again. Afterwards, we played some mini golf but there was an extremely slow family in front, we probably could have played a full 18 hole golf course in the same time. This, and the grossness of the putters handles put a bit of a damper on the activity. On to our next stop….

Mullaghmore. I had been told a lot of history about Mallaghmore and Cassiebawn Castle so I was excited to see it. Previously it was owned by Lord Mountbatten, however it’s now owned privately by a rich businessman so unfortunately you can’t visit it. The castle sits on the coast and is surrounded with impressive rocks which my bf (who has just graduated with an Earth Science degree) loved. With all the walking in the morning, we were a tad parched so at Mullaghmore harbour we sorted that out with a pint. As I’m sure you all know, hydration is key when out in the wilderness.

With Benbulbin mountain towering over us, we continued the final leg of today’s journey to our campsite, based at Strand hill, just outside Sligo at the bottom of Knocknarea mountain. When we got to the campsite we chose the nicest patch of grass to pitch our tent up. It started to rain so we quickly popped the tent up, flung the fly sheet over the top and pegged it all down. However either the strong off shore winds or the firmness of our pegging kept forcing the tent to pop down again. Do not get a pop up tent cause we learnt that it unfortunately pops down twice as easily as it pops up.

Once we sorted our tent, we whipped out the trangia and boiled enough water to cook our pasta, chocolate puddings, custards and hot chocolates. Delicious… Although my boyfriend feels the ‘lick and reuse’ strategy seems to be suffice when it comes to cleaning dishes, it’s didn’t quite make the cut for me. We cleaned the dishes with fairy liquid, cleaned our teeth with toothpaste obviously, washed our faces and head to bed. It was a long day… let’s hope we get a decent sleep.