Spring 2023

Travelling from Cornwall to Fishguard, Rosslare, St Helens Bay, New Ross and finally Jenkinstown Park - 17/18 April 2023

17 April 2023 - Had our last sleep alongside the peaceful stream. This morning, waved goodbye to Bel first, off to work at the hospital on her bike, then Jamie took Jack to Forest School on his bike. Jamie then helped us out of the entrance to their road, as if we stopped, not sure Dave would get going again on the sharp and steep left hand bend! There’s a t-junction, so Jamie checks for traffic, and when clear - we make a run for it.

Not much to say - gladly all very easy driving and uneventful. We left about 9am, and arrived in Fishguard about 4pm, having stopped off for about 30 minutes for lunch - so 6-1/2 hours shared driving - but mainly Tintin, as he started and finished. The map shows our route.

No photos, but so lovely to see so many sheep with their fairly newborn lambs.

We came across the Prince of Wales bridge, Port Talbot didn’t look very appealing, and smelt even less so!

We’re quite bemused by all the signs in Welsh - think that must be quite an art to be able to pronounce words with just too many consonants together. How do you even say the word for services?!

Tintin had received a notification to say that our 1pm ferry tomorrow was already delayed, so we’ve decided to be like the people on A Race Across The World - and keep moving. The plan is to leave on the 23.45 sailing tonight. We won’t get much sleep, the ferry takes 4 hours…

Realized when I went to get my coat that I’d really irritatingly left it in Cornwall! See Jamie - that’s the problem of being tidy and hanging it up!

Went for a wander, looks quite pretty around here, although not much happening. The usual bunch of noisy youths - shouting to each other and jumping into the sea.

18 April 2023 - Jenkinstown for the night

Last night the check in opened at 21.30, so moved Dave to sit and wait in another place…

After having wine for a roast on Sunday, and having enjoyed it, we bought some wine in the duty free. Was surprised that you could buy a litre of Captain Morgan’s for £14 - shame we couldn’t take anymore! I’d googled about taking dairy and dairy products into Ireland - couldn’t decide definitively whether personal small amounts were allowed, but as we had hardly any, decided to risk it.

The Stena ferry was possibly the largest I’d been on - no pictures as it was dark! It departed at 23.45 with very few passengers. We were the only moho - parked up with all the freight. The ferry didn’t smell too fragrant! We searched for somewhere to lay down to try and sleep, eventually found the wavy bench seats by the kids play area and the movie room. We’d taken our fleecy blankets with us, but ended up using them as pillows. We surprisingly managed to zizz for a little while. The ferry docked in Rosslare about 03.45. Customs people were there, but we were waved through. Prior to arrival, Tintin had found a large carpark about 10 minutes away. After a very bumpy and quite narrow road, we found the carpark and went to bed until about 08.00.

It was the right decision to take the earlier ferry, as there wasn’t much to do in Fishguard - plus we get a £15 refund!

We were parked at St Helen’s bay/pier - and after breakfast took a walk. Hercy, think you’d like the golf course here!

So far, we’re really impressed with the main roads - a feeling of openness - really wide with access either side for breakdowns, cyclists whatever - but could probably be four lane traffic.

The scenery is beautiful. Large open spaces, very green (!) - lots of cows, sheep, horses, yellow fields of rapeseed…

First up, we needed to go shopping. Plumped for a Lidl in New Ross. Haven’t visited a Lidl in years, last time in France. Was very well stocked with all sorts of goodies. Tintin drove, about an hour. After lunch, went for a walk as we knew that the Dunbrody Famine ship experience was nearby. This is permanently moored, built as a recreation of similar vessels which sailed to America full of countless hungry Irish emigrants. On board, extended families camped out for 50 days, arriving with only 50 - 80% of their human cargo. We didn’t actually spend €28 to go onboard.

The Emigrant Flame is an eternal one which was lit in 2013 - see the blurb!

Instead of the tour, we went to (guess what Jo!) the tourist information. A really happy man shook our hands and welcomed us to Ireland! He also commented on how surprised he was at the warm sunny weather. He gave us some maps, and then we went on the New Ross 30 minute walk. Not a great deal to see, but lovely to see such a variety of little shops. I’m also going to take far too many photos, as I love murals and graffiti and general large scale art! See a selection below!

Bit of a strange lady inside the church, telling us all about how on Tuesday people come together to see Jesus in the gold orb, then showed us where we could pray in private - we took a quick picture and left.

There is a life size statue of John F Kennedy. He arrived in Ireland for a three day visit in June 1963, straight from the Berlin Wall. He was assassinated only 5 months later. His relatives had left Ireland in 1848.

Ha - strange seeing a green postbox!

From New Ross, Tintin drove again for another hour, and we’re now parked up for the night at Jenkinstown Park. Very peaceful, lots of birds singing, there are deer enclosed just above us, people coming and going for a walk.

Tintin put the drone up for the first time in ages. It’s like everything we haven’t done for a while - takes a while getting back used to it. We had real issues (!) as our new roaming data sim wasn’t working. It’s from a Welsh company called RWG - should get 200Gb for £28 per month. After lots of hassle this morning, Tintin got it working.