Camping in County Donegal, Ireland

We went camping again this summer (for last years camp trip click here ((the photos of Ché Phoenix are insane!!)) this time at Rossnowlagh Beach, County Donegal, a bit closer to home as someone isn't fond of car journeys these days!

We went with my sister Pippa (or Auntie Squeak as she's more commonly known!) and Al's sister Sel and her hubby James - 3 of the coolest people in the world. So it was always gonna be great :)

Ché Phoenix LOVED the beach, I mean look at that FACE!!! I have about 200 photos of him in the sea, rock climbing, digging, and just running free :) In 99% of them he is totally naked (even cuter!) but we'll keep those ones to ourselves I think, infact he spent most of the holiday naked, wild and free, thats my boy <3

County Donegal is on the North West coast of Ireland, its rugged, wet and windy (even in summer)! Luckily we had brought our market stall gazebo to make a communal area to hang out in at the camp and we still went on loads of walks and had an amazing time.

BEST PHOTO BOMB EVER!!!

The best thing was that we forgot our iPhone chargers and so were completely unplugged and disconnected for the whole week, a blessing in disguise. I felt so present in the moment and relaxed in a way I know I couldn't be whilst being online and contactable. Lesson learned - holidays are iPhone free times :)

That squished up annoyed face with the up turned hand, whilst saying 'nuu' and shaking his head slightly is our favourite these days. It means 'it's not there anymore, its gone, not sure I'm happy about it!

Note: I may have pulled that face as we drove home from that wonderful family break...

Driving across South Africa

Since posting a few of our  Cape Town photos I've been trying to choose less than a hundred of our road-trip ones! We drove from East London to Cape Town on the main roads then back on the minor inland roads over 3 weeks staying in hostels and B&B's. We didn't have a set plan or time frame, we just woke up, looked at the maps and decided where we wanted to go that day, it was brilliant, such an adventure.

Jeffery's Bay at sunrise.

The happiest I've ever been at that crazy hour in the morning!

I can't over emphasize how 'in the middle of nowhere' these people were, I hope they
didn't have to wait to long... During our road-trip we passed so many hitch hikers and I felt
bad every time, but we had decided at the start that we wouldn't, we don't do it in
 Ireland so it seemed silly to start in Africa...

Wreck at Cape Agulhas, the very bottom tip of Africa, it was quite cool
 to stand looking out knowing the whole continent is behind you, other than
that it was quite an anti-climax after Cape Point...

I loved the way in a few hours you can go from this,

to this,

but that's Route 62 for ya!

Al picked me the sweetest tiny desert flowers, they were so
dry they lasted days on the dash board

Monkey world, a 12 acre enclosure for rescue monkeys and apes that can't be
re-released to the wild. This guys used to be a pet, his name is Atlas and he is beautiful,
I'd suggest looking at this picture big, I wish I knew what story his eyes were telling me. 

A windy day at St.Francis 

We stayed for about an hour on the rocks just watching these massive waves, so powerful!

Orange country, we bought some from a lovely wee family just down the road,
I often wonder about them too...

Happy kids, everywhere we went.

This is the lil' car that took us on our trip, it was brilliant,
except the time that the heat got stuck on... Funny memories though!

Making this post has made me so excited about our next road-trip, our honeymoon to Paris :) :) :)

Reminiscing about Cape Town 2009

I've been following closely Saving for travels' blog these last few weeks and it's made me think of all the traveling I've done, what amazing memories I have of exploring other cultures and countries.

I've decided I'm going to show a little glimpses of our past travels and adventures on my blog. Partly because I believe what you have experienced in life helps define who you are and on this blog I do want to put across the real me. Mostly though I thinks it's because I love looking through our iphoto albums and reminiscing :)

When I look at photos of us on our adventures it reminds me that we always do what we say we will. We figure out what we want, what our dreams are, then we make it happen. It makes me feel so confident and sure that all our dreams for the future will come true. When I look at photos of us in South Africa it is such a big reminder that together we can achieve anything :)

Cape Point guessing which country was 'that way'

My hubby (fiance at the time) - cracking me up as usual 

The photographer

At the top of Table Mountain

Robben Island, I wish everyone in the world could
visit there and meet the people we met.  It's by far the most
inspiring and moving place I've ever visited.

Cape Town from Robben Island.

Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens.

The Biscuit Mill Market.

We were so happy to be in SA for Nelson Mandela's Birthday,
the love was everywhere. We took part in a 'knit-a-thon' to make
blankets for local people in need. 

Leaving Cape Town was a bit sad but our road-trip was
just getting started :)

mmmm wimpy tea... I miss that tea!

Dublin city

We had such a crazy Wednesday and Thursday that I won't bore you with the details but to give you an idea it included; our normal 10 hr work days and our new car breaking down, tow ropes, hire cars, calling in favours from friends and late nights.... So the packing and organising was rushed but once we got into the car it was all worth it :)

Driving down we ate sandwiches, chatted about where we are in our life at the moment (so happy), and rocked out to Incubus (science album), also got stuck at roadworks but amused ourselves and some fellow drivers by rolling down the windows and fake rapping to 2pac, full volume - so funny, I really should video it next time lol. After that we just needed 4 illegal u-turns and we were there :)

We stayed in on Friday night with pizza and just caught up with Baz, then Saturday we hit the town...

The Church, a very cool bar as you can see!

As if it wasn't cool enough, Authur Guinness was married here back in the day!

Baz and I 

The boys :)

Waiting for our Nandos, I can only handle the 'lemon herb', I'm such a wimp. Chillininja here dips his 'hot' in more hot sauce, crazy man that he is lol

My favorite bit of the evening, I got to cycle to the next venue! Of which there are no pictures... It was the Brazen head, the oldest pub in Ireland established in 1198 (I think!) pretty impressive hey?

The liffey

"Brick are you just looking at things around the room and saying you love them?"

On Sunday we went to the zoo, everyone had raved about it but we were slightly underwhelmed, I guess after spending time in Africa no zoo will impress. There was a very cute baby gorilla though and we did have a lovely day out.

This weekend was not at all frugal, we didn't go mad and waste any money obviously but for us its important to have these breaks from saving and being too strict. We want to enjoy ourselves and treat ourselves too, especially for a birthday, it's nice to just do what you want to do for the other person and not be worrying constantly how much it'll cost. It was lovely to eat out every day and go out on the town but as we were driving home we both admitted we were glad to be heading back and looking forward to getting back to our wee life, just the two of us, on a journey to a dream...

3 days till road-trip!

Im so excited! This saturday is my lovely husbands 31st Birthday, to celebrate we're going on a road-trip to spend the weekend in his favorite city in the world - Dublin.
As you'll soon come to realise if you follow this blog, we LOVE road-trips, just give us half an excuse and we're off! A really good friend of ours Bazza lives in Dublin so we'll be crashing at his, you gotta love friends who live in cool cities and don't mind you taking up floor space :)

We go to Dublin quite a lot (its only 2 hours on the motorway) but the last time we were there was especially special. It was the week after our wedding and we were on a Galway, Dublin road-trip, we had with us my best friend Aza who came all the way from Australia for my big day after not seeing me for 6 years! And also my Auntie Gail who brought my 2 cousins Lucy and Dan all the way from South Africa. They loved it, Guinness, Jameson and the craic, what's not to love?

Aza looking very serious and Al happy with the quality of the guinness!

Gail and Lucy cheering the irish dancers :)

We're getting all packed and organised this week so on friday we can come home, change and go - hopefully getting there about 9.30. We'll have a flask for tea, chocolate, sandwiches for dinner on the way and lots of good music, essential on a road-trip!

Pictures will follow next week :) Have you ever been to dublin? Do any of you readers live in ireland?

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On a little 'enjoying the journey' literal side note, here are some snaps of our car journey to and from Dublin new year 2008... Happy memories :)