Gem and Jo Take on Camping

So this weekend we went camping! We apologise for the lack of updates but we had zero signal where we were! 3 whole days without internet or phone, it was truly shocking stuff!

We went to a place in Athlone, County Westmeath, called Lough Ree (East) Caravan and Camping Park, where Gem's parents have a caravan and boats to use during the summer. You can check out the park Here. It's a really pretty little place with direct access to the lake, which leads onto the River Shannon and isn't too far from Athlone town. 

Here's views of the lake from the park:

There's a beautiful, unique sunset there every night! It really is a gorgeous lake!

And there's always some ducks hanging around! 

When we arrived we set up our tent, which we bought from Halfords for an absolute steal, it included 2 airbeds and 4 sleeping bags and even torches!! If you're thinking of going camping you should check out their selection of tents and camping equipment Here.

We spent all of Saturday swimming and kayaking, occasionally getting rained on but we didn't care as long as the thunder and lightening stayed away!!
Saturday night we took a trip to the local pub called The Dog and Duck! This place is an absolute gem! It is great craic and serves AMAZING pizza! (Pizza and a pint for €10, you wouldn't get that anywhere else!) Check them out here.
The awesome thing about this pub? It is literally right outside the campsite, no need to pay for a taxi!

Sunday, of course we went swimming again but we also took a trip into Athlone town via the River Shannon!
Here's the course we took:

We followed the red line seen on this map!

And here's Jo driving us to Athlone:

The route from the campsite to the town is beautiful, full of scenery and there are plenty of ports to stop in before you get there if you wanted to and there are almost always people water-skiing so you get to watch that too! 

In Athlone we stopped for some lunch from a local take away called Genoa Cafe, which has been in Athlone since the 1940's!

The food was delicious and there was plenty of it so we decided to share some with a few ducks that were hanging around! We ended up having about fifty seagulls, ducks and swans surrounding the boat! We figure ducks must have some sort of telepathy because they were arriving from all over the place, it was kinda nuts!

This is only some of them, there were so many!!

Before we left the town centre we had a bit of fun, pretending to be part of the Titanic! 

And because it had finally become sunny, we took some pretty pictures of the town!

It was a brilliant weekend full of laughter, rain, swimming and brilliant people! If you're looking for a campsite to pitch a tent or park a caravan in, you should take a look at Lough Ree (East) Caravan Park. The manager's name is John! Pack some wetsuits and you're guaranteed to have a great time!

Or if you prefer to stay in town, the Radisson Blu hotel is right on the River Shannon (Gem stayed there before and says it is gorgeous!) and there are plenty of different river cruises you can take to see the area:

River Run Cruise

Viking Tours Ireland

You can also rent a cruise boat for a weekend and travel the Shannon yourself, there are plenty of companies to choose from: take a look here!

P.s. we're pretty sure we weren't camping, we think we were 'glamping' (glamorous camping'). 

Thanks for reading! Until Next Time!!