Gem and Jo Take Connemara

You may have noticed that we haven't been posting as regularly as we usually do, that's because we have been in Connemara where there is absolutely NO internet or phone service!! (That's two trips we've been on where we survived with no internet! Success!) 

Now a lot of you are probably wondering what the hell a Connemara is, our Irish viewers probably won't be but for those that don't know, Connemara is a beautiful town on the coast of Galway. You can see it here, on this pretty little map, it's the area in the square! 

MAP: connemara-holidays.com

We stayed in Gem's granny's mobile home, which is really cosy, and it's literally a little, tiny walk over some small sand dunes to get to the Atlantic coast! 

The first night we got there the weather was a little wild and the tide was really high, because of the Supermoon!! So the beach wasn't very accessible that night but we got this pretty picture! 

                         

The next day was a bit of a dud too, the weather was really not on our side but we donned our coats and hats and went walking along the beach while the tide was out! The good thing about this camping site is that the beach isn't too big, so with kids and dogs they can never get too far away from you, but it also the perfect size for a nice little walk to stretch your legs! 

                                     

                                 

                     

Now our third day there was absolutely glorious and we took advantage of it! We went pier diving, which we unfortunately didn't get any pictures of because you know, sand and sea do not mix well with our lovely little telephones or cameras! We even managed to squeeze in one more walk on the beach before we left for the 3+ hour journey home! These pictures really show the beauty of the Irish coasts! 

                      

                     

                      

                      

                      

Another beautiful part of this little camping site is that both the journey to and the site itself are surrounded by the most breathtaking mountains and from the camp site you can see the largest mountain in Connacht (which is a province of Ireland, kinda like a State in America)

                                       

And there's a really cute donkey called Ned who lives right beside the site!! (We found that he really likes when you feed him carrots!!) The only downfall to having Ned so close? He loves to have a little sing-song at 4 in the morning! 

Thanks for reading guys and we hoped you liked this post, we certainly enjoyed going on this adventure and we would love to hear if you guys have ever been to the west coast of Ireland, or any part of Ireland! Tell us in the comments!! 

Until Next Time, 
 

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!!