Waterfall Caves new campsite near Benone - opening weekend

I had the honour of being invited to open a new campsite this Bank Holiday weekend, May 2018. Paula and George Canning from Ballykelly area near Benone had already got a busy fishing lakes business when they decided to open up a campsite beside the lakes. I had been asked to give some ideas and feedback and then coming up to the big weekend I was asked to cut the ribbon and say a few words. It was combined with a fund raiser for a young relative of theirs, a little boy called Caden Jack Moore who has recently had a bone marrow transplant The Adventures of Caden Jack Moore.

Caden Jack Moore

It was to be a weekend of catching up with old friends, as friends old and new came to help celebrate this big opening.  So it was a busy weekend in blistering hot weather and we all got very sunburned even with the factor 50.

L-R, David, Karen, Stephen, John and me

The site itself is small in scale and is flat and dry with hardstandings for Motorhomes, Campervans and in the future, Caravans. At the moment there is no electricity so the site, although open, is still in development. There are a couple of fire pits sitting around and loads of picnic tables built by the local Mens Shed. There is one toilet and one shower for everyone in the rear of the main cabin with only a short one minute walk from the campsite along a pretty wooded path. 

Access to the site is along the Duncrun Road. The turn in to the site from the main road is an acute angle, and because of this it is advisable for people towing caravans to approach from the East. The Sat Nav co-ordinates are 55°07'50.3"N 6°55'55.9"W. The access road is steep enough but quite wide and there are 10mph speed restrictions signs along it's length. Roadside signage is not in place for the campsite as of May 2018 however there are signs for Duncrun Fishing Lakes at the road side. The nearest village is Ballykelly and there are two shops. One of the shops will deliver for 50p with a minimum order of £30 and you just put in your order at the campsite (there are two times a day to do this). Just past Ballykelly is the turn off to Magilligan Point with the Point Bar that does food, a beach and the ferry to Donegal. Another couple of miles along the road is Benone Strand with caravan parks, the Tourist Complex and a cafe called 'Waves' who do a 'golfers fry' for £5.95 and open on a Saturday and Sunday morning from 9am. Incidentally a Restaurant called 'Coast' does a free pick up and drop off for campers at Waterfall Caves.

short path to the cabin from the campsite

The facilities for campers are mostly based in the cabin which already serves as an office and small snack shop for the fishing business. The new campers facilities are a kitchen dining area to the rear of the building with an open to the outside porch with seating. Directly behind the cabin is a play area with climbing frame, a see saw and soft surface.

campers kitchen

campers kitchen with porch

playpark

There are fishing lakes which are very pretty and there are rod hire and tickets are available in the office. Campers can walk around them but there are no dogs allowed and they must be quiet when fishing is in progress. There is a little bit of a Canadian flavour to the lower lakes landscape, and the upper lake is a turquoise pool with a backdrop of the famous cliff face of Benevenagh Mountain. The upper lake is also overlooked by the other type of accommodation available at this site, four 'caves' which are subterranean rooms with glass frontage. 

Upper Lake

Lower Lake

There is another walk which is more dog friendly (because no dogs are allowed around the fishing areas). It is the 10 minute Viewpoint Walk which takes you on a circular route around the owners land, with a spectacular viewpoint stop off for photos and actually enough room to park about four motorhomes so it may even be a future motorhome park. Off this walk is another walking route which is the 'Game of Thrones' walk which takes a line up the hill side to the cliffs, taking in the areas that were used as filming locations for the TV series.

view from part of the Viewpoint Walk

Game of Thrones route

On Saturday the main party and fundraiser took place. There was a barbecue, a bouncy castle and loads and loads of people turned up. They were a mixture of fishing people, friends and family of the Canning Family who were supporting the new business venture, family of young Caden who the day was in aid of, neighbours and people who just called in to support the event. To date the day raised £1400 with more due. Young Cadens father, Brian, provided the a Tepee for everyone to enjoy as a communal space and explained that he had to give up a job which he loved because of the care that Caden requires. His prior job was using the big Tepee as a classroom for teaching outdoor activities to children.

On the day of the big opening 'do' I had the honour of cutting the ribbon and a few words were appropriate. I started with a brief description of who I am and what I do, which is that I am a blogger and camping enthusiast. I then touched on the fundraising element of the fun day and then led everyone on a round of applause for the Canning Family who worked so hard on the site. There was quite a crowd and afterwards we all went through to look at the campsite and John and I hosted some tent and awning tours. In the meantime back in the cabin the barbecue and wine was in full flow.

big speech

some of the crowd going for a campsite tour

Campsite tour

On Sunday it was pack up day. We started the day the only way we knew how. Bacon and coffee.

Then it was time for John to do his Yoga moves as he struggled to get the air out of the tent. He is available for weddings, parties and bar mitzvas anywhere in Northern Ireland. All in all a fantastic weekend and a rough idea has come together for a future meet up with many of the friends I met on this camping trip.

Vlogging for the first time and a last minute camping trip

This is my first attempt at 'Vlogging' as opposed to 'Blogging' and I have to say I really enjoyed it...however hearing my good ol' Northern Irish accent is a bit weird and I haven't picked up the courage to appear in person yet - so it's a running commentary style vlog. I do have more footage of this particular weekend coming. This particular video is a Tent Tour. The other footage I have is just out and about at the beach and out walking.

The weekend in question is from the very last weekend in September, and I went quite last minute without really planning it. Luckily most of my camping gear is within easy reach having not been properly packed away after a summer season (it is packed away now).

The location was the Wild Atlantic Campsite in Creeslough, Co Donegal and I spent time in Ards Forest Park, Dunfanaghy village and also Marble Hill Beach. It was a solo camping trip with Coco the dog. The weather was really bad, with the end of a Storm Irma battering the tent. The mud outside the tent was horrendous, the campsite was in a very bad state not that it's the owners fault it's just been so wet recently. The first night there was one other caravan and the second night there was only one campervan and me. I think they thought I was mad. The Glamping Pods were full, much to my disappointment as I was kind of planning to take one because of the weather report. However it all worked out ok in the end.

Enjoy!

Choo Choo, the Toilet Train is leaving

Silver Bay Campsite, Ards Penninsula, Co Down was the venue for this latest camping trip, for just two nights over a weekend and not planned. I literally looked at the weather report, decided to go and just threw the contents of my hall (camping gear still there from my last trip) into the car in no particular order. I'd had an idea that I wanted to visit this campsite next because I saw a recommendation on Facebook and when I researched it the first thing that jumped out at me was it's coastal location. Bingo! You all know how I love a bit of deep blue sea.

It took me over two hours to get there on Friday afternoon, I managed to skip out of work a bit early and make it for about tea time. I met the warden, Stephen, who turns out lives in the static caravan opposite the amenity block and he drives a white van with 'warden' written on the number plate. He showed me to my pitch which was second from the end of a row of pitches which hugged the shore line of a field that was mostly steep, except for the shore. The top of the hill had a big ruined building which was accessible from the campsite. It is known locally as the 'White House' and is associated with the Savage Family who owned much of this area in days gone by.

The shore is stony, and when the tide goes out, it leaves the bay completely and leaves some great rock pools behind, mostly populated by hermit crabs. But when the tide comes in the water is lapping the rocks mere meters from the front of the tent. 

The Campsite is organised with posts along the shore line, roughly 6m apart. They are supposedly numbered, the one I was at did not have a number but the the pitch to my right, which was empty, was No 14. The name of the person who had booked it (and failed to turn up) was written on a piece of cardboard and stapled to the post. 

One issue for me is that 6m is not really enough for a pitch. This means that there wasn't a lot of privacy and the caravans in particular seemed squeezed in. When I put my tent up, I was touching guy ropes with the tent to my left. So much for a fire break!

That evening, for tea, I went to the mobile chippy beside the shop in Cloghey, Stephen the warden said it was good and he wasn't wrong, the chips were hand cut, fresh, hot and salty. The best I've tasted in a long time.

The Friday night was spoiled a bit by some camping neighbours who were playing club anthems on their car radio with the door open, and it was giving me a bad headache partly because the music was going thump thump thump and partly because I was annoyed at the selfishness of people. It was two Mums and a whole squad of kiddies. They were just as noisy the next day, radio on, car door open. I was so glad to see them packing up at lunchtime. It should be said the kids were great, it was the Mums that were the problem. From the point they left it was blissful, just the sound of the sea, the sqawking sea birds, the sound of chatter and kids playing, arguing and playing again.

(not that I'm nasty or anything, but I did set my phone alarm for 6am the next day which being about two metres from the back of their tent, I'm pretty sure did the trick of getting them up and about good and early....me - I just put the ear plugs in and slept on)

I had looked at some reviews and learnt was that the amenity block was some considerable distance away from where the touring caravans and tents were. The Amenity block was about halfway through a static mobile home section, and having measured this on google maps, I can now determine it is 0.2 miles away from the campsite. In campsite terms that is quite a trek - particularly if you are desperate! I noticed that a lot of my camping neighbours were driving to the amenity block and did have a chuckle on the Sunday morning when I overheard the Dad in the big blue tent (who had a people carrier) announce 'CHOO CHOO - ALL ABOARD THE TOILET TRAIN - LEAVING NOW' to his family who numbered a few children amongst them. I was very tempted to pop my head out of the tent and say 'can I come too please'. 

I brought the Bell Tent this time and I did not bother going down the 'glamping' route at all. I've decided I'm not much of a glamper anyway. It's just a tent, I sleep in it and sit in it and make coffee in it, I can't be bothered with cushions and special furniture. The nearest I get to 'glamping' is throwing the blanket on the airbed at a jaunty angle so I can take a photo to put on this blog.

Ready Bed with throw, the closest I seem to get to 'Glamping'

Tide came in

So I went out and about a good bit on this brief holiday. First of all I went to the Exploris Aquarium in Portaferry. I have recently got a fish tank with a few tropical fish in it, (Ziggy the Betta, one little Rummy nosed Tetra called Rudolf, he has a red nose. And a peppered Corey called Beyonce because he/she wiggles his/her bum). So now I've gone crazy for all things fish, and the Aquarium was a real treat. In fact I went to Maidenhead Aquatics in Dobbies, Lisburn on the way home to look at more Aquariums and bought two algae eaters who are now settling into my tank.

I particularly loved the really big tank they have, called the Pirate Tank. It has been designed to mislead the eye so you can't really tell how big it is, and the angles of the glass distort the surface of the water. There are sharks and rays in there, as well as schooling fish. I include this photo below which is credited to Ards Tourist Info as I did not get a good enough photo.

 

These next photos are mine, just general shots of the Exploris Aquarium. 

The first picture shows the touch tank which has a talk at 11am every morning. The second photo is from the big Pirate Tank. Then lastly I found a 'reptile terrarium' with snakes, chameleons and then this 'nile croc' which looked a bit on the mean side.

 

Exploris Aquarium has a seal hospital and rehabilitates abandoned or injured seals and releases them again. All the seals in the hospital when I visited were pups around 6 weeks old and they were so adorable, very lively and active and had faces like little puppy dogs. Each one has a name, and there's a list of names of past released seals displayed. There was a 'Ben Fogle', a 'Charlie' etc and the reasons for their names are given on the boards.

 

This little boy was called Hans (named after an underwater cameraman) and he was so cute I could have brought him home.

Next up, I went to a National Trust village called Kearney. I had heard about this place last year when it was used as the location for the TV series 'My Mother and Other Strangers' which was a series set in 1943 featuring a true story about temptation and romance with an American GI, set in Northern Ireland and shown Nationwide on the sunday evening 'costume drama' BBC slot. 

I really enjoyed the TV show and really loved seeing it in real life. It looks like 'Coyne's' Pub was a completely new build on the set which would explain why I found the layout of the village not quite what I'd remembered from TV. 

This is what it looked like on TV

This is what it looks lilke in real life

My Mother and other Strangers

On the Saturday night my friend Violet landed with a bag full of groceries from Marks & Spencers. I had a small barbecue with me and so we made tea and had a really enjoyable evening sitting in the Bell Tent looking out at the view until the sun had long gone down and she left about 11pm. The following morning I got chatting to a Dutch couple who were staying in a campervan next to me and I was introduced to their family in Holland via facetime! A bit random but all part of the fun. 

The last thing I did, which was on the way home, was to properly visit Portaferry and that is where you get the ferry to Strangford across the sea and then home. It is possible to drive to here to Portaferry going the long way round the coast but I think going by Ferry adds to the feeling that you are going on a holiday. 

Portaferry Harbour

This is an area I would be happy to visit again, and I hope it won't be too long before that happens. The campsite has it's drawbacks, the pitches are just a little too squeezed together, and the loos are so far most people just drive. But the advantages are that it's an un-spoilt area, a real haven for wild life and particularly birds, butterflies and rock pool creatures. The view from the tent says it all for me!

July 2016 Annual Hols - North of England Part 1

It's the weekend after the fortnight before, and I am so happy that our holiday, the big annual camping trip, went so well. We were lucky with the weather, in fact too lucky as we had one day when the temperature in the car read 39 degrees which is just nuts in this country. We had one day of solid rain, one night of sheet rain and crazy wind, and another mad thunder and lightning storm go right over our heads for and hour in the Langdale Valley that, with mountains all around, was like something out of the 'Lord of the Rings'. These were all separate weather events with sunny days in between, some bright and some a bit cloudy. Cloudy was a relief in some ways. 

My eldest son Elan and I were together on this trip, he is a student now in a university in Carlisle and at that stage where he has moved out of halls and into a private let with 5 other students, and part of our trip meant calling in to the new house to meet the landlord and for me to sign a document. 

We bit off more than we could chew with this outward journey. Our plans had been flexible, the only thing that was booked was the ferry and I had it in mind to spend two weeks in the Lake District, which is only an hour or so south of Carlisle. However in the lead up to the holiday the weather forecasts gave it to be bad in the Lake District and better over in the East and so it was last minute that it was decided that we'd go over to the North Yorkshire coastline. According to Google directions this was only a couple of hours more in the car. 

The boat from Belfast was mid-morning and so we left the house at 9. Boat was uneventful and we'd brought a picnic as I wasn't impressed with the food the last time we were on a ferry. We weren't to know that there was to be two major roadworks projects in Dumfries, one going in and one going out. I knew about some roadworks going in to Carlisle and so we slipped off the main road at Gretna Green and went on the minor road parallel to the motorway, which took us nicely in to the Scotland Road and the right side of the city for Elans new house. It was late afternoon by this time. The stop with the landlord took the most of an hour and we were keen to get on to the campsite before it started to get dark and knowing we had maybe two hours travelling ahead of us. 

Taking the road over the Penines, which is just stunning scenery the whole way, Elan started to take unwell with stomach cramps. Thinking it may be the result of something he ate he fished some tablets out of my medicine kit and pressed on. He got much worse and with him in agony, we stopped at Barnard Castle for some more of our picnic. But by this time the bread was stale and the insides were mush and neither of us could eat it. At Darlington, we accidentally took the wrong exit off a roundabout and just by chance I saw a restaurant/pub called the Tawny owl. We had a decent meal and Elan started to improve dramatically. So I guess it was a blood sugar problem, he just didn't have enough to eat during the day.By now it was 8pm. 

I'd been in touch with Hook House Farm campsite prior to leaving and the owner had told me that if I was going to be very late, to phone ahead and give her an estimated time. She officially closed at 8pm but in the end we didn't get there until 9pm. By the time we'd booked in we were setting up in the dark. Because it was dark I did not know why the floor of the tent was all sticky underfoot. The following morning I discovered there was a layer of mildew all over the floor of the Bell Tent (I washed it down with Milton and it was fine again, but quite a bit of work with only a cloth) and so the last time I went camping, and thought I'd dried the tent, I obviously didn't dry it well enough.

It was 12 hours from door to door. Too long really, and with Elan not well I do not think I would undertake a journey in one go like that again. Even driving all the way to Mannix Point on a previous year only takes 8 hours. 

I'd chosen Hook House Farm because of recommendation on the Bell Tent facebook page online, when I put in a request for a recommendation for a campsite with a view. I liked the idea of staying in the area, it was close to Robin Hoods Bay, which is famous for being the end point of the 'Coast to Coast' walk - and recently I saw a film called Downhill (2014) which is a comedy about four men taking the Coast to Coast walk from St Bees to Robin Hoods Bay. It is a really sweet, independent, fairly low budget movie where four men in various ways are simultaneously going through a mid life crisis and a coming of age at the same time. 

Hook House Farm overlooks Robin Hoods Bay, which was only too apparent the next morning when I first opened the tent and this is what I saw.

The campsite is very sloped but there are some flat pitches at the very bottom of the campsite, furtherest, of course, from the loos and facilities but I really hate sleeping on a hill. Elan pitched the Olpro Pop, which is my latest tent purchase, right beside my Bell Tent and it was it's first use. Elan was so impressed with how easy it is to put up, and how spacious it was inside, that he asked if he could keep it for himself to use when in university with his girlfriend. So although I've effectively lost my new tent I'm secretly pleased that he wants to go camping off his own back and I hope it is the start of many of his own camping trips. 

The first day we drove the 17 miles south to Scarborough, parked in a shopping centre and went for an explore. We found a Victorian Funicular Railway, or a cliff lift as it's often described, and beside it some gardens clinging to the steep slope that had hairpin bend paths all the way down to the 'seaside' area of Scarborough. We decided to walk down and get the cliff lift back up for a whole big 80p for both of us. Scarborough is a very grand Victorian sea side town with the most of the town is up top on a cliff. There is a slim strip of land at the bottom of the cliff, enough for a row of shops of the seaside variety, amusements etc. A great beach and at one end a harbour with a fun fair. the whole time I had the song 'Scarborough Fair' going round my head. You can see that in the Victorian era it would have been very grand, and the architecture is still in very good condition but the seaside part of it is the usual tacky shops. I enjoyed exploring the town and would quite happily go back. 

Cliff Lift at Scarborough

Scarborough

Over the next week we also visited Robin Hoods Bay village, which is a small fishing village clinging to the banks of a steep inlet with a maze of tiny streets. It has a history of smuggling, and there are reputedly tunnels linking the dwellings where smugglers could hide and escape the law. It is mostly for tourists now, as there is no car parking in the village. You park up on the hill and walk down a very, very steep path. Going down is one thing, going up - well it took me four stops! 

Robin Hoods Bay, the way down! 

Robin Hoods Bay 

Robin Hoods Bay

Whitby is the nearest large town to the campsite and I absolutely loved it. It also has that smuggling history, and is another port with tiny streets and red roofs. Dramatically it also has a very gothic abbey on top of the East Cliff, and on the West Cliff, high above the port town, is another world of elegant Georgian town houses with pavilions, crescents and direct views out to sea. The Whitby of the port is much earlier, Captain James Cook, famously captain of the Endeavour, apprenticed there in 1746 having been born nearby. His apprenticeship lasted nearly 10 years with a Quaker family and he went on to explore, discover and map much of the world. As a mapper myself I found this interesting.

We spent most evenings in Whitby as the car parking was free after 6pm. Whitby has reputedly the best fish and chips in the world in the Magpie Cafe and so we went, and it was good but I have had just as good elsewhere (namely Mr Eatwells in Omagh!). 

Whitby, Captain Cooks Museum

Whitby

Whitby

Whitby also has an unusual swing bridge across the mouth of the river which lets seafaring traffic in and out of the port. I'd been over it several times before I saw it literally 'swing' in to action when it just split in half and one section of it swung out of the way. I was sitting in a coffee shop across the road at one end of it when it started to move. I nearly fell off my chair and said to Elan, 'look at the bridge' and Elan just rolled his eyes as he already knew it did that! 

Whitby, the Swing Bridge

Hooks House Campsite turned out to be a great base. The Campsite itself, as previously mentioned, in on a slope overlooking Robin Hoods Bay. The toilets and showers are in a portacabin which are cladded in timber so it looks quite smart, and they were spotlessly clean the whole time we were there. There are a couple of areas with sinks for dishes, one behind the portacabin which are outdoors with an amazing view which makes washing dishes almost a pleasure. Then there's also a kitchen area in a farm building with 3 sinks, a microwave and kettle and a few plugs for charging devices. Elan spent most evenings in there using his laptop where there was a plug and got chatting to quite a few of the other campers. I was quite happy reading a book outside my tent. 

I found that people are not as quick to stop for a chat as they are in Ireland (North or South) and very much keep themselves to themselves. I barely spoke to a soul apart from Elan the whole week and I don't think that would happen at home! I realise of course that I it takes two to tango and Elan was spending a lot more time in the communal parts of the campsite than I was. Another thing I noticed was how early everyone went to bed. At 10pm there wasn't a sound apart from the occasional snore from a tent. Even a large youth group in a rally field beside us were tucked up and sleeping. No messing about, giggling or pushing their luck! Just good as gold! A revelation to me! 

Hooks House Farm 

Hooks House Farm 

Hooks House Farm 

We were in the North Yorshire National Park and so it was a pity not to go and see some of it while were were there. I wanted to see the radar at RAF Fylingdales, and although you can't go near it because it is Ministry of Defence, you can still see it from the road. It is a very strange structure, so much so that you find yourself just checking overhead for the 'Independence Day' spaceship flying overhead. 

Radar at RAF Fylingthorpe

We carried on until we were in Pickering, another picture postcard village on the south west edge of the National Park. It was the ideal place to stop at a cafe and we explored the ruined castle, the village and found a flea market to peruse as well. 

Pickering Castle

Pickering

After a week in this area, we decided to up sticks and move to the Lake District. We really enjoyed our time on the North Yorkshire coast, but decided we'd covered a lot and were ready for new things to do. We also wanted to be a tad closer to Carlisle so the journey home would not be as arduous as the outward one. Part 2 coming up....