Review of 2018

Considering I moved house, again (about 16 months after my previous house move), in August I actually managed to get quite a lot of camping done in 2018. I also had a busy year this being my second year of freelance and so the pressure is on and work comes first. The upside of self employment is that I can sometimes skip off early on a Friday and as long as I have some of the camping gear already prepared I'm good to go. Self employment is great though, yes there is pressure but I do every day what I love, which is Land Surveying, making maps and exploring old buildings, measuring them for the customer to carry out their project be it development or for restoration.

2018 was the year I was asked to 'cut the ribbon' and open a campsite. I think I was asked to do this on the basis of a very large Facebook camping group I set up a few years ago and perhaps for my blogging. A lot of campers and caravanners do seem to know who I am, people come over when they see me setting up at a campsite to say hello and they often recognise the Bell Tent as much as they know me. I did not think that that anyone from the tourism industry would know who I was and so when I was asked to officially open the campsite I wondered if they'd got the right person and I was a little embarrassed but chuffed to bits.

 

In September I gathered a few of my camping friends and we went to Hillfoot Campsite near Limavady. I elected not to blog about it for once, I'd taken hardly any photos anyway and also when you are with other people they are not necessarily comfortable being mentioned on a blog. However it was a brilliant weekend camping and having a few glasses of wine and we even had a sing-a-long. I took the Quechua Base Seconds again which is the tent that looks like a large green egg. I took it because rain was forecast and it, being all polyester, is much easier to dry than the Bell Tent. 

Looking forward to 2019, I bought this a few years ago from Ebay as a retro tent from the mid eighties I think. I have yet to use it. So my first plan is to use this tent and give a review on it. It is a officially a three person tent so it should be perfect for me and the dog. 

My intention is to go to new places in Ireland. I am keen to go to the mid Ireland region and have singled out Battlebridge Campsite as a good base. I think the Wild Atlantic Way is getting a bit too popular and now suffering from overuse. The lakeland regions of Mid Ireland have a different type of experience to offer and may be the next 'big discovery' - I'll slip in before the hoards start going and have the place to myself. This might take place at Easter. 

In July when I more or less have to take two weeks holiday in line with others in the construction industry, I am hoping to go further afield, while still staying somewhere in Ireland. I also hope to get lots of weekends in too.

In my new house (which is a permanent move THIS TIME) I have designated Bell Tent storage space and I hope it will be much more efficient to just pull out the camping gear and go on impromptu trips, which is my favourite type of travel as I do like to look at the weather forecast and it it is nice, just go. 

I will go through my camping storage in a future blog post. 

Happy 2019!

Waterfall Caves June 18

It's June 2018 in Northern Ireland. And we are having a heat wave. 

We have had one hell of a May and now a whole of June, and a new week stretches ahead of us and there's warnings about leaving kids and dogs in cars (even with windows open) and a heat stroke warning out on the news and us poor pink Norn Irish people are struggling a bit with temperatures going on 30 degrees.

'Don't complain' people whisper, it's so rare that we get this kind of weather. 'It's a bit much for me' is a mumbled confession on a par with stealing sweets from the corner shop. Slap slap don't you dare complain.

Christmas seems like a decade ago.

So Friday afternoon, while at work, the notion takes me to throw the camping gear in the car and head off. I was keen to get back to Waterfall Caves as I had really enjoyed my previous trip there. 

Previous blog post here of the 'opening weekend' at Waterfall Caves.

An old favourite

I decided to take an old favourite tent which is the Quechua Base Seconds. This is a pop up tent (truly a pop up, with tensioned flexible poles folded into a circle) and the benefit of it is that it doesn't have plastic windows. The window apertures are a big half circle of mesh and all four sides can be opened giving a good flow of air. Two of the sides can be completely opened too, so you have shelter overhead but lots of cool air getting through.

The tent is just a good size for one person and a dog (Coco was camping too) and it has stand up height inside with straight walls so you can stand anywhere inside. I like the way it looks, a bit like a green egg. I have, somewhere, an inner for this tent but I could not find it and so I elected to take a groundsheet instead that was just about big enough to go under the bed. 

This is the first time I have ever camped without a groundsheet that covered the entire floor. It was actually quite strange, waking up to little dew drops on top of each blade of grass. I always thought having an inner would be a deal breaker for me, given my aversion to spiders etc. Maybe I'm getting more tolerant but I really did not care. Having no inner meant I did have some condensation overnight but it stayed on the tent and didn't affect me. The next day the tent dried quickly in the heat anyway.

I took a cheap supermarket airbed and two sleeping bags. Even with the heat during the day I was glad of the second sleeping bag opened out on top of the first sleeping bag in the middle of the night. As always I took my pillows from home and Coco had her crate which helps her settle at night and kept her off the grass too. 

I was completely alone on the campsite, although there were guests staying in the holiday accommodation which are on the other side of the hedge. Waterfall Caves is a fishing lakes business, with a campsite attached (brand new this year) and some holiday accommodation too. 

On Saturday morning after a good nights rest I went for a walk to Magillian Point. There is a military compound further around the coast so the walk is not that long, but you do have wonderful views over to Ireland and on this occasion there was a cruise ship docked in Greencastle. It is possible to take a ferry to Greencastle from Magilligan Point which I have never taken. It is a treat to be taken the next time perhaps. 

 

Martello Tower at Magilligan

The short walk comprised of seeing the Martello Tower, lots and lots of shells on the beach and what's left of a dead sheep which Coco was particularly interested in. I do not know why dogs like to roll in yucky things but for some reason Coco is attracted to dead animals and other animals poo. 

We finished our walk with a pub meal in the 'Point Bar' right beside the beach. Luckily they have a outside seating area and I could sit with the dog out in the bright sunshine.

All other catering was done on the new Trangia which I got earlier this spring. I find it a really simple, clean and all in one no fuss cooking system. It is quick to boil water and on Saturday evening a heated up frozen curry and pre-cooked rice. On Sunday morning I fried a bit of potato bread that Paula from Waterfall Caves had kindly cooked the day before. 

I left on Sunday at around about noon, and travelled the hour and a quarter that would take me home. I had a great time and thanks to Paula and George for accommodating me and for sharing a wee glass of wine. I look forward to the next time I'm up however I do like to tour around and see other places too. I don't know where the next trip will be although wanted to go to Mannix Point in Kerry again and also Maddybenny, Craig Hall Farm and a new campsite in Cavan called 'Row' which is on the shores of a lake. 

UPDATE as of Jan 2019 Waterfall caves has electricity for Caravans and Motorhomes and now welcomes bookings from both.

Olpro Pop Review 2018 after two years of use

The Olpro Pop is an umbrella style tent which is advertised as a two berth tent, not to be confused with a 'pop up' style tent that explodes once you remove the strap from a circle of fabric.  It has built in poles attached to the fabric which have 'elbows' incorporated into the design. These bend at the joint for packing away. 

Price as of June 2018 £69.00 (discounts frequently advertised, just ask)

Height (cm): 140cm

Length (cm): 210cm

Width (cm): 210cm

Packed dimensions (cm): 18cm x 18cm x 75cm

Weight (kg): 4.5kg

Hydrostatic Head: 3,000mm H/H

Material: 210 Oxford

I bought TWO

I have bought not one but two of the Olpro Pop since they were first released in Spring of 2016. The first one I bought as a weekend and touring tent as a replacement to a Vango Halo which I never got the hang of pitching easily. The main reason why I'd bought the Halo in the first place was because of the two doors and not because of it's technical capabilities. As I am by choice a weekend fair weather camper, where if it is due to rain I simply don't go, then the flip side is that in a Polyester Mix fabric tent you can get put out of it when the sun comes up in the morning with the heat and stuffiness. One simple way to get a bit more of a lie in is two partially open both doors so that the breeze can get through. The Olpro Pop also has a silver reflective inside which is supposed to help with keeping the sun and light out. I think it is quite effective in this regard.

The Vango Halo is a great piece of kit, but I found that I lacked the strength to get the third pole in. The Halo has a Geodesic shape and so the third pole makes it very windproof. Where it wins over the Olpro Pop is in pack size, it is a tiny bag and great for cyclists, hikers and bikers. The Olpro Pop is unwieldy in comparison, the pack size is about the same as a cheap camping chair although it is great for car camping. I don't think it would do as well in the wind as the Halo. 

The Vango Halo is a technical tent designed to withstand harsh conditions, and it is unfair to compare the two. The Olpro Pop has never claimed to be a 'mountain' tent or a 'lightweight' tent, or indeed is it's price point indicative of a technical tent - but as a car camping fair weather or festival tent it is excellent.

credit: Olpro

To make up for it's pack size, the stuff sack does come with two padded rucksack type straps. This makes it fantasic for carrying into a festival for example, and the fact that the pegs are in a zipped pocket on the side of the bag means you have everything you need in one package. 

Initially I bought a green one, however it does come in green, orange and blue. When I bought a second one I fancied Orange.

I brought it to the Lake District where my nearly grown up son used it as a pup tent. He lived in it for two weeks and had no problem with the heat due to it's silver reflective interior. It also has two mesh windows which further helps to cool it down. I donated the green one to him as the start of his own camping kit and bought myself another one in Orange.

The Olpro Pop is meant to be a two berth but I think you could squeeze three roll mats in and so three young people, slim people or kids could sleep in this tent. I found that a single airbed of around about 70cm wide took up less than one half of the tent.  

Two 70cm airbeds with room to crawl in the middle

The only real issue  I had with it was to do with the doors. Many small tents have the same problem, The door is a 'D' door which hinges along the bottom rather than the top or side. That means that unless you take the time to roll and tie up the door every time you want to go in or out, the door and the inner door (there is a fly mesh also) gets stepped on or pulled when crawling across it. This has led to some minor damage on the fly mesh, and is also a trip hazard when getting in and out of the tent. But then if the hinge point was along the top instead then you would lose the ability to partially open the door under the shelter of the rain fly. 

The fly mesh is black and this means that if you want to zip up the fly mesh but not the door (when it is hot) there is still some privacy as long as you don't have the door open on the other side too.

I found a prefered way was to have the mesh closed on both sides but the outer door partially open at the top to let air through. The overhang of the outer part of the tent prevented rain from getting in through the top part of the door. 

The inner can be removed leaving the outer on it's own which could be used as a beach shelter for sun protection. The inner is attached with sturdy clips as is the separate ground sheet. The inner 'pod' has it's own sewn in groundsheet so there is essentially two layers underneath you. Being able to separate the tent can help dry it out quickly if you are in a hurry to pack up. On a particularly sunny morning in Langdale, in the Lake District, and after a rain soaked night, the Olpro Pop was separated and took about five minutes to dry so we could get on with packing up and leaving.  

On a holiday to Kinsale the year after going to the Lake District, I got caught in rain. Being away for a longer holiday where I had booked time off work and also considerably farther away from home, if it rained I was stuck with it. I found the tarp set up very useful for wetter weather and this also gave me somewhere to cook and read.

On this occasion I had my dog with me. She prefers to be in a crate when camping (it helps her settle at night). The tent successfully held my airbed, sleeping gear, the crate, my cooking gear and my chair folded up when my car broke down and I had to unpack my car completely to get the car to the garage.

 

All in all I would highly recommend this tent for car camping. I would recommend it for young people/children and couples and for solo travelers. It is very good for touring and changing camping spots frequently as it takes just two or three minutes to pitch and about five minutes to take down.

It is particularly suited to festival use. The orange colour in particular would stand out in a sea or green or blue tents at a festival.

Having two doors is a unique feature, and the only other tent that I have found that has this feature is the Vango Halo, which is a different league of tent altogether given that it is designed for adverse weather and lightweight travelling and has a price point a lot higher than the Olpro Pop. 

Pros

Very easy to pitch and take down
Surprisingly roomy inside
Great ventilation makes it a cool tent
Two doors opposite each other, can change which door you use as the 'main door' if the wind changes direction.
Two doors eliminates build up of heat.
Mesh inner door keeps the bugs out
The website is very good and makes the buying process very quick and easy

Cons

The bag could do with being a little bit bigger, it can be a challenge to get the tent back in the bag
The poles weakest point is the 'elbow' and looks like it could break - be careful!

Camping in Scotland

Sometimes its nice to travel light. What do you really need for camping? 

1) A tent

2) A couple of airbeds

3) and a view

Camping, at it's simplest.

So it's pretty obvious that I didn't take the ferry to Scotland just to go camping for one night. I was actually in Carlisle to pick up my eldest son Elan who is at the end of his last term of Uni. As an Illustrator, he had an end of year show which is the culmination of his three years of work. 

It was a multi day event so I went from a Wednesday to the Sunday. I stayed in his Student house in a room that is right beside a busy junction on a main road. We also had extremely good weather, with the temperatures hitting 30 degrees on one day. 

The heat and the noise were a bit much for me, and coupled with the fact that my son has some of his own camping equipment that we had to take back to Northern Ireland anyway, it made sense to use it to get out of the city and closer to the ferry so that we would have a shorter journey to the ferry in Cairnryan.

I had a couple of days in Carlisle to hunt out the perfect campsite on the internet, since my son had lots of goodbyes to say to his friends and was busy most evenings and so I was on my own. The Galloway and Dumfries area has more campsites than you could shake a stick at, and most of them look fantastic. I would love a fortnight just to spend some quality time in this area.

I'm a sucker for a view though and so when I came across Castle Bay Holiday Park in Portpatrick my mind was immediately made up. It was only 25 minutes drive to the ferry at Cairnryan. 

Ruin One of the Day

On the Saturday morning we got all of Elans worldly possessions in the car, made sure the camping gear was on top and set off. On the way we stopped at a Cafe just outside Dumfries for a big breakfast to set us up for the day, and to buy supplies for dinner that night. Closer to our destination, we stopped off for a leg stretch at Glenluce Abbey which is not far off the main road on the way to Stranraer.

Next stop Portpatrick and Castle Bay Holiday Park which I navigated to with the Sat Nav. Having booked in at reception and paid our £18 we set up the tent. A couple of years ago I had bought the Olpro Pop which is an umbrella style pop up three berth tent. I liked it a lot but donated it to my son for his own camping kit. The tent is available in three colours and the one I had bought and donated was green. I then bought myself an orange one to replace the one I had given away. I had one airbed with me, which was for Elan to sleep on when we were in Carlisle (I took over his bed) and I'd also brought my own bedding for staying in Carlisle. So all I needed to do was buy one cheap airbed from a supermarket on the way to the campsite and he had a sleeping bag he had as part of his camping kit. We had no chairs, no cooking gear, nothing other than the tent and the beds. And you know what? That's all you need.

Our campsite was at the end of a drive through the Holiday Park, overlooking the sea and also a spectacular ruin called Dunskey Castle. The weather was beautiful, warm but the sea breeze left the temperatures comfortable unlike Carlisle where is was too hot. 

Ruin Two of the Day

There is a public right of way to the castle and apparently it takes you past the castle right into the fishing village of Portpatrick.  We were not there long enough to go on that walk, but we did explore the ruins. It is possible to get right into the castle ruins, up a spiral staircase and into the upper floor. It was a second ruin of the day. 

zoomed in from the campsite

view from the castle

spiral staircase

Back at the campsite, I enjoyed a bit of rest time with a spectacular view overlooking the Irish Sea from which, according to David the warden, you can see Northern Ireland on a clear day.

 

Looking back at the campsite from Dunskey Castle ruin

Our dinner was simple - a french stick, a packet of ham and a couple of beef tomatoes and crisps. Dessert was a punnet of fresh cherries. This was one of the best dinners we had in the whole trip. We each had our own swiss army knife, you'd nearly think we'd done this camping thing before.

About 8pm the scottish midge made an appearance. They were malicious and the only thing we could do was pile into the car and get out of the campsite. Everyone else in the campsite did exactly the same thing. Except these people who turned up in a campervan.

Ruin Three of the Day 

We decided to explore the village of Portpatrick, which is a small fishing village with a couple of hotels on the sea front. We also happened to be in town at the same time as a group who were obviously having a meet and were all Moped enthusiasts. We had come across them camping on a sports pitch on the same road as our campsite, and it seemed they were all from Northern Ireland too.

just a few of the mopeds

We explored the village and came across another ruin in an ancient graveyard. The photo below shows the dovecote which is inside the old graveyard.

Old Portpatrick Church of St Andrews - Dovecote

The following day we packed up our tent and belongings and went back to Portpatrick in search of Sunday Lunch. We were a bit early and went for a walk along the seashore and visited a pottery and a couple of tourist type shops. We bought some locally made lemon and lime marmalade for bringing home. We saw the most enormous Jelly Fish along the shore. A woman was trying to take a closer look at it when her boyfriend tried to push her in!

Sunday Lunch at The Crown

The Marina at Portpatrick

RNLI lifeboat with Portpatrick in the background

This last photo shows the path and steps that goes eventually to Dunskey Castle and the campsite as well as beyond (I believe it's a coastal walk).

I would recommend Castle Bay Holiday Park because of it's spectacular views, the easy walks to both Dunskey Castle and along the shore to Portpatrick. The village had plenty to offer too with a few hotels, a couple of arts and ceramics shops and a lovely marina to explore. Portpatrick is very convenient to the ferry but there is so much more to explore in this area and the next time I'm in the area I hope to find out more about the place.

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!