I had driven to a britstop pub a little bit further on from Glendalough, parked up and stayed in my van the whole night after cooking my dinner. It was a great site, very flat and large, so no disruptions, and several other campers, and cars from the patrons of the hotel. Signal was really bad there, so picked up the odd message sporadically.
From here I had planned to drive quite a way on to Cork. I needed to get some miles in if I was going to get up the West coast in 10 days. I don’t think I’ll be able to stick to my allowance of miles while here.
Because there was no signal, I couldn’t get a route on google maps to follow to Cork, so I turned right out of the pub, assuming it the right direction and kept going until I got some signal. Now I was in the valleys here and no signal was coming, but then there was only one road to follow currently! Eventually the road started to take me higher, and I managed to get some signal. Now I needed to find somewhere to pull in and reroute. I found a farm entrance with a long drive, so thought I’d be safe pulling in there, hopefully no one would be coming out anytime soon. As I pulled to stop, I noticed white smoke coming from my bonnet!!! Nooo please don’t say the vans ill! Right let’s think, first things first, get the bonnet open. I wouldn’t know what I’d be looking for but let’s check anyway. In the panic I forgot how to open the bonnet and expected the gap to be there to slip my hand under to release the catch. Why can’t I fit my hand in, what is different to every other time I’ve done this?! Eventually I figured out I hadn’t popped it from inside the cab, Plonker. So, everything looked ‘how it should do?’. I remember being told by my friend Nigel that if it ever starts to smoke to pull over straight away and it will probably be the coolant. Now I had already topped this up yesterday, so shouldn’t be an issue, but There could have obviously been a massive leak. Checked it and all ok. Now while I was doing all this, I was awaiting a call back from Mum who I’d tried to ring to get advice (from Nick, not mum lol). So the only other thing I can think to check is the oil, whether it’s a potential issue or not. Checking the oil on a Bongo is a thankless job! You have to take the cover of the middle unit, where the handbrake is, off. The lift the carpet and unlatch latches on the middle unit and at the front of the seat. I then have to remove all the van paraphernalia connected to the seat – seat tidy, middle section tidy, with all its hooks, clips etc. Right, oil is fine! I set off tentatively, then mum finally rings, she’s with Nan, we chat it out and come to the theory that it could well just be steam from it being a wet night/morning, and the van being hot from going uphill. Crisis over, hopefully!
I had a 3 ½ hour journey to Cork so it had better fair ok. With one stop at a service station (not like ours) I made it to Midleton, east of Cork, at about 4.30pm with no problems. Theres a carpark there, next to the Jameson Distillery, which is geared towards campers. Its free and has water and wastewater facilities, fantastic. I pop to a pub to do some insta blogging, no sign of any charging facilities, so head back to the van for dinner. I couldn’t see the water facilities when I arrived so wasn’t sure there was any. I had thoughts in my head about how to get water the next day, maybe pop to a café, they looked to be open, but I always feel cheeky asking for so many bottles to be topped up. I have a cycle of 6 x 1 litre bottles, which should make it easy to top up every time I pop by shops/cafes, just take one or two each time. But I was running out of water in my under-sink 10 litre tank, and I can’t take that to the shops! I notice that these little things, like getting water, charging, knowing where to sleep for the night, all add to my sense of comfort. I can feel myself being slightly on edge when I don’t know where to get any of these things. Not that I worry, but it does contribute to me not being my most relaxed. The next morning, I found the water supply and was instantly chilled. I can tell when I’m ok with everything and relaxed and comfortable because I start singing, all is well. But it shows how much we rely on these things in everyday life and take them for granted. We run water without a thought when we’re at home. We plug our phones/laptops in at home, at work, and know we’re only a couple of hours away from charging if needs be. Being in the van I am constantly thinking about where I could get water/charge. I don’t want it to run my routine, as being in the van is meant to be a release and an escape from governed life. It’s not that easy. We need water most importantly. I used 4 litre bottles this morning for a cuppa, washing myself and washing up. But we also need charge, to communicate, to navigate, to research, to plan.
Storm Dave was forecast for this evening in Cork, it’s been blowy all day, the drive over on the motorways I had to hold the steering wheel tight. I parked all snuggled between two big campervans in the hope this would protect me, but the evening and night was as still as anything.