The Bell Tent at Kinnagoe.

Despite the mammoth trek to our secluded beach, and with some help from our friends, Danny and I carried the famous bell tent and all the necessary accessories needed to make things really comfortable on the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blankets, blankets and more blankets.

 

The guys kept a fire pit going fairly steadily from Thursday until Sunday and produced copious amounts of meat to keep us all sustained. There was even proper coffee with rum for breakfast and locally cut turf, my favourite smell in the world.

 

 

 

The Thai triangle cushions I carted all the way back from Bangkok were worth the extra weight, and having Bob the dog around made it feel like a proper camping trip. On the second night another group of friends arrived and we happily discovered that our tent can easily and cosily shelter ten people from the rain for a solstice party. We woke up to a lazy sunny Saturday.

 

 

 

 

Natural alcoves in the rocks were perfect for holding teacandles.

All in all the air was fresh, the beach was all ours, the company was beloved, the scenery was spectacular, and I'm pretty sure the rocks were magic.

You should go.

 

Summer Solstice at Kinnagoe

 

This weekend past saw a much-anticipated camping trip to Kinnagoe Bay in Donegal with a group of about 12 friends. We treked across the beach in the picture above and then climbed over to the second bay hidden behind the headland.

 

It was a bit of a mission by itself and then we had a 20 kilo tent and everything bar the kitchen sink to drag over there too. If I'd known how epic the walk would be I might have packed a little lighter but at least we were cosy in the bell tent. Poor Danny carried it.

 

 

We stayed up all night to see the solstice sunrise and larked about in the surf.

 

 

And the solstice eve gave way to a most beautiful longest day of the year.

 

Happy Wedding Day

Congratulations to my brother Colm and his new wife Dinali who got married on Thursday on a rare sunny day in Portrush, Northern Ireland and are now in her native Sri Lanka.

 

Life is good.

 

 More photos to follow.

Touring Ireland

 

My tour guiding course continues, this time with a trip down the Ards Peninsula and to Mount Stewart (above). We had a tour of the house, home to Lord and Lady Londonderry for many years and now owned by the national trust.  

The head gardener also gave us a tour of the amazing garden and I saw giant shamrock, the likes of which I've never seen before.

 

I also did my first ever paid tour recently - a one hour coach tour of Belfast - in Spanish! It took a lot of preparation and not a little help from my mother but I got through it without any major disasters and am really quite proud of myself. The tour ended at the new Titanic Belfast museum, below.

adventures with a bell tent

 

 

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A full seven months after buying my beautious bell tent, Danny and I finally got a weekend with decent enough weather to get out and use it. We went to Tullymore Forest Park in Newcastle, Co.Down and got a spot with a view over the forest and the tallest mountain in Ulster - Slieve Donard.

 

Bell tents are pretty easy to erect because the central pole does most of the work of holding the tent up, and I brought lots of throws, thai cushions and a proper feather duvet and pillows to make things comfy.

It's not quite the sumptuous game-of-thrones style tent I've been planning but it's halfway there and there's another camping trip planned with friends for the summer solstice. And next time I'm bringing board games, nights in a tent with no entertainment can be very long!

Carry on camping

 

They may not be the glamourous surroundings I had envisioned, but Danny and I finally put our beloved bell tent up for the first time in his mother's back garden at the weekend.

 

We were really just checking that all the bits and bobs were there so that we're primed and ready to go on many a spontaneous adventure once the sun finally decides to grace us with its presence.

 

It's four meters across and you can stand up inside which is so refreshing compared to the pop-up sweatbox of a tent that we were using before.

The fundamental question is how to decorate it? I'm taking inspiration from the examples below from nativeoutdoors , greenunion and dappercampingclub

Because who goes camping without a full bar in their tent?!

 I know I'll never make that mistake again.