ZigZag Wanderer

Monday 15th September 2025

The expected front/storm landed at around 1am. I’d agonized somewhat as to whether I should take down the ‘sun shade’ (there’s a misnomer for you) and drop the pop top, but decided to risk it. And on waking this morning it seems I was justified. I certainly wouldn’t have risked it in one or two of the other spots we’ve parked up in!

The worst ‘damage’ I can see is that the sunshade is covered in fallen leaves. I’ll take that.

This is the first time we’ve had the opportunity to deploy the ‘shade’, so I’m pretty happy with it, overall. Mind you, I set it up with the (supplied) storm straps, pegged down with the Delta Pegs that I always use at stress points on awnings and tents, so I was fairly confident.

How anyone who camps doesn’t use Deltas is beyond me. They’re amazing things. Rock solid, unlike most other, even very expensive, aftermarket pegs. Best design ever without a shadow of a doubt.

Anyroadup; today was another one designed to force us to keep our heads down. We did take a walk, second-guessing the temporary mid-afternoon lull in the nastiness, down to the nearby Lough Corrib, which is pretty huge, but sadly not much is visible from the one and only walkable vantage point. Still, it blew away some of the cobwebs.

Tuesday 16th September 2025

Moving-on day at last. And, lo! The sun’s out and there’s no wind. Whisper it…

At least, at last(!),we were able to pack away in the dry, which is always a blessing compared with getting everything soaked (that isn’t already soaked) while trying to stuff it in the van.

It remained fair for the drive into Galway City too, so we were feeling quite optimistic, but after trawling around the various car parks only to be thwarted by ridiculously low barriers we decided that Galway City didn’t want/need/deserve our money, and headed back out. A shame, as we’ve heard good things about the place, but it just wasn’t to be.

Re-planning on the fly, as it were, we headed south again in the general direction of the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher.

Did I mention rocks before?

There’s an awful lot of rock there at Murrooghtoohy Geopark; specifically limestone. Tip! If you, like M, wish to see these rocks, get your skates on. Apparently erosion caused by rain (there’s a lot of rain…) means there’ll be none left in five to ten million years. Don’t say I didn’t warn ye!

On, then, to the Cliffs of Moher.

Here, you can pay to look at… rocks.

OK, cynicism aside, it’s a World Heritage Site (or something like that) and the cliffs are actually pretty impressive, and it’s all very well laid-out and maintained. Also, as we did, you can choose to book a visit after 4pm, which saves a fair chunk of change. What a business though. Even though it’s mid September, the place was crawling with visitors from all over the planet. Upkeep aside, it should certainly hold its own, financially.

Cliffs…

…and more cliffs

Look! Seen more rocks. Happy again.

Next step was to look for a park-up for the night, so Search for Sites was deployed, and turned up a likely looking spot in Kildysart on the north shore of the Shannon estuary. It’s classed as a ‘community aire’ and has very decent facilities (water, dumping, showers, toilets) and for a voluntary contribution of 10€ is a fair bargain.

Sadly, the weather closed in yet again, so we’ll likely be confined to quarters for the evening.

Tide’s out, but not a bad view tonight.

It’s just a short walk into the village, and with the weather supposedly taking a turn for the (much) better overnight and tomorrow, we’ll no doubt have a wander up there after breakfast.

Wednesday 17th September 2025

Up, to the unmistakable sound of the curlews, and the sight of an egret dabbing in the mud-lined fringes of the Shannon below us.

Pretty perfect, really.

OK, the weather wasn’t quite what Aunty Beeb had led us to expect; quite blowy and with the occasional hint of wet in the air, but it was still highly acceptable given some of our recent experiences.

We had intended to walk into the village this morning, but revised that plan, getting on the road and off in search of petrol and coffee – duly nailed at a very well appointed Texaco just a few miles up the road towards Shannon. Much needed in both cases.

Shannon itself passed us by with no real evidence of its existence except for a few road signs and the odd aeroplane looking for a landing strip, and we hit the non-toll bit of the M18 for Limerick.

There was an old man from Rugby

Who put to sea in a tug(by)

But was absolutely shite at short-form poetry...

The end.

That’s enough of that then.

Limerick is the first (or last, to be more accurate) point at which you can cross the River Shannon by road, and so we did,

followed very shortly by a visit to the Lidl for provisions, and the makings of a quick lunch to be eaten on the southern bank of the river at the port of Foynes.

Foynes, Co. Limerick

Driving further west along the river estuary, it quickly becomes apparent just how vast it is, and why it’s home to so many ports and power stations.

Looking West…

…and East

Again, you just can’t do nature justice with mere snaps.

We drifted on into Kerry, eventually entering the Dingle peninsula, with the first mountains we’ve seen for a few days, to our left, and the ocean to the right. We’d noted an ‘aire’ type of motorhome stopover, The Bridge Field, at Magherabeg. This one comes in at €10 per 24 hours (important, that, as many ‘proper’ campsites consider an overnight stop to be a 20 hour turnaround at best, and generally want to charge you two or three – or more – times as much for the privilege). Michael’s site is level, very well kept, has multiple hook-ups (extra fiver per 24 hours. We didn’t need it) and fresh water points, together with grey and black dumping. It also has views of the mountains on one side, and a long beach a few steps from the other side.

We loved it.

As did Lacy love our long walk on the beach, off lead, running like a nutter. She’ll sleep tonight.

Wednesday 10th September 2025

As beautiful and as beautifully peaceful as Tullagh Beach was, the weather certainly took a turn for the worse. A front moved in (shades of Malin, Rockall, Hebrides for those who recall the Shipping Forecast being a fixture on the wireless set) with squally winds and associated rain, buffeting the van in its rather exposed position all night and well into the morning. Nothing scary; not even concerning, but a reminder of what is to come when the autumn storms begin to kick in (hopefully not before we go home!).

Choosing to keep our heads down a bit longer than usual, we eventually struck south for Buncrana, hoping to find a suitably dog-friendly café for a bit of lunch, but failing miserably. So, on southwards we went to Letterkenny, and struck gold with the Honey Pot, which served us pulled pork burger and pulled pork Eggs Benedict, both of which were superb. Washed down with really good coffee, and then more coffee with muffins, we were glad we’d missed breakfast, and sure we were also going to miss dinner. And so it transpired. Still stuffed at 7.30pm!

The weather hadn’t bucked its ideas up much by then, though, and indeed was chucking it down as we walked back to the van. Soft, warm, Irish rain, though…

We had a decision to make now. Either head west towards the Atlantic coast, or north to look at another lump of rock M wanted to look at.

M won.

Next stop then, via Lidl for odds and ends and bottled water, was Great Pollet Sea Arch, which conveniently provided a park-up with a view too, so that’s us for the night – just a tiny bit (latitude-wise) south of where we were last night, after a good many miles to get here.

Ah well. We have time.

Seen rocks. Happy now.

Thursday 11th September 2025

Wet and windy.

The weather wasn’t much better either. We were very much on the highest point for some distance around us, overlooking the lough and sea, and it got very blowy in the night!

Today was the time to reposition ourselves somewhat, as we’d probably spent a fair bit more time in the north of the island than originally planned.

So, we headed towards Donegal with the intention of viewing more rocks. Big, mountainy ones this time, though.

We’d seen a particular area featured on a You Tube video, and it looked rather scenic, so why not?

The Eagle’s Rock

As usual, it’s impossible to convey such majesty with photos, but trust me, these are majestic, and well worth the detour down some nadgery little roads.

A small section of the Horseshoe. Far more impressive in the flesh.

We could’ve spent a lot more time exploring, but sadly the weather (on and off torrential rain) made it impractical. We have nowhere to dry off, and that would make things very uncomfortable in a small van.

Instead we drove on to Glencar Lough for a light lunch (sausage rolls, almond slice, coffee) at the dog-friendly cafe there. Good, it was, too, and it sheltered us nicely from yet another torrential downpour.

We’d contemplated staying overnight there, but it just didn’t feel right, somehow, so drove on, through Sligo, to Dunmoran Beach.

There’s nowt there, but a few vans, rather bizarrely, a sauna(!), and a long and beautiful stretch of sand. And I managed to picture it during a couple of uncharacteristically dry spells.

It’ll certainly do us for the night.

Friday 12th September 2025

We awoke to the rumble of the Atlantic rollers just a few metres away, a fair bit of sunshine, and the by now obligatory rain – but only a few spots here and there.

It was a quiet night again, with only two other vans here.

It was nice to just laze around in (mostly) good weather for a change, so we were content to sit and watch the surf, eat a slow breakfast, and do a bit of planning.

After more than a week on the road in Ireland we’ve come to a few conclusions:

• There is a remarkable paucity of waste bins. We’ve been carrying our garbage for a couple of days, and being a small van, it’s taking up too much room.

• The van is too small for two full-sized two-leggeds and a medium-sized quadruped. We knew that, of course, but, y’know, try owt once, etc.
• We need a campsite for a few nights to do a bit of a reset, have decent showers, do a bit of laundry (see above two points).

All that said, we’re having a grand time in beautiful scenery, among some of the friendliest people you could wish to meet (apart from the English tourists, natch).

Heading south, then, we skirted Lough Conn and Lough Cullin – the former appearing pretty vast, before stopping in Castlebar for some Lidl provisions.

We had earlier booked into a campsite for three nights, starting tonight, at Cong, about 40km north west of Galway. On the way, we passed through Ballinrobe. Never heard of the place, but it almost seems to be the crossroads of western Ireland. There were huge traffic queues in every direction for no apparent reason other than basically there being no logic whatsoever to the layout of the roads. There appears to be an effort to route it all around the perimeter of the town centre, but no thought, or controls, at any of the junctions. As a result, it’s a free-for-all. If it were France, there’d be murders and a falling of the government!

We eventually checked in at Cong Camping around mid-afternoon; with the trip – and our arrival – marred by the inevitable return of the torrential stuff. Oh boy.

It’s an OK enough place. More of a bunkhouse kinda thing, with moho hard-standing pitches and very decent-sized hard/grass ‘awning’ pitches at the very far end. We chose the latter, and it’s certainly quiet. We’re surrounded by trees and very high hedges. But as yet there’s no sign of any Viets…

Cong was the setting for the John Ford film ‘The Quiet Man’ which starred John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara. It still plays on it, some 73 years later, with a museum dedicated to the film. Ward Bond also features in the film – a long way from Wagon Train though.

Saturday 13th September 2025

Nothing much to report. It was a dull, very wet day, so it was spent showering, reading, drinking copious quantities of T and C, and eating. And trying to avoid the rain. At least having a hook-up we have been able to use our little fan heater to keep warm instead of burning our gas supplies in the blown-air Propex. That thing IS a little beast (the Propex) heating the van very quickly, and thermostatically controlled too. Gas consumption seems moderate as well.

Sunday 14th September 2025

It really is quiet though, as everyone else in this area left this morning. Something I said? I have had a shower!

I did say to someone before we left England that I expected to return in five and a bit weeks covered in moss. I was joking of course (mostly), but I’m beginning to wonder. The falling-down-stuff appears to be in for much of the week, with the added gloss of very strong gales hooleying in tomorrow, which is when we’re supposed to be packing up…

There has been, therefore, a slight change of plan. We’ll stay here one more night (boo!) as it’s relatively safe and sheltered (compared to some exposed Atlantic coast marina or car park, at least). Tuesday appears to be a little more settled, unless that changes, so we’ll strike camp in the morning and drive into Galway city – one of the places I wanted to explore. I’m not sure there are any rocks there though, so M may not be too chuffed.

There’s one more major change to report: From the 20th, we’ll be ensconsed in a wee converted barn for a week. M has decided, quite rightly, that we need a ‘holiday’. I can’t disagree.

It looks really lovely, and is very good value for money too. It’ll give us a base to ditch the stuff out of the van, sort things properly, and also do a bit of exploring without the van being rammed with kit. It’s in an area that we are slightly familiar with (near Bantry, which we spent a day at thirty-odd years ago, while holidaying at Crookhaven, Co. Cork). It’s also close enough to the Ring of Kerry, which we haven’t done, and the Ring of Beara, which we have, but was lovely, from memory.

Looking forward to it, I must admit.

Anyway, by early afternoon, we were all pretty stir-crazy and there appeared to be a slight break in the wetness, so we decided to walk to Cong. It’s a fair step (about 5000 in the round trip according to M’s magic step-counting watch) but we welcomed the exercise.

Queen-Cong

We were under the impression that there was not much there, but it turned out to be a rather decent place to spend an hour or two. There are quite a few shops, pubs, and cafés. Lots of waterways (little Venice-ish) and ducks, and ruined church and abbey to explore.

Abbey…

…and church ruins

Of course there are the inevitable references to The Quiet Man, on various film-set houses and pub etc, plus a bronze of Wayne and O’Hara.

It’s all well-kept too, and really doesn’t feel like it’s trying too hard, neatly dispelling my earlier cynicism.

I like it!

One oddity that caught my attention was an arrangement that was supposed to be in honour of those who served during Covid, but also carried handprints of various celebs (!) mostly done before the Covid period, including David O’Donnell (a singer I believe?), a previous Rose of Tralee winner, and for some reason Pat Lam, former Samoa and NZ international and currently coach of Bristol Bears Rugby. My claim to fame now is that I have bigger hands than the All Black No.8 ☺️

Oh, and by 6.30pm we had five neighbours. I get the impression they were looking at the upcoming storm and were taking shelter. Who could blame them?

Monday 8th September 2025

A fine morning greeted us at Glenarm, but we were ready to trek northwest towards the Causeway. What a beautiful road the Causeway Coast Road is too. Sweeping panoramas across the sea as far as Scotland again. Twists and turns. Cliffs and glens. It has it all.

Reaching The Giant’s Causeway itself, you’re faced with a choice of a long walk to the area (possibly from Bushmills) or a rather hefty charge for the NT visitor centre – or a slightly lesser one from a nearby car park. We chose the latter.

It’s still a fair walk from there, but very doable.

Look how happy she is to see her pile of rocks at last

I don’t know how long it took to lay all those blocks, but whoever did it deserved their bonuses. I can’t believe Finn/Fionn did it all on his lonesome, even if he was very big-boned.

There’s a lot of it too…

We finished with a well deserved coffee at the Causeway Hotel after the mostly uphill tab back out.

M’s next agenda item was to visit her ancestral home, not far away – Dunluce Castle. I think she had plans to move in, but changed her mind when she saw the state the last residents had left it in. Tch.

A few tiles short of a roof.

From there, we kept the coast to our right as far as possible passing through Portrush and Portstewart but were forced to turn inland for several miles to skirt Coleraine and cross the River Bann there before heading north again towards tonight’s park-up at Castlerock.

Once again, it’s not exactly Blackpool (thank the Lord) but it’s pleasant enough, and has an absolutely beautiful soft-sandy beach that goes on and on. Lacy had a ball.

The park-up is not the prettiest as it’s just a small car park at the entrance to the Black Glen. It overlooks a caravan park, sadly, but at least there’s a sea view over the top of the sea of aluminium.

It’ll do for the night, however, and certainly seems quiet enough.

It’s pretty chilly though, under the clear sky. Autumn’s just around the headland (so’s Eire!) so it’s heating switched-on and shut-up-shop time.

Tuesday 9th September 2025

Cool and dull, with a few spots of H2O. Nothing like enough to dampen the follicles though.

It was a very quiet night again. I’m beginning to wonder where the youth of Ireland do their doughnuts and boom-boom music – but complain I not.

We set off at around 11, heading for Derry’s bypass road that cuts across the mighty Foyle River (and it really is wide just there) at the foot end of what I take to be the second largest lough. First stop; Muff, right on the border just north of Derry, for fuel and coffee at the very well appointed Spar. Perhaps we should’ve filled the tank in NI, as I think it’s cheaper there, but I haven’t worked the conversion. I probably won’t either, as it’s done now.

Next stop – at the other end of the Inishowen peninsula – Malin Head. Northernmost point of Ireland, and the beginning (or indeed end) of the Wild Atlantic Way.

That’s what it says (you can just pick out the van in the background).

We’d originally intended to pick up the WAW a bit further down, but we kinda accidentally ended up here, so it’s nice to be able to do the whole thing, from here to Cork-way.

We’ll also take in Mizen Head (brings back great memories of a wonderful holiday around those parts when the girls were young) thus completing the North-South traverse of the island.

View from the Head

A quick sandwich lunch in the van later, and we were off back the way we came, right-turning just south of Malin village, en-route to Tullagh Bay beach for another very wild park-up overlooking the whole length of this beautiful strand. Surrounded by mountains and crashing waves just feet away, it’s pretty perfect here..

One thing. Having returned to the Republic, we’ve once again lost the use of our cheapo tracker, which relies on a 2g signal. Guess what? EE have already shut down their 2g service here, so that’s done for that.

Oh well; just Polar Steps routes from now on then… Poor show. Sorry!

Saturday 6th September 2025

Even though last night’s park-up was near-perfect; scenic and peaceful, we thought this morning was time to move on and recover a little of our disrupted schedule, such as it is.

Erne to Glenarm (and Mull of Kintyre, SW Scotland, in the top RH corner…)

Enniskillen to Glenarm is a fair schlep from (near) the west coast to County Antrim’s east coast. The roads are decent enough, though (except when that bleddy Google Maps doesn’t know what it’s doing. Nothing unusual there) and with a late start and a stop in Omagh’s Lidl for provisions, we saw the sea around mid-afternoon.

Sure and you know you’re in Ireland when there are cars randomly parked in the middle of the road

Glenarm is pretty enough, although there’s little here. What it does have, though, is otters browsing for their supper in the harbour water below (not a good photo opportunity, sadly, as it’s just too dark) as we eat our own pasta supper. It also has a view of the the Mull of Kintyre.

Mull of Kintyre from the harbour wall

Surprisingly close it is too, and clearly visible now the mistiness of earlier has cleared.

Northern Ireland Tourist Board approved, I’ll have you know! (Maybe thirty years ago…)

There’s also a burger van, which smells good, if that’s your thing (and the coffee was pretty decent and very cheap). And apparently you can order takeaways for delivery in the pubs, which are very happy for you to consume them there (Chinese food is no doubt good for the beer trade!).

We’ve settled for the night at the Glenarm Marina, which welcomes motorhomes and campervans, with pretty decent facilities, and is totally free. Take note England, as I may well have said before…

Nice, long, beach. We’re at the far end – arrowed. Beach is much sandier at that end

All being well, we’ll stay here tomorrow night too before making our way along the Causeway road on Monday.

Glenarm Marina by night.

Sunday 7th September 2025

What a miserable day, weather-wise. Heavy rain or drizzle most of the time, with short spells of slight brighness (and that’s being kind to it).

We walked up to the tea rooms in the castle grounds, but… no dags!

So we walked back into the village and spent our money in the Cove Café instead. What a difference. A warm welcome, plenty of tables, good coffee, and great cakes. And they were obviously dog lovers. Highly recommended.

The rest of the afternoon was just spent hunkered down in the van, reading, drinking tea and coffee, and generally avoiding the weather. Her Lacyship looked fit to burst though. Poor thing just wants to run on the beach. Too wet, too windy, and too tide-in though.

And that was pretty much Sunday. Tomorrow, we roll north and west along the lovely Antrim coast, hopefully in slightly better weather.

Across the Irish Sea we go

3rd September 2025

It was a foul start to the morning, and an early one, as we had to be in place in the ferry queue before 7.15am. We’d almost forgotten what proper rain was, but we soon had our memories refreshed. It was throwing it down.

Number of passengers in the ‘Pet Den’: Three (M, mesen, and her Lacyship)!

Seems chilled enough

Mind you, within half an hour of departure, the outlook had vastly improved to the point we could actually see what looked very much like the normal horizon. Perhaps things were looking up?

The Wicklow Mountains and Dublin (just about)

Dublin seemed to hove into view almost too quickly, and the EE ‘welcome to Eire’ message popped up little more than an hour after leaving Wales, enabling me to quickly (re)publish yesterday’s blog before we descended into the Cyprus-registered ship’s diesel-stinky bowels once more (via a lift as Lacy is decidely anti steel-open-tread stairs).

As usual with us, there was an issue with getting off the ferry due to lorry trailers blocking a couple of rows (including ours) in, meaning it took far longer to move than it should’ve. However, once outside, it all went smoothly and quickly enough, including the pet control checkpoint, run by a lovely lady who gave us the almost-obligatory ‘welcome home’ greeting!

After fighting the Dublin traffic (fairly grim), we emerged onto the N3 heading northwest through the on-off rain showers (mostly ‘off’ fortunately) and Navan and Cavan, and thence to Killykeen forest park for a couple of hours and a sandwich and coffee. We’d thought about staying the night; it’s a lovely and peaceful spot, but there’s some doubt whether overnight parking is allowed (reviews vary on this point on Search for Sites) so we moved on, fortified, to the private marina at Ballinamore. This charges 15€ per night, but has full facilities, is obviously right by the water, and is nice and secure, so no complaints here. Try and get that kind of price for a night on a campsite with EHU, water, dumping, toilets, and showers.

There was one minor problem on setting up, though. Hooking up to the power post resulted in nada electric, and had the marina’s owner fetching us a known good cable, to no avail. It turned out to be the van’s ‘fusebox’ which had either tripped, or more likely, been accidentally switched off while we were packing. It was sorted quite quickly

Looking East…

…and west.

It’s pleasant enough too, and just a short amble to the town centre – so we may well stay for a couple of nights.

4th September 2025

Well, that was a really peaceful night

We both (all) slept pretty well, which is not surprising given that we didn’t sleep too well the night before, and it was a long travel day.

We awoke to sun and showers – some really bright ,warm sun, and some quite heavy showers. But it’s warm enough, and it dried up by 2pm, so no worries (apart from Lacy’s POV as she just loves lying outside, but no way do we need a wet dog in the van!).

A sturdy brunch with copious amounts of tea and coffee set us up nicely for a wander up into Ballinamore.

It’s a funny little town, but very friendly, if you can go by the greetings in the street, the compliments re. Lacy, and the service in the cafe where we topped up our caffeine levels.

It’s also very much a republican town, celebrating councillor and Sinn Féin man John Joe McGirl – an ‘unbroken and unbreakable Fenian’ with a large polished and well cared-for memorial. His is an eye-opening story that bears looking up.

Just along from there, by the the walkway between the bifurcated channels of the canal navigation, is a weir dropping the one course level noisily some six or eight feet, with an adjacent corresponding lock on the parallel navigation.

The weir and the public marina beyond

It’s not a busy stretch of water here at this time of the year, but we’ve been passed by a narrowboat, a couple of large cruisers, and a few utilitarian-looking barges. Most of the vessels moored here at the private marina don’t look as though they see much service though – and a good many would benefit from a good stiff brushing down!

There were a couple of fancy looking craft at the public marina, which is run by Waterways Ireland, however. There’s free overnighting available there too, and it was on our radar for our first night(s) , but the lure of the private marina just won out as we were still finding our feet in Eire. Had we been a bit further into the trip, I reckon we’d have used it, and it really does look a pleasant spot. Waterways Ireland smart cards are also available to purchase, which give access to showers etc. at all their many marina-type facilities, and would be a worthwhile purchase if we were staying in the area longer rather than heading off towards the north coast tomorrow. Maybe if we’re passing again…

Time to settle in for the evening though, and to plan tomorrow’s route to the Giant’s Causeway (tourist trap? Maybe, maybe not, but it’s on the list!).

When you buy a campervan or motorhome, you should always bear in mind that, even though it was what you wanted when you bought it, it really wasn’t what you wanted at all.

What I mean by that (and see our older blogs on the old motorhome for further evidence) is that there are always, always, things that you wish that the manufacturer or previous owner had done differently, or added, or even not added. It could be something very insignificant in the real world, like having a couple of coat hooks by the door or in a bathroom, or it could be something really quite major like having a (leisure) charging system that actually works to the point that living off-grid becomes feasible. One is obviously quite cheap; the latter can be very expensive.

In the case of the original ZZW, we went to fairly great lengths in converting a brand new moho from what was a short-stay holiday home at best into something that we could comfortably live in for long periods of time while travelling on the continent. That we only did that for a couple of years is a matter for discussion elsewhere, and again, is covered to a fair extent elsewhere, so I don’t propose to revisit it all here.

So, what did we decide to look for when we (Admin*) decided it was time to get back on the road?

Firstly, with Admin – sorry, M – having somewhat shot knees (by her own admission) and not wishing to over-test them on long journeys, the first requirement was for an auto transmission vehicle. This obviously meant looking for something that had a reasonable power output (there’s nothing worse than an underpowered auto IMO). Next, it had to be small enough to fit a standard parking space and go under most if not all barriers even with a pop-top roof installed. Really, that’s the list of criteria covered

This, then, reduces the list of suitable vehicles considerably to (not exclusively) the like of VW Transporters, Mazda Bongos, Mitsubishi Delicas, Toyota Alphards/Vellfires, and Nissan Elgrands. We very quickly discounted the VW option due to the significant on-cost of buying a late T6 or T6.1, together with its ubiquity. I don’t feel that earlier models offer much in the way of durability either, certainly compared to the Japanese opposition, even though they’re still subject to the VW ‘scene tax’. Which brought us to the oriental offerings, all of which are Japanese Domestic grey imports, and therefore not so plentiful as their Teutonic counterparts. I say counterparts, but the obvious difference here is that the JDMs are basically cars which are built to appeal to those wishing to drive Japanese roads in a measure of style and comfort (and if you were to investigate later Alphards in particular you’d see what I mean) whereas VW Transporters are conceived as delivery/builder’s vans and occasionally as ‘people carriers’ or campervans. While there is nothing wrong with that, the vans are certainly set up as vans (although the cabins are comfy and well specced enough) with van suspension and van levels of trim in the load areas. They can be ‘crashy’ to drive, and certainly don’t have the refinement levels of the JDMs. They’re not meant to!

We researched all the JDMs, and fairly quickly came to the conclusion that a recently-imported and professionally-converted Alphard or Vellfire came close to our requirements. They’re pretty much the same tbh, with minor differences in headlights and so on. And so we landed on a 2006 Alphard that had been imported a couple of years earlier by All Seasons (Durham way I think) and converted by them into a side-kitchen pop-top camper. It was advertised on Facebook by its first owner, and after a very long phone conversation with him, we decided it was worth the drive over to the Norfolk Broads the next day. The immediate impression on seeing it was of how clean it was inside and out (and underneath) which is always a good start. After a long and detailed inspection we went for a fairly long and detailed test drive through the Broads, and it quickly became obvious that it was a thoroughly well-maintained gem!

So we bought it there and then, and drove it to a campsite near Kings Lynn for our first overnight, complete with guard dog Lacy!.

It was fine. No, really, it worked pretty well – although we were on a hook-up electric pitch, so why wouldn’t it? There’s the rub, though. We don’t always want to be on an electric pitch. We often prefer to use Aires (French Aires de Camping Car, but there are a few in the UK now, administered by CAMPRA (Campaign for Real Aires), also German Stellplatz, and similar areas in most European countries) and Temporary Holiday Sites (Camping Club), or even ‘wild’ (sorry, crappy name for an off-grid parking spot) park-ups, most of which rarely have hook-ups. Phew – that sentence got a bit out of hand; apologies. The Camping Club (these days Camping and Caravanning Club, and the Caravan and Motorhome Club also licence a selection of ‘Certificated’ Sites or Locations (CS and CL). These are small five-unit, plus sometimes a few tents, sites privately owned, but licensed through the clubs. They tend to be slightly cheaper than club sites (although many owners seem to be stretching their prices somewhat alarmingly since Covid), and potentially quieter, which appeals to us greatly.

The common denominator to most of these sites/park-ups is that mostly (or the ones we’re most likely to use) don’t have electric hook-ups. Which brings us back to the major mod of them all – a reasonably decent off-grid 12v system.

We decided against a full-blown inverter-and-big-battery system on the grounds of cost, packaging constraints, and the fact that having done that before, it really didn’t give all the advantages it could have (for us – other people’s needs differ). Yes, you can go all-electric, stripping out the gas, which we did before apart from retaining gas for hot water, but we don’t envisage going on quite such long jaunts as we did in the original ZZW, and the returns are rather limited. So, we decided to go with a small lithium battery of 100ah (which still more than doubles the available power output that the original 80ah wet battery was capable of). Remember that wet or gel batteries can only effectively output half their rated capacity meaning that 80ah equates to about 40ah real world availability before you potentially screw up the battery for good!

To charge this, we decided on a combined 30amp dc-dc/solar charger, and a 150w CIGS-type solar panel mounted permanently on the pop-top.

Not being all that confident/equipped for converting the original system, I contacted Bruce Lauderdale once again and somehow managed to persuade him to come down from Sheffield for a weekend (it turned out to be a weekend-plus-half-of-Monday…) to do the work. I say somehow, as he nearly had kittens when I told him all the kit I’d bought was Renogy stuff. Bruce doesn’t like Renogy stuff, but the deal I got on it all meant that our preferred Victron kit went right out of the window. I just hope it wasn’t a mistake.

Anyway, as usual, Bruce made an impeccable job of stripping out the Sargent unit and split charger, and installing the new kit – which wasn’t as straightforward as it might have been, but he got there. As a bonus, everything fitted under the driver’s seat, so we also gained a fair chunk of cupboard space too.

Under the seat: Chargers and Battery

If anyone needs top quality electrical work doing on their van or motorhome, I can’t recommend Bruce highly enough. He can be contacted at Powerhouse Off Grid on 0114 470 4562 or admin@powerhouseoffgrid.com. check out their Facebook page and website at http://www.powerhouseoffgrid.com

I’ve also made a few more relatively insignificant mods to improve storage, comfort etc:

The small ‘centre console’ (not really: it’s just a low box installed between the seats that can be easily stepped over, rather than the OEM tall one) had nothing lining it so was noisy and rattly. This, I covered internally with stretch carpet, which is so much better.

‘Console’ (it also has a lift-off lid btw)

I also made a new shelf for the cupboard where the Sargent electrical supply unit had sat, and this has increased storage quite a bit. And while doing that I lowered the shelf in the adjacent open cupboard slightly, providing a small lip at the front so baskets can be used in there without sliding out every time we take a right-hand turn!

Where there once was a power supply unit, there are now more beans, honey, packs of pasta, etc…

…and baskets on a slightly lowered shelf

On the lighting and power sockets front, I’d already put in a twin mains socket with a couple of built-in USB outlets, and also added a couple of twin USB outlets to be accessible from each side of the bed.

Sockets: 230v, 12v and 5v (and spice racks; lower one hiding the hole where the original Sargent control panel lived)

Lighting was also improved with a dimmable/rechargeable/removeable lamp in the rear of the pop-top’s aperture.

QD rechargeable lamp unit

We decided that the flooring also needed a bit of an upgrade, so M deftly installed a fully fitted carpet which was fashioned from our old now-unused hearth rug – and rather good it looks too, I think.

New(ish) carpet

At the same time I modified the rock and roll bed’s front mounting position, bringing it a few inches forward which gave the seat back rather more recline angle, making it a lot more comfortable than the original bolt-upright position.

Rear seat base now sits about four inches forward of stock position for slightly improved lounging comfort

Back on the storage front, two subtle mods also help. Firstly, I simply removed the board (with its small hinged door) from the rear of the bed frame, thus giving much better access to all the space beneath the bed/rear seat. It was hopeless before. Now it’s much easier to cram in lots of kit. An easy but so-beneficial mod.

Before…

…and after

M also bought an Olpro storage bag which hangs from the back of the front passenger seat. This has multiple pockets for storing dog poo bags, treats, etc. etc.. It wasn’t easy to secure the bottom of it, and I’m not entirely happy with the way I’ve done it, so will revisit at some point.

Poo (bag) space

And finally, M brightened up the interior somewhat by adding strings of yellow flowers (fake, obvs) around the pop-top aperture. Very pretty!

Just like a florist’s shop. (Or maybe not)

I’m sure there are other small changes that I’ve forgotten about – oh, yes, rubber mats in the front footwells replacing the hideous ones that came with it – but that will do for now…

*I guess I could call myself Admin now really as M does virtually all the driving, but not having a name that is a reshuffle of the constituent letters of Admin, I won’t).

Blog 8.1 – Smaller. Quicker. Quieter. Thirstier

It’s certainly smaller and quicker.

it’s definitely quieter.

And it’s probably a bit thirstier (but cheaper overall).

By the way, this is a new series of blogs, rather than being an add-on to the previous series which is still available here. Blog 7.1 gives a little more insight too.

Those that followed our previous ZigZag Wanderer blog will know it was mostly about our travels in Western Europe in our 2022 6.7m Weinsberg Caracompact motorhome. However, if you’d been following closely you would have noticed that we had a few. erm. issues; namely eyes, something, something, something. I won’t go into it all here.

Anyroadup, the Weinsberg went (yes, we lost some money and a lot of development time if you class all the upgrades as that), and we bought a teeny tiny Toyota to replace it.

No, it’s not the normal Proace van (which is basically Stellantis anyway) or whatever, but a Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) Alphard that’sbeen around in Japan since about 2002.

On Guard, Lacy

As you might be able to ascertain, it’s a ‘People-carrier’ or MPV type of thing, which comes with, I think, seven or eight seats depending on spec level. This one is pretty old though, and I have no idea of its provenance in that respect. I suppose I could find out, but I can’t be bothered. What I do know is that, being a 2006 model, its designation is AH10. Later designs were called AH20 and AH30, with the latter I believe still being available in a few far eastern markets. They were never built in a LHD version anyway, so the markets for it are definitely limited (Japan, Australia, NZ etc) but are of course eminently suitable for UK roads. They have their foibles of course, in our case the vehicle came with an automatic toll reader and a radio that operates on different wavelengths to ours. Neither of these are particular issues though, just a redundant aerial in the windshield in the first case, and I’ve replaced the radio with an Alpine unit. (To be strictly accurate, the first UK owner had already replaced it with a fairly basic Kenwood unit, but I wanted a bit more functionality, DAB and so on).

There are quite a few over here, it seems, though, and we’ve seen a few, in Cornwall and in Lincolnshire, as well as locally. All are private imports, with some being kept in their ‘MPV’ many-seated spec as family cars (ideal, too), while many, like ours, have been converted to various styles of campervan. Ours is a traditional side kitchen and ‘rock and roll’ bed type like so many VW Transporters, while quite a few are rear kitchen variants. You pays your money, etc. The original import and conversion was done by All Seasons up in County Durham (or maybe Newcastle – I can never work it out for some reason. All I know is that when I called them with a query during our early days of ownership they were less than helpful. Fortunately we have New Acre just down the road near Alcester, and they have a fabulous reputation in this field. We’ll certainly use them if it becomes necessary).

Bailiff’s Cottage, Suffolk, June 2024

Speaking of which, the Alphard, like most Toyotas – and we speak from the experience of having owned a few – has a very good reputation for reliability. If it didn’t, we’d’ve shied away given the fact that Toyota doesn’t specifically support the model in the UK for obvious reasons. Having said that, though, although we haven’t had to prove it ourselves as yet, many owners report that some dealers will often go out of their way to source parts. There are many Facebook Alphard groups too, and a web forum, along with a couple or three You Tubers who are good sources of information. Service kits are easily available on Ebay etc, and of course any decent local garage (in our case the wonderful Tollgate Garage here in ‘incleh) will service and MOT them. Fortunately, too, many parts are interchangeable with other Toyota models such as Camry and RAV4, and the engines (2.4 litre 160bhp four-cylinder chain-driven camshaft petrol in our case) are mostly bulletproof, to use an oft-misused phrase.

Peak Forest (with barbecue smoke), May 2025

Which brings us onto running costs, and that ‘Thirstier‘ part of the title. It’s not that bad, in truth. In fully-laden camping trim, and given that the torque converter transmission is only a four-speed, it returns around 25mpg, which is admittedly no better than our previous much larger and heavier (and diesel) moho. However, petrol’s that bit cheaper, and for the comfort and quietness of the ride, we’ll take that. The days of a commercial van-based coachbuilt crashing over every slight dent in the road, while having to row the gearshift up even the slightest incline, are well behind us.

That’s not to say we don’t miss some aspects of the Caracompact. Oh, those lovely beds… And of course all the electrical mods like the 400w solar, 230ah lithium battery, 50 amp charger etc. No, it was a good van, but we had to trade all that due to a couple of health issues (one each) and we’ll happily live with the compromises if it allows us to resume ZigZag Wandering.

One aspect that is absolutely, definitely not a compromise, is the parkability. What I mean by that is the fact that, being a hair under five metres long, and a couple of thumbnails under two metres high, we can squeeze under virtually any height barrier, and into any car park space. Which is bliss when you look at the corresponding dimensions of the Weinsberg (6.7m and approaching 3m high). Oh the times we were turned back due to our van’s size.

Win win there, then.

So, that’s just an introduction to our new (to us) campervan. Shortly, I’ll do an update on the few mods that have already been completed – and one or two more I’d like to do, and then one on the trips we’ve undertaken thus far (and reveal where and when our next major(ish) tour commences.

See you then.