Ireland with a moment of shock

Christian and I drove from the romantic Achill Island further into Donegal, in between we had a night at a loch where we stood free, I'll link that separately.

When we arrived at our campsite on Mulroy Drive near Cranford (there is a great, nice little TV series of the same name that has nothing to do with the place in Ireland), my world was still in order. The roads on the island are sometimes very narrow, they cause dents when the moor causes the road to sink, but I didn't expect the consequences.

I went shopping and Christian took advantage of the time to look at the caravan at 27 degrees in the far north. When he came to a spot where he just wanted to freshen up a little sealant, the shock came. He loosened the strip with the screws and then found out why subsequent generations of caravans have a front made only of plastic. The strips and parts of the base plate had simply rotted away, as had parts of the front panel. Then came the violent awakening, because the journey and of course the rotting mass in the front area had ensured that the body and chassis no longer necessarily viewed themselves as a unit, in other words, there was hardly any connection left that would last for the next few kilometers would have kept waves and bumps in the road. I shudder to think that I was still towing at 90 km/h.

Some readers will now say that you should check the condition of the vehicle before a long trip. My response to these people is that you couldn't see this from the outside and unfortunately also when the underbody protection was being replaced. I don't know anyone who opens the seams on load-bearing components of the caravan or simply removes the side wall without a good reason. Unfortunately, we couldn't see the damage on the inside either, because during the same repair 15 years ago, the co-repairman came up with the idea of lining the inner boxes with Lino and sticking it to the floor. Of course, that was an almost disastrous chain reaction, because the Lino prevented any odor from forming.

When I returned from shopping, I was given the bad news that Christian had just discovered the damage and was now full of doubts and thought that we would have to end our trip now. I'm a realist, but I also have dreams, so I asked him to open everything up and take a close look at the damage. It was an incredible 27 degrees in Cranford, so the plan wasn't unreasonable.

Just 20 minutes later it was clear that Palumbi needed a facelift, having received a lot of spray in recent years. The nice campsite owner (David) immediately offered to help. It started with a cordless screwdriver and then continued with addresses where I could get something. It was an incredible help, because on Friday morning, thanks to his ideas, we not only had tools and materials, but even ready-cut wood.

BUT WAIT: When I talk about WE, I have to clearly emphasize that I fumbled a little, if at all, with exactly 4 screws. Christian did the rest, i.e. overtaking the entire front, all by himself . The 4 days initially estimated for this have shrunk to 1 1/2 because I was at least able to take care of the shopping, exchanges, returns and the dogs for him.

Our host David kept us entertained when it was initially too warm for Irish standards, as I said, 27 degrees for 3 days, then when it got almost 20 degrees cooler overnight, he set up a fire bowl for the campers and provided good entertainment and lots of laughter.

For Christian and I it was a successful conclusion because we were able to celebrate the successful repair of Palumbi with the other campers.

A big thank you to David!