Rare Adventures

Category: Adventures

Stories about travel and adventure

Petrolhead tour: Wild Atlantic Way adventure in Ireland, Part 2

From Bushmills to Donegal

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Refreshed and exciting from the previous day’s events we were up early for a day which started with bright sunshine and a lovely breakfast. So, we were up and ready to go for the next stage of our journey to from Donegal via Londonderry.

Getting out of the small car park was no straightforward task, and as he had managed to find a spot that meant we needed a 3 point turn and by the time the opportunity arrived the procession of cars had already gone – last again and it the day has only just started.

We did catch the group up when they stopped for petrol, and we flew straight past them as we didn’t need fuel – aha we are out in front at last. We didn’t see them again for an hour, which was when we stopped for coffee and they all went flying past us again, the routine of the day was taking shape.

The drive towards Londonderry was pretty busy and not much fun, and it was only when we came out the other side, entered Eire and started to enjoy the empty roads over the mountains and along the coast that things really improved.

We joined the Wild Atlantic Coast that was to be our route for the next 5 days. Luckily, we didn’t follow all the signs or we would have been there for a month as the route follows every coast road, but the OTR guys had done a good job of planning.

A highlight of the first day was travelling a national park that is dedicated to being Bog , so that was a bit of surprise as we travelled through the remote moors. We had our first experiences of the wide open spaces as we travelled over the mountains between Carrickart and Dungloe and the boy racer in our heads in us took over as the cars were put through their paces, driving like a joy rider was a good description.

The OTR guys had another cool safety strategy, one of the cars acts as a pace car and warns the other cars of any oncoming traffic (there wasn’t much) or other things to be aware of. In fact I started to get a feel for the ability of our car that you would never discover on normal driving, the Porsche Cayman is reputed to be the best balanced sports car ever made, and we learned we could handle pretty much any bend at speed, we just lost out when it came to straight line speed. Somehow we managed to pass them all again somehow lose the convoy.

After long day of scenery that took in the stunning cliffs at Sliabh Liag, where once again we bumped into the main body of the group as they hiked up to the cliffs as we were wandering back – but the ice creams were worth it and the cloud formations rolling over the cliffs were totally unique.

The route back into Donegal took is through a place called Kellybegs which had a fleet of monster deep sea trawlers that were clearly geared for long trips out into the Atlantic, they were quite a site moored up around the quays and the smell of fish was everywhere.

Before our arrival at the hotel in Donegal, on the way down the main road we noticed an odd thing that was quite disturbing, there seemed to be a national cull of cuddly toys. Teddy bears were hanging from fences, nailed to telegraph poles and hanging from lamp posts. Whatever the cuddly toys had down wrong the kids were clearly after revenge. Further research identified that this was a tradition linked to a motorbike fund raising charity convoy of bikers, which I have to say did not make some of the scenes any less disturbing.

Mr Blowey arrived and his car developed a new fault, the roof on the convertible wouldn’t go down, which added to a long list of issue. The Mercedes roof is a horribly complicated affair and my technical skills with a hammer were not much use.

Pulling and pushing a range of fuses did little to help the situation. however, help was at hand when Stuart, the Aston Martin owner, appeared with an incredible tool kit. He explained that if you want to own an Aston Martin you needed a lot of tools, which promptly knocked the Aston Martin off my bucket list. After much time in the car park a solution was found, sit on the boot lid to force the electrical connection, and happily it worked and the roof went up, and even down again the next day.

To make matters worse, when Mr Blowey checked in, he had a view of the car park again whilst mine was out over the main entrance, he wasn’t happy but he had had enough stress for one day and we decided beer was the best antidote.

Meanwhile, the ladies decided they had had enough of male company during the day and had an evening to themselves drinking as much Prosecco as they could get their hands on, so us chaps downed red wine, learned a lot more about the intricacies of beef farming near Loch Lomond from Sandy, and hit the pillows.

04/08/2026
Arriving in Cambodia

It was time to leave Vietnam and head for Seip Riem in Cambodia. People normally go to Seip Riem for one reason, to see the Anker Wat temple, and its little cousins spread around the region.

We were expecting something quite similar to Vietnam, being as they are neighbours and share quite a lot of joint history, so it came as a bit of a surprise the level of difference, although if we had flown into Phnom Phen, we would have probably found it a lot more similarities than we did flying into Seip Reim.

First surprise was that we needed an entry visa, which we hadn’t planned for, and an even bigger surprise was that I was down to my last empty passport page, Cambodia needed at least 2 free pages, so this raised a risk level.

The online visa process was straightforward, and despite some nervousness when we got to immigration, it all worked fine and we walked straight through. Cambodia don’t stamp passports; they have full e-borders at airports that Europe and the UK could learn from.

The airport is a long way from the town, must have been about 70km which seemed a very long way across an empty landscape, but the roads were good and the taxi driver was chatty so time passed quickly.

Next surprise was how calm and friendly the people are, in fact Seip Riem is a very calm and tranquil place compared to where we went in Vietnam. The streets are wide, there are parks and a tranquil river running through the city, but the city is very hot.

The calmness may be down to their primary religion being Buddhist, and when you walk around, you are surrounded by temples. The religious history is very interesting as they are a mix of Buddhist and Hindu, with the national religion swapping between the two in history.

Siem Reap possesses French-colonial and Chinese-style architecture in the Old French Quarter and around the Old Market. The city is a major hub for tourism in Cambodia due to its close proximity to the ancient temples of Angkor constructed during the Khmer Empire. In and around the city there are museums, traditional Apsara dance performances, a Cambodian cultural village, souvenir and handicraft shops, silk farms, rice paddies in the countryside, fishing villages and a bird sanctuary near Tonlé Sap, and a cosmopolitan drinking and dining scene.

The modern history of Cambodia bubbles under the surface just like in Vietnam. In Vietnam people are only too happy to talk about their victory over the US in the 70s, and they have a population of 100 million. Cambodia is very different, the population is only !5 million, partly due to their participation in the war against the US, but also from the genocide that the country suffered under the leadership of Polpot and the Khmer Rouge, covered by the film the Killing Fields.

Money is a challenge though it is easier than in Vietnam as the local seem to prefer to use US dollars than their own money, but you do end up with Cambodian Riels, but mostly in change. In fact, at the airport everything is in US dollars.

Every local we spoke to had lost close relatives in the slaughter, mostly fathers, and the pain is still written on their faces when they talk, it is very sad and an area that we did not delve into too deeply. We chose not to visit the various killing field sites, as it felt far too sad and we could feel the pain from the people we met.

Once we had settled, we headed for the internationally famous Pub Street, and it didn’t disappoint because it was busy and fun. The Cambodians are very clever people, basically they the have built a load of bars in a tight network of streets that are brightly lit, nicely laid out, easy to find, and concentrates all the rowdy Westerners in one area, so they are nice and easy to manage. The bars stay open late, play every type of music and offer fun for everyone.

5 minutes’ walk in any direction and you quickly leave the party behind and back into tranquil streets. The Cambodians have also concentrated a lot of their more up market hotels around the palace area 1km away, so a nice and easy walk.

So now we are here we will head for the main event at Anker Wat, but first we are going to have a look through the back streets and their Hidden Treasures

01/08/2026
Coconut boats and Cham Islands from Hoi An

However captivating the lanterns of Hoi An can be, ultimately there is only so much time you go can spend sat on the quay watching the boats go past, or sweating in the back alleys of the old town looking at shops, so it isn’t long before you are looking for something else to do.

Staying out at An Bang beach really helps, as there are plenty of things to do, from jetskiing on some dodgy old boats to just marching along the beach in the heat, which is my favourite pastime for some reason.

Coconut basket boat ride

The obvious thing to do is head for Da Nang, but as most of the people we spoke to travelled down from Da Nang this didn’t seem a great strategy so we tracked down a couple of fun things to do.

This was a great little trip, a taxi picked us up and took us to the harbour to meet our boatman. All Vietnamese seem to have a fun gene and a good sense of humour and our boatman was no exception.

The boats are very odd, because they are round, and totally unsuited to going anywhere but years of practice clearly helps, and we headed down the river in a little procession of round boats that soon split up. We were then on our own with the boatman serenading us, rather like a Venetian Gondola but in a mango swamp.

The boat dodged in and out of the mangoes where there were large pineapple like things hanging from the trees, which were generally harvested at some point. We then tried a bit of fishing, throwing a hook and line into the roots and trying to coax out one of the numerous crabs out, but they were cunning beasts and seemed to guess that simply letting go of the bait would save their lives.

We then moved out into the main estuary, offered the chance to try standing up and spinning the boat around as per a demonstration by a very agile young fella. Wisely, nobody in our flotilla took the opportunity to demonstrate how to get dizzy in a boat as falling out seemed the inevitable consequence.

Then we boarded the fishing pontoon, and were given the chance to try throwing a net out into the river and haul in a fish. The bloke ahead of us nearly followed his net into the river, which was a warning to us all, so when my turn came I made a big point of planting my feet firmly on the deck and throwing the net, needless to say we didn’t catch any fish but at least I didn’t fall in. Not surprisingly, Wooksie sat in the safety of the boat hoping for a big splash.

We then headed back up the river to the dock, having a lovely sing along with our boat man, and finally stepping ashore and having a nice cold beer, this was 2 or 3 hours very well spent.

Cham Island snorkelling

No trip to a tropical paradise is complete without a snorkelling trip, so it had to be done. The trip departs from a modern port near the mouth of the estuary near Hoi An, so only a 15 minute taxi ride from the old town. The organisers picked us up from An Bang in a taxi which was a nice easy start.

We assembled on the quay and it was good to find myself in a nice fun group of people, most of which had travelled down from Da Nang, with the English Premier league coming to an exciting season ending we all had a lot to talk about.

The trip itself is a very simple model, we boarded a high speed boat, put on life jackets (and were inspected by the river police) and were then jetted out of the harbour in the direction of Cham Island, we held on tight and bounced across the waves until we reached the remote islands.

The boat steamed along the coast to the best spot, where we donned our snorkelling gear and set off following the current along the coast. This is no Great Barrier Reef but the seabed has plenty of variety, reflecting the history of volcanoes that created the islands, but there was enough coral to bring in the colourful fish that make the snorkelling fun.

We reboarded the boat and headed for one of the most beautiful island beaches I have seen, with white sand spreading around a bay, and opportunities to paddle board and kayak, but most people took the opportunity to have a coffee or beer in the shade and sit around chatting.

We then reboarded the boat for a second dive off one of the headlands, to be honest, this one wasn’t as good but it there was enough to keep us interested and just enjoy being in the sea. Nothing goes off without a drama, and I lost my snorkel when I jumped in and forgot to hold on to my mask, luckily the locals can hold their breath so the snorkel was recovered from the depths.

Last job of the day was a great lunch in the beach bar, a chance for a swim or something, but I was just happy chatting with my fellow travellers and solving the problems of the world, interrupted by the occasional dip to moderate the temperature.

The trip home was similar to the trip out, board the boat, strap yourself in and bouncing across the waves to get us home.

So another great day out, lots of great company and plenty of things to enjoy beneath the waves in the snorkelling gear.

30/07/2026
Petrolhead tour: Wild Atlantic Way adventure in Ireland, Part 1

From Bristol to the Giants Causeway

This was a very different type of adventure for us, but it was an adventure, nonetheless.

When my mate from Plymouth called and said he and Pompey Daz had signed up to a sports car tour of Ireland I wasn’t initially overwhelmed with enthusiasm. I did a round Ireland tour in my VW Camper back in 2010 as part of the Eireball Run, and I was still traumatised by the everchanging weather, slow progress and looking after 2 young kids on my own.

However, the idea took hold and the thought of spending a week with my friends, and the opportunity to meet new and interesting people with a common love of sports cars began to appeal. My wife, Wooksie, took a bit of convincing, but eventually agreed to spend a week in the passenger seat of our Porsche, as the tour did look a lot of fun.

The trip was organised by OTR Car Tours. The 2 tour managers were great guys (Richard and Kevin) as petrolheads themselves, are absolutely living their best lives taking people on car tours, driving fast cars and earning a living, almost as much fun as being an Chief Adventure Officer. Each day involved clocking up 200 plus miles over 6 or 7 hours, so it isn’t for people who get car sick.

My mate Mr Blowey is one of my lifelong Plymouth friends, and a person that has the potential to cause even more chaos than me when ignited, so the thought of spending a week in his company promised fun but potentially carnage. Though it has to be said he is moderating with age, like a fine wine or stagnant water!

So, we had to meet our fellow adventurers in Holyhead for the start of the trip. I decided that this was a great opportunity to see the Welsh mountains, so from Bristol we took a direct route up the Cambrian Way to take in Snowdonia on the way.

Now the Cambrian Way is basically a holiday on its own, with numerous mountain passes on the way, andwith a detour, you can travel through the Snowdonia national park with stunning view of Snowdon itself, before crossing the Menai Bridge and into Anglesey.

I have done this route up to Coed y Brenin on various mountain bike trips but had never been blessed with blue skies and glorious weather, which was promised for our trip.

Things nearly got off to a good start.

But the days leading up to Mr Blowey leaving Plymouth had not been kind to his superfast Mercedes SL55 AMG sport car. When it was new it was the fastest convertible produced, but it was no longer new and had been stuck in the garage for a couple of years. A few issues had arisen, some of which had been repaired and others hadn’t.

Two notable ones affected the trip, firstly the stereo stopped working the day before they departed, and before setting off there was a complex array of Bluetooth speakers and data feeds to be connected as part of each departure, which took ages and involved a fair bit of cussing.

Secondly, he had no handbrake either. Mrs Blowey observed the car seemed to roll when they got out, he insisted it was her imagination and everything was fine.

So, we headed off towards Anglesey and discovered that north of Newport, Wales is almost devoid of toilets and places to stop for coffee, it is one big vast countryside with nothing in it but 20mph speed cameras and closed cafes. I suspect the bikers and drivers that used to pour into Wales for the great roads stopped when the ridiculous speed limits were introduced.

The route took us up through Abergavenny, towards Brecon ,then on to Builth Wells where we finally found a loo and a cup of coffee, then on to a whole load out unpronounceable places with one particularly spectacular mountain pass, Abergwesyn Pass, which gave, tight hairpins, and incredible views before heading towards Llanberris and the views of Snowdon,

After 6 hours of amazing scenery, purchasing numerous fridge magnets for the Blowey family at Llanberris, we found the only traffic jam in Wales, 2 miles from our hotel.

Time to meet our fellow travellers, and what a lovely bunch they turned out to be, and what a scary bunch of cars they owned, I put my little Porsche Cayman round the back out of the way.

A few beers to get to know people before dinner and an early night. 6am we were up and ready as we had to get the 7.30am ferry. A bit of a dash from the hotel and suddenly the ferry had a very long queue of expensive cars and needless to say we were the last already.

My morale improved with the girl in the ticket booth leaned out the window and said she thought out car was the nicest, I’m pretty sure that was because it is red rather than a technical appraisal of its capabilities. The ferry then promptly departed at 7.10am, 20 minutes ahead of the 7.30am departure time for some reason, they are called Irish Ferries for a reason.

After a 4 hour ferry trip we hit the roads of Ireland, and within seconds I had lost everyone as the other cars demonstrated their exhaust tones and acceleration to each other, whilst we battled with the satnav and made steady progress.

The OTR guys are really good, they have Kevin out in front setting the pace and showing the route and Richard follows up the rear, so we were glad to see him in our rear mirror, we weren’t too far behind

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Day 2 (Day 1 is arriving in Holyhead) involved a long drive from Dublin to the north, once we were off the motorway we followed the coast road with great views across to Scotland on a beautiful summer’s day. We picked up the convoy again and the procession of burbling sports cars made its way along the coast with passers by taking snaps and waving, with the average speed of the convoy increased as soon as the road cleared .

One of the problems with the Northern Ireland stage was it is in the UK, and as a chap with a few too many speeding points, I didn’t want to have any interactions with the law after 3 stressful years on too many points, so I tucked myself in behind one of the Yaris GRs and enjoyed someone else taking the strain of speed cameras and got used the excellent handling of the Porsche on the coastal road.

We finally made it to the big event, the Giants Causeway with the strange rock fhexagonal rocok formation, this is the second time I’ve been there and the second time I’ve been underwhelmed but it was a good excuse to stretch our legs. I’ve visited many famous natural sites around the world, but none as disappointing as Giants Causeway, the unique hexagonal stones appear to be huge in the photos, but can be measured in inches rather than feet, anyway, never need to go there again.

OTR had organised a great hotel (Bayview) on the waterfront near Bushmills and we all checked in. We had a lovely see view, whilst the Bloweys were given a room overlooking the car park, so we put them in charge of vehicle security, which they weren’t that chuffed about.

So, we had beer on the seafront, a fabulous dinner (which we were late for and had to sit on our own as punishment) and off to bed in preparation for another long day tomorrow when we picked up the “Wild Atlantic Coast” road along the west coast of Ireland.

Here are the best of the cars on the trip

28/07/2026
Twinkling Hoi An and it’s secret beaches.
Very few people who consider a trip to Vietnam will miss out on the images offered by the romantic lights of Hoi Ann, but we nearly did. We needed a week on a deserted beach somewhere to recharge after all the trips, but it all worked out in the end and we managed to achieve both.

It is worth mentioning that Hoi Ann is on the coast, it sits on an inland waterway that becomes an estuary and flows into the sea. The ancient fishing port of Hoi An is hot and busy, most people stay in the town or visit as part of a day trip from Da Nang about an hour away and has a vibe more like Miami that a desert island.

A bit of further research unearthed the discovery that there is deserted coastline only 10 minutes away by cab. An Bang beach is a relatively narrow stretch of beach that runs for miles with little beach resorts spotted along the coast, so we found our perfect solution, we had our deserted beach to kick back on, whilst still enjoying the fun of Hoi An, top result.

An Bang is a busy little town, with plenty of bars and restaurants overlooking the sea. It has a wonderful array of seafood restaurants, with most of the seafood being grown in large tanks in the restaurants or tanks in the back streets. We were in a little resort 10 minutes’ walk away called Sol An Bang Beach Resort & Spa, it was a smashing place, right on the beach and with friendly staff, just what we were looking for.

We unpacked our bags and called a Grab cab and headed into Hoi An for $3. We arrived in late afternoon and it was notably hotter than the beach. It really is an ancient town, which is famous for the shops that spread out from the river into the back streets.

Hoi An is particularly famous for their tailors and seam stresses and their ability to create their wares very quickly. The shops stretch back a long way, and peering through the doors you could see tailers busily stitching away in the background.

The first thing that strikes you is the heat, it is much hotter just a few miles from the coast, the second thing is the colour at night, the bright multi coloured lanterns are everywhere.

If it isn’t a tailor, it will be a gift shop or a restaurant, tourists are not interested in much else obviously. Walking along the quay every shop is a bar or restaurant; the key being how well placed they are to watch the boat parade at night with all the twinkly lights.

As the sun goes down the lanterns on the boats come on, and the nightly twinkly parade gets under way. The waterway is split into 2 sections. In one section there are the boats with rowers, they move gracefully on their route down river to the central bridge, turn around and head back to the landing stage.

The other alternative is on the eastern side of the central bridge where the boats are bigger and have motors so move much quicker and you get to see more of the town. As you wander along that part of the quay you will be hassled relentlessly to take a trip on the boats as well.

We opted for the slow rowing boat approach. It was a simple process; you buy a ticket and wait for your boat to turn up. Then you clamber onboard and your helmsman heads off in silence, although he was most insistent that we put on bright orange life jackets, which rather killed the romance considering Wooksie is a redhead.

There are many similarities with the taking a gondola ride in Venice, you cruise down the river and it is quite peaceful. Our boat trip was at dusk and during the trip full darkness fell, so we have the best of the changing colours of the evening and the arrival of the twinkling lanterns.

It got me wondering the tradition what the origins of the lantern flotilla. Hoi An has lantern boats because of a blend of traditional Buddhist rituals, its rich history as a trading port, and a modern desire to preserve the local heritage.

The concept has deep roots and modern appeal for several reasons, but most of all, I suspect it is like lots of things in Vietnam, it makes a fantastic tourist attraction to bring in more customers.

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- Spiritual Ritual: The full moon has long been a holy day in Vietnamese Buddhist culture. On these nights, locals place candlelit, lotus-shaped paper lanterns on the Hoai River to honour their ancestors, pray for good fortune, and make wishes.
- Historical Influence: Dating back to the 16th century, Hoi An was a bustling international trading port where Chinese and Japanese merchants settled. These cultures brought their own lantern-making traditions, which local residents adapted and continued.
- Heritage Preservation: In recent years, local authorities standardized and formalized the hand-rowed boat operations. By removing motorized boats and requiring rowers to follow set guidelines, the city preserves a peaceful, glowing atmosphere that honours its ancient roots while supporting local tourism.
Hope you enjoy the video.
27/07/2026