I wonder if we will ever wake to sunny skies and put on our summer clothes instead of waking up to a cold morning with grey clouds, mist of fine rain and getting rugged up lucky I packed extra winter tops. Looking out over the river with all the small boats anchored and the mist hanging over the forest across on the river’s edge is so peaceful and surreal.

Ballina is a typical Irish town of beautiful coloured buildings in north County Mayo and lies at the mouth of the River Moy near Killala Bay, in the Moy valley and Parish of Kilmoremoy, with the Ox Mountains to the east and the Nephin Beg mountains to the west. The River Moy is internationally acknowledged as an exceptional salmon fishery, producing several thousand salmon to the rod annually. The famous Ridge Pool, the salmon angler’s paradise is located in the heart of the town. Attractions here are the ruins of Moyne Abbey, and Rosserk Friary dating back to the 15th century and the impressive St Muredach’s Cathedral which stands imposingly on the banks of the River Moy. Naughty us are not staying to explore we have had enough of abbey’s and cathedral’s.

Today we are driving to Westport and we have our last look at Ballina, as we drive through the town along the River Moy over the old arched stone bridge to N26 and the outer suburbs. Nearly all the way the road is lined with trees and bushes with distance views of farmland, woodlands, peat marshlands, as there are lots of lakes and streams, small villages and the impressive Nephin Beg Mountains.

Foxford I loved there were lots of cute little cottages and colourful buildings we past, before going over an arched bridge onto N58 to Bellavary. The usual roadworks held us up near Kilmore where we travelled by the side of the Nephin Beg Mountains. The views never really change as you drive through Ireland such a lush green country and it rains too much probably why some of the areas are prone to flooding and why there is such rich peat marshlands.

Drove through the outer housing and industrial area of Castlebar to the N5, which will take us to Westport. The view has changed now it is more populated the traffic is heavier as we approach Westport a picturesque town on the edge of an Atlantic inlet. Once we had our bearings and some help from the locals of the attractions we crossed the stone bridges linking the tree-lined promenade on the banks of the Carrowbeg River through the Georgian town centre of brilliant coloured buildings to the Westport Harbour where we thought would be a good spot to wild camp for the night.

Don’t know what the big attraction is at Westport Quay or Harbour is but it is very crowded with tourists. All we can see by our walk is two large impressive granite stone hotels, restaurants, shops and houses lining the foreshore overlooking a lake and many islands in the Clew Bay. The only fishing boats we saw were dry docked out on the point of Westport Channel and we couldn’t make out what they caught in the small pots stacked on the wharf.

The views of Clew Bay, the many islands, mountains in the distance and the Westport Quay itself is worth a visit and before the rain sets in we thought we would head back to Westport to explore the streets lined with beautiful colourful buildings. Even though we were armed with weatherproof jackets and umbrella it bucketed down spoiling our walk. A nice cup of coffee over people watching didn’t do the trick, so it was a dash to Lidls where we parked and a drive through town to Westport Quay for the night with the other wild campers.

The rain has eased a bit enough time for Richard to make friends with everyone including the coach driver Micky parked behind us who pointed out a very good coastal route to do all the way to Belfast. Lucky for us some of the places I had already highlighted so now we are set for our remaining tour of Ireland just wish the rain would hold off. On Micky’s recommendation we will visit the Georgian Westport House manor across the Westport Channel via the bridge looks impressive from where we are parked by the lake at Westport Quay.