Our campervan is about seven feet wide and twenty-two feet long. It's a pleasant size for cooking, eating, and sleeping.   But it is WAY too big for Irish roads!

The N roads usually have a white stripe down the center and two lanes, each about eight feet wide . But the growth covering the rock walls along the sides of the road makes the lane appear narrower. When another campervan, a bus, or a truck comes the other way, both vehicles have to make sure they are on their own sides, and that the rock walls aren’t immediately under the vegetation. The truck drivers are great, the other campervan drivers somewhat so, and the tour coach drivers don’t care—move out of their way!

On the R roads, however, the lanes are no wider than seven feet and frequently narrower. Often there isn’t a stripe down the center to divide the lanes. And there are curves every hundred yards or so. To get by, one of the drivers has to pull off onto a driveway or a grass verge—or to back up. There is generally less traffic, and drivers generally go slower.

Did I mention that we’re driving on the left side of the road, shifting with our left hands and sitting on the right side of the vehicle? Driving the campervan takes the driver’s full attention. The passengers get to sightsee and to navigate—the driver has to make sure the campervan isn’t over the white line so that the next vehicle that comes careening around the corner doesn’t sideswipe it.

Chris and I alternate driving so that we both get a chance to sightsee and to relax. The kids just enjoy cruising along in the back—they have a table to hold their journals so they can write, or they can read or play with the toys we brought--as long as things don't go flying off the table when we go around sharp curves! The table has a large picture window, so they have a good view when there isn’t a tall hedge blocking the view.