Cahir Castle, Mizzen Head and Healy Pass

Up reasonably early at Duncannon, weather is still great with not a cloud in the sky. Lots planned for today - all along the south coast, past Mizzen head

Questions from the public so far include:

Can I take a picture?
To which the answer is, of course, always yes, and sit in the car if you like.

Is that road legal?
Which I understand is because of lack of windscreen discs, Irish cars all seem to have at least 3

Have you got a roof?
Which I could not work out - my luck with the weather is obviously not typical!

Excalibur

First stop is not on the coast road, roughly west, but heading inland to Cahir who's castle was used for some external shots in John Boormans 80s Movie Excalibur, a long time favourite film!
I think the castle appears roughly reverse angle of this shot when Arthur is knighted by Uryens mid battle.

Schull

Past Cork, hit the coast road from Kinsale and then pause at Schull for picnic lunch. Stunning little bay, blue skies, a little wind - but perfect reason to pause for a while and watch owners playing with dogs in the waves.

Mizzen Head

The most westerly point, and time to pause again for a cup of tea (you have to love Ireland for their addiction to tea and ability to produce a decent mug - same as the UK) and a wander around the old Mizzen head station.

Permission sought/granted to pull right up to the visitor centre,

I'm not the greatest with heights and although the bridge to the point is incredibly solid I found myself walking exactly down the middle of it glancing up from my feet only a couple of times! I did manage some pictures - the views still fantastic - but so windy in places I felt sure my phone would be randomly pulled from my hands to never be seen again.

The platform top centre of picture is reachable, and amazingly strong wind - I stood there for a while and just soaked up the view,

Interesting rock formations, both inclined stratified rocks, folds and large flat areas. The sea around Ireland really does appear to be emerald green!

Healy Pass

Then some more miles around the coast road, arriving at my next campsite Hungry Hill on the Beara peninsula. The original plan was to camp then take the road north over Healy pass in the morning, however after chatting with the owner he recomended a trip up directly - the light was still with me and the roads hopefully would be clear around 18:30.

He wasn't wrong - what a run, not the fastest since I was a little tired, not knowing the road and the random factor of sheep but a great run none the less. 

The only other driver going my way let me pass when I got close and then stopped for a chat at the top about the location and the car.

Video footage drive up the south side and back down here

Looking north from the top of the pass you can see forever!

More pillowy rock formations,

Then back the way I came down the south side,

To my now familiar overnight setup at Hungry Hill campsite.
Single pole tent can be put up inside 10 mins, single pot - so boil water, take off enough for tea, then add pasta sachet for evening meal.

The weather still with me, car also running fine - reverse still a little sticky, but no real issues.

Welsh mountain roads and landfall Ireland!

Saturday is focused primarily on getting to Fishguard and the ferry on time, however on the way an interesting drive planned.

All packed up by 8.30 and ready to roll, passed a barbers in town, so thought a quick haircut would be in order. Nice enough place - young friendly chap running it and a good chat with other waiting locals - however...  time was moving quicker than I expected and I was only on the move again around 9.40.

Welsh Valleys

My route planned to include some wriggly bits of road towards Cymmer, turned out to be some excellent driving right across a ridge, the camera picks up some of the experience - there is no substitute for the Zero's all round view though - especially when theres the real jeopardy of a sheer drop on one side.

By the time I got to Fishguard, including a very slow last hour or so, I only had 10 minutes before check in closed, not ideal! However caught the boat and could eat and relax on the crossing to Rosslare.

Fishguard to Rosslare

Great weather, blue skies and calm seas as I leave Fishguard,

Arrived at Rosslare around 6pm,

Driving casual and making sure to keep my distance, but not look like I'm keeping my distance, past the Irish law enforcement: "yes sir - on Holiday, intending to do a spot of driving...".

Another hour or so to the next overnight stop at a campsite virtually on the beach near Duncannon. and just time to setup camp and eat before a fantastic sunset.

On the way - heading west to Wales

I decided to split the journey out to Ireland, partly due to ferry times, partly just the distances involved, around 200-250 miles a day is a maintainable schedule, any more than that and fatigue starts to catch up with me. I'm also camping to make things a little interesting and keep the overall costs under control - the ferry to Ireland is somewhat steep!

No point rushing across the country to try and catch the ferry, especially on a Friday when I know I'm going to hit traffic at some point.

Lunch

No rush required, so the route is mostly avoiding motorways, lunchtime stop at a random pub in Wiltshire. The Royal Oak Wootton Rivers was ideal - quiet enough for a peaceful lunch after the noise of the road.

After lunch same approach - heading roughly west - satnav setup to avoid motorways. All good until I forgot what a traffic blackspot Gloucester is! Stuck in slow traffic for some time.

Cwmcarn campsite

Arrived at the Cwmcarn forest campsite just as the office was closing, but all pre-booked so no problem finding the pitch and setting up for my first night under canvas in probably 15-20 years. I remember why I enjoyed camping before - everything is pared down to its minimum requirement - no fuss.

A little enjoyable messing with the pressure stove and minutes later all set with a cup of tea while dinner cooks.

Car problems

After eating, my first issue to solve.

When the car was hot I the gearbox was crashing on selection of first and reverse. Especially reverse. 

I posted on the Zero facebook group to hopefully gather some insight/ideas, and in the meantime adjusted the clutch cable - i.e. simplest thing first, if the clutch was dragging that might show the symptoms I was seeing.

Then a wander around the campsite - losing the light now - nice and relaxed.

Camping is fantastic for getting tuned into the planet a little and synced up to natural sunset/sunrise to turn in and wake up.

All good so far, the gearbox problems are not showstoppers, my thinking was - worst case I can pull away in 2nd, and reverse only gets awkward when parking.

Rear shock tweaks & disc vanity

Tweaked the rear coil overs. Half a turn up on the adjuster rings to stiffen / raise the rear end a touch. 

While I had the wheels off a little black paint on the rusty parts of the discs. In the end no need for masking up - the machining on the disc provides contours to paint up to.

Taking care to cleanup the mating surface before re-fitting the wheels. No - that top left bit which looks like it will run, did not!

 

This part on the rears is visible through the wheels, more so on than on the fronts and used to niggle every time I saw it rusty.

Ireland - Countdown

Getting close now, shake down run around Kent yesterday evening revealed one problem.

The fuel gauge is showing permanently full - so I need to do a little troubleshooting. Made slightly harder since I had to fill the tank - so it actually is full now. I generally fill based on milage anyway - ~120 miles casually look for a garage ~150 miles on vapour - so not a showstopper.

Update - found the problem, the gauge connector/plug needed a wriggle, sender is good, loom is good, backlighting was good. Turns out Smiths gauges show full if they get no signal.
If it does it again I'll replace the connector.

All set!

Ireland 2017Countdown

16v Zetec badge 3d printing

Not sure this is finalised yet.. more a work in progress.

I like the cam cover logo & have never found a Zetec badge in the same style,

Worked out how to convert the photo into a 3d model for a proof of concept: raise contrast, magic select multiple times, cage transform to straighten, blur filter to remove jaggies then sharpen filter to clean up. Into 123D Design to add joiners for the Z to the etec and then Repetier host to print.

A thinner 3mm version,

A little sanding, matt paint and lacquer produces a reasonable finish.

...and then a flatter 1.2mm version which is on the car for now.

The badge position, shape and size are fine, I'm going to live with it a little and think about it...

5v USB Power x4

USB Power requirements

I usually have my camera and Satnav running when driving.

If I also run the bluetooth headset, or need to top up my phone I run short on USB power outlets.

Generally need 2x permanent and 1x temporary.

12v to 5v USB adaptors

Until this point I have a twin USB adaptor that plugs into the normal lighter socket.

Replaced the lighter socket, plug in, USB adaptor with a custom unit (left), unfortunately it supplied too high a voltage ~5.2v and on power down caused my SatNav to hard reboot. The unit on the right was obtained from Ebay with the original build - supplies more stable voltage but takes a little more work to install.

Power calc

4x 5v @ ~1A, worst case, should draw 20 watts.

20 watts from the 12v feed is around 0.6 amps.
To be fed from the same fused circuit as the lighter socket.

Install

I wanted flexibility on location, or removal if it causes issues, hence the need for connector and flying lead. The enclosure is a modified off the shelf project box.

For the connector I decided on a GX12 aviation style plug/socket. Very nice connector which is cheap, keyed, has a locking ring, cable clamp, supports a couple of amps and can be obtained with anywhere from 2 to 8 pins.

Wired the GX12 socket into a new bracket on the aux panel for the same 12v feed that goes to the lighter socket, but in an extendible way.

Now the tricky part - space is limited under the dash - I'll probably mount the box as pictured, potentially on velcro so I can add/remove it depending on the trip requirements, needs a little drive testing to find the optimal spot.

Thats the last mod before Ireland, just a little fluids checks and shake down runs and touch wood I'm all-set.