Hey RR!
I just realized that I've never actually shared the trip I undertook last year!
A quick foreword:
I have over 300 pictures I am going to post. I did a very compact write up on Imgur last year, but this post here will go into way more detail. I'll be plucking some of my IG posts and stories as well to include them here.
I will be splitting this up into multiple posts, mostly due to the sheer amount of images. I'm trying to do as detailed a write-up as possible.
The truck I drove on this trip was a 2004 Dodge Ram 4x4 5.7 which got imported into Germany back in 2004. It spent the first few years in the hands of a dog food company, likely as a promotional vehicle. 2007 it was sold to a karate teacher who drove it until 2016. He traded it in at a US Car specialist dealer for a used 4th Generation Ram in white. I bought the truck on 23rd December 2016 as an early Christmas present to myself.
I've since sold the truck but It was my daily driver for 2.5 years and I want to stress that it's been an amazingly reliable vehicle.
Anyways, let's get on with it!
Wild Atlantic Ram
It was sometime around the middle of 2018 that my boss told me 'If you're planning any kind of long vacation, late August or September would be best'. I had a lot of vacation days from the year before leftover and so after a quick thought my reply was 'Ok, I'll take 4 weeks off in September, then'.
The original plan was to do some traveling around Norway and Sweden. But my friend Scott (IG: @scottpatersonphoto) invited me to stay with him and his family for a bit up in Scotland. I took him up on the offer and planned my trip around it. The plan was to drive up to Scotland, spend a few days at Scott's place and explore the area, attend a car show in Edinburgh, from there I'd take the ferry to Ireland and follow the Wild Atlantic Way. The WAW is basically a tourist route following Ireland's west coast, all along the Atlantic, about 2500 km long. From Ireland, I'd take the ferry back to England and from there go back to mainland Europe via ferry once again.
The only thing I booked in advance was the ferries. In Scotland, I'd stay with Scott and in Ireland, I'd just see wherever I ended up and book an AirBnB in the area. I had some great and some not-so-great experiences with that.
Let's Start!
I set out early on my 29th birthday - the 6th of September 2018. I live near Cologne in Germany and so I had some distance to cover to catch my ferry in Dunquerke, France.
I apologize for the crappy photos, at this moment I only had my phone on me.
After the ferry landed in Dover, I drove up to London without any issues. There, I met up with another friend and collected a bumper for Scott. Drove a few miles further north to Scott's workplace, Driftlimits, (where he worked as a photographer/instructor. He actually quit last week and is now a freelance photographer) just behind London and met up with him there.
He'd already taped up his show car in preparation for the long trip north.
Also, he had another bumper we needed to bring up north so he could drop it off at his painter's. Luckily my truck had space to spare...
We set out and on the way encountered heavy traffic and were stuck for a few hours.
All in all, I believe it was a solid 20 hours of travel on my part until we reached our destination in Perth, Scotland.
The next morning, I finally had a chance to view the house of Scott's family in the daylight. Quite a nice place in a quiet area. I can't thank Scott and his family enough for letting me stay with them, they are wonderful people.
On Friday, the 7th of September, we mostly just relaxed from the drive up and started getting Scott's car ready for the car show I mentioned above. On Sunday, the 9th, it would be displayed in Edinburgh at Cleanfest and we'd bring it over the day before. I met another of Scott's friends, Josh, who owns a beautiful Mk2 Jetta which I would do a photoshoot of a few days later.
I had a rented DJI Osmo with me and shot a small video while Scott was getting his car ready.
Not the best car video ever but it was actually my first try.
Anyways, I'll continue in my next post with some words about Cleanfest and the next few days... but now I'm off for lunch.
Starting from the next chapter, I'll actually be posting some decent photographs, as I finally started using my proper camera on the trip...
I just realized that I've never actually shared the trip I undertook last year!
A quick foreword:
I have over 300 pictures I am going to post. I did a very compact write up on Imgur last year, but this post here will go into way more detail. I'll be plucking some of my IG posts and stories as well to include them here.
I will be splitting this up into multiple posts, mostly due to the sheer amount of images. I'm trying to do as detailed a write-up as possible.
The truck I drove on this trip was a 2004 Dodge Ram 4x4 5.7 which got imported into Germany back in 2004. It spent the first few years in the hands of a dog food company, likely as a promotional vehicle. 2007 it was sold to a karate teacher who drove it until 2016. He traded it in at a US Car specialist dealer for a used 4th Generation Ram in white. I bought the truck on 23rd December 2016 as an early Christmas present to myself.
I've since sold the truck but It was my daily driver for 2.5 years and I want to stress that it's been an amazingly reliable vehicle.
Anyways, let's get on with it!
Wild Atlantic Ram
It was sometime around the middle of 2018 that my boss told me 'If you're planning any kind of long vacation, late August or September would be best'. I had a lot of vacation days from the year before leftover and so after a quick thought my reply was 'Ok, I'll take 4 weeks off in September, then'.
The original plan was to do some traveling around Norway and Sweden. But my friend Scott (IG: @scottpatersonphoto) invited me to stay with him and his family for a bit up in Scotland. I took him up on the offer and planned my trip around it. The plan was to drive up to Scotland, spend a few days at Scott's place and explore the area, attend a car show in Edinburgh, from there I'd take the ferry to Ireland and follow the Wild Atlantic Way. The WAW is basically a tourist route following Ireland's west coast, all along the Atlantic, about 2500 km long. From Ireland, I'd take the ferry back to England and from there go back to mainland Europe via ferry once again.
The only thing I booked in advance was the ferries. In Scotland, I'd stay with Scott and in Ireland, I'd just see wherever I ended up and book an AirBnB in the area. I had some great and some not-so-great experiences with that.
Let's Start!
I set out early on my 29th birthday - the 6th of September 2018. I live near Cologne in Germany and so I had some distance to cover to catch my ferry in Dunquerke, France.
I apologize for the crappy photos, at this moment I only had my phone on me.
After the ferry landed in Dover, I drove up to London without any issues. There, I met up with another friend and collected a bumper for Scott. Drove a few miles further north to Scott's workplace, Driftlimits, (where he worked as a photographer/instructor. He actually quit last week and is now a freelance photographer) just behind London and met up with him there.
He'd already taped up his show car in preparation for the long trip north.
Also, he had another bumper we needed to bring up north so he could drop it off at his painter's. Luckily my truck had space to spare...
We set out and on the way encountered heavy traffic and were stuck for a few hours.
All in all, I believe it was a solid 20 hours of travel on my part until we reached our destination in Perth, Scotland.
The next morning, I finally had a chance to view the house of Scott's family in the daylight. Quite a nice place in a quiet area. I can't thank Scott and his family enough for letting me stay with them, they are wonderful people.
On Friday, the 7th of September, we mostly just relaxed from the drive up and started getting Scott's car ready for the car show I mentioned above. On Sunday, the 9th, it would be displayed in Edinburgh at Cleanfest and we'd bring it over the day before. I met another of Scott's friends, Josh, who owns a beautiful Mk2 Jetta which I would do a photoshoot of a few days later.
I had a rented DJI Osmo with me and shot a small video while Scott was getting his car ready.
Not the best car video ever but it was actually my first try.
Anyways, I'll continue in my next post with some words about Cleanfest and the next few days... but now I'm off for lunch.
Starting from the next chapter, I'll actually be posting some decent photographs, as I finally started using my proper camera on the trip...
