If the weather’s a wash out, nothing for it but water-sports

If the weather’s not great, so what? There’s always water-sports to enjoy..

If you are unfortunate enough to pick the only place in Ireland that didn’t bask in sunshine over the May bank holiday weekend it could be enough to drive you to the drink.
As the scrumptious flavour of barbecue smoke drifted between sunny gardens across the country the only thing that drifted in across Cahirciveen was mist, as we missed out on the mini-heatwave in south Kerry.
But campers don’t cry or complain, you make the best of it and Mannix Point on the waters edge is the ideal place to tog out for some water sports, especially if the sun abandons ship.
The campsite nestles right up to the shoreline and the well protected bay was ideal for a spot of wind surfing and sailing in the stiff onshore breeze. The kayaking too was good, once you had an eye on the tide, not to be putting hard work on yourself.
So while the weather was a bit of a wash-out, mostly misty with the odd clearance and a chilly enough breeze keeping the temperatures pinned down at 12 degrees, all was not lost once you dug out the wetsuit.
One particular windsurfer from Big Surf Watersports put on quite an exhibition for campers and a solitary seal which came along to check out what was going on at his patch.

An airborne windsurfer puts on an exhibition of how its done at Mannix Point over the May bank holiday.

However, this location is not suitable at all for surfing, which is an option at Rossbeigh Beach, just outside the village of Glenbeigh, about 25km away. Unfortunately, the facilities at Rossbeigh Beach are not campervan friendly with headroom restrictions on the vast parking area, leaving only a few limited options kerbside near the beach.

A lovely pitch next to the shoreline at Mannix Point, overlooking Valentia Island.

Campervans not welcome at Rossbeigh Beach and not even short term parking spaces are provided.

*A full review of our Mannix Point/Cahirciveen experience will follow later this week.