Day 18: Bedford (United Kingdom) –> Dublin (Ireland)

Our final transit day today as we make our way back to Ireland via the port at Holyhead.

We have breakfast at our hotel, pack up our 911 Targa for the last time of this trip and head off on the busy M1 motorway towards “The North” as referenced on the roadside signs.

It is an overcast and dull day that threatens rain but doesn’t actually precipitate.

Traffic has been good today with no reported delays on our route. Even then, we can’t delay to keep on schedule and make our boats departure at 16:00 this afternoon.

We stop once briefly for a restroom break.

And another quick stop for our last fuel stop of this road trip. We grab some 99 octane petrol from Esso.

We push on the final 170 km across North Wales and into the port of Holyhead in plenty of time for our departure.

Today is the second day of new requirements to present a passport at the port to avail of the Common Travel Area (CTA) entitlements between the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Passports now needed to board ferries between Wales and Republic of Ireland

Operators have brought in new rules if you are travelling by ferry from Britain to the Republic of Ireland.

BBC NewsChris Dearden

The UK registered car in front of us is stuck around 15 minutes trying to have their passports “scanned”, but when it is our turn, they handle our check-in quickly with no issues.

The crossing is predicted to be rough by our recent standards with the captain describing conditions as “not great” with a “gale blowing through the middle of the Irish Sea”.

Generally, these announcements at the start of a sailing underplay conditions, so we know there is definitely going to be a decent 2-metre swell ahead.

Thankfully, the reality was not so bad, and though it was a little tricky to walk around the ship with it moving in the seas, the motion didn’t make us feel poorly. Perhaps the Kwells 300mg tablets we took before leaving the berth actually did help.

Authorised medicines

Kwells 300 microgram Tablets

HPRAAuthorised: 01/04/1979

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We arrive into the Port of Dublin at our scheduled time and make our way down to the car deck.

Typically, it is raining here in Dublin, and we make the short 20-minute trip through the port tunnel and towards our home in the evening darkness. The rain makes us appreciate what wonderful September weather we had over the past two weeks.

Another European road trip successfully and safely completed. Over the next week or so, we'll share some more data and our reflections and thoughts on overall journey.

Stats

Today we did 410 km over 5:14 hours, with an average speed of 79 km/h, consuming 8.2 litres/100 km.