Vanlife so far has been superb, the freedom, flexibility and possibilities for photography have far exceeded my original expectations and now that we are on our road trip to the stunning Achill Island in Co. Mayo the weather is going to present us with a great test.

Day one had been uneventful as far as the weather was concerned unless we count the continuous dumping of rain and wind of course, however, the weather forecasters were now predicting an arctic snap, heading directly towards us and as the evening drew to a close from day one there were signs in the air that it was going to be a cold and windy one.

Sleep that evening was a strange one, I had wrapped up well for the imminently chilling conditions, however, I woke a number of times during the night, not because of the cold directly, but instead because I was too warm. I didn’t want to remove the layers I had on as it was in fact very cold outside, -5 is what my phone told me and the thermometer in the van was reading 0 degrees, best stay as warm as I could I decided.

I woke just before sunrise and looked out the window to see snow stuck to the glass, that would explain the artic temperatures I had experienced alright. The sky looked clear, too clear in fact, so within minutes I was once again asleep as I figured it wasn’t going to be a great mornings photography. The next memory was of a loud banging noise, it was Diarmuid, banging on the side of the van and shouting that we had slept in and missed the sunrise. Part of this was in fact true, the sun had risen and was at this stage too high in the sky, the other part about sleeping in was kind of true, I had elected to do so, even if he hadn’t.

Truth is I wasn’t feeling the best, I was coming down with a cold it seemed as if I had immediately gone back to sleep once more after telling Diarmuid that I would skip this session, and when he arrived back, somewhat disappointed with the conditions he had photographed, I was only just able to get out of bed. Diarmuid was instead full of beans and wanted to hike up to the impressive Croaghaun cliffs that tower above Keem bay, something I wasn’t going to be in the mood, nor have the ability to do just then.

Early afternoon now and it was time for the wanderer to return and for us both to have some lunch before hitting our next location on the island. After taking a quick detour to find Achill Henge, which we didn’t, it was time to take one of the most spectacular drives in Ireland. The Atlantic Drive is exactly how the Wild Atlantic Way drive should be, a road that hugs the coast, follows twists, turns, and undulations and is all surrounded by incredible scenery. If you ever get the chance to take this drive, I would highly recommend it.

Our afternoon destinations and indeed sunset location was on the opposite side of Achill Island, a place called White Cliffs. With views of 270 degrees, containing long-range cliffs, islands, and mountains and is filled with the Atlantic Ocean. Immediately after getting out of the vans, we could feel it, a baltic wind that seemed like it would freeze a flame, and one thing for certain was it wasn’t going to be comfortable. Thankfully #vanlife would be our saviour as we could park up the vans with the wind hitting the opposite side to the sliding door, open it, watch the sky and be at least a bit warm but perfectly sheltered.

It was a couple of hours before sunset, so I took the time to grab a few long exposures of the rugged cliffs and long range vistas that were before us, before once again quickly retreating to the comfort of the vans where I would alternate between my own and Diarmuid’s.

Sunlight was hitting golden hour now, and the sky was relatively clear albeit for as usual a thick bank of clouds on the western horizon, so while I had some light hitting the landscape, casting great shadows and golden light on them,I popped on my long lens and found some compositions within the scene. The rawness of this landscape went well with the golden light, highlighting the rise and fall of the rocks creating great contrast overall.

As the sunset approached, the best of the light had come and gone, I was glad I took those shots when I did, as that bank of clouds would indeed swallow up the best of the potential light. Looking to the east I could see the distant clouds catch the light so of course, I had to grab some shots in this direction before jumping into Diarmuid’s van, just like in the old days, to devour a nice warm curry, perhaps that would warm us up from the onslaught from the north.

The day wasn’t quite over yet, it was a full moon day, so just after finishing the grub, the cameras were once again out to face east to see a wonderful moon rising over the mountains in the distance, would it get high enough over them before the residual sunlight had faded to allow us to get a shot with something in the foreground? The foreground for me would be an old White House sitting on the hillside with the bright orange moon above.