Road Trippin’: Cavan in a weekend with the Ford Focus
The Car: Ford Focus 5 door hatch Titanium, 1.0L EcoBoost (125PS)
The Trip: Bunclody, Co. Wexford to Mountnugent, Co. Cavan and back
The Reason: Friend’s wedding
Distance: 432km
Journey Time: 6 hours on the road
If you missed part 1 of my Ford Focus road trip (Wexford to Cavan), you can catch up here.
I check in, relax for a while before heading downstairs for dinner. I’ve one last job to do before I settle down for the night – visit the bride.
I hop back into the car. Dusk has fallen so the Focus is lit up inside like the cockpit of a plane. I can see clearly the gentle blue illumination of the dials and switches on the centre console. The model I’m driving has ambient lighting, so the doors and footwells are bathed in red light. It’s all very soothing and “ambient” as the name would suggest.
It’s a chilly night so I pop on the climate control and the heated seats (it’s not Arctic cold but sure why not!). Soon I’m toasty warm again. It’s only a few miles up the road to my friend’s house and the journey passes off without incident. It’s only 8 o’clock but the road is quiet and deserted.
I greet my friend, she takes me inside and there is a full house of family members gathered. The Focus is well-received. It won’t be the last time this weekend it turns a few heads.
………………………
It’s Saturday afternoon, I’m all dressed up for this wedding and the Focus proves to be a suitably swish chariot to drive me to the church. I leave the hotel, drive along the same route I took last night, except this time I continue on past my friend’s house.
The road is getting narrower and narrower, there’s grass in the middle in places and I suck in my breath hoping not to meet another car coming in the other direction. I don’t. Relax and breathe.
With its chrome trim, 17” inch alloy wheels and rear privacy glass, the Ford Focus just might be the second flashiest car after the wedding car arriving at the church. After the ceremony, I come out of the church to find the Focus in celebratory mood with blue and white ribbons flapping from around the wing mirrors.
On the way back to the hotel I somehow find myself behind the wedding car. No sweat for the Focus – we just about pull off the illusion that there might be a few VIPs behind those tinted windows and carry on.
Back at the hotel, we are relegated to the overflow car park and that’s all the car action now until tomorrow as it’s time for a glass of champagne.
………………………
On Sunday morning, I’m checked out and ready for the road by 11 am. You know the way I said in Part 1 how every time I travel to Cavan the car is filthy within a few miles? Well the car actually fared pretty well this time.
Well, that was until I parked the car under some trees in the overflow car park on Saturday afternoon. Yep, we are properly splattered now with bird droppings. It wasn’t the roads that got us in the end; it was the Cavan wildlife. No worries, nothing a splash from the hosepipe can’t fix.
I’ve decided to get back on the M3 via Ballyjamesduff and Virginia as I don’t feel like tackling that Oldcastle road again. The road to Virginia via Ballyjamesduff is one epic driving road. It’s uphill, downhill, crest after crest, with a few bends in between. It’s great fun and the Focus just aces it the whole way to Virginia. There are superb amounts of grip, the steering is pin sharp and the lively EcoBoost petrol makes the drive something to enjoy not endure. What more could you want from a car?
I’m back on the M3 now again so I pop on the cruise control and settle down to a steady 100km/h cruise. The Focus eats up the miles and soon we are approaching Dublin again. The M50 is busy but not manic busy like it was on Friday. There’s a bit of lane hopping but the journey is mostly uneventful and soon the Wicklow Mountains loom in the distance. We’re homeward bound.
I pull into the drive. The Focus hasn’t put a foot wrong all weekend. I’ll be sad saying goodbye on Monday morning..
Caroline Kidd
Read the full review of the 2015 Ford Focus EcoBoost.