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Allons-y! Our 2019 bike trip to Normandy

Hi everyone. In case you’re interested, we’re off to Normandy this summer and we’ll be doing another blog. You can find it here. Thanks for following our meanderings.

Bikes, ferry, trains and sign off

Day 28 – Rosslare to Chippenham. 2 km plus change

Final total: 1191 km 740 miles

We’re back in Chippenham after one ferry ride to Fishguard in Wales and then 4 train journeys. Long day, but home safely.

We’ve had a great trip Lucky with the weather. Met some really nice people. Seen some really spectacular scenery. No mishaps. Who could want for more.

Thanks for keeping track on this blog. It’s been fun posting photos and writing about our journey.

Until next time…

T and M

To the left of T’s head is a hill that we climbed on our cycle route in Wales 2 years ago. Felt like an old stomping ground.

Iarnród Éireann (Irish rail)

Day 27 – Killarney to Rosslare via Dublin 2 km!

(1189 km 738 miles – still)

Last full day in Ireland. Riding the rails from Killarney to Rosslare with trains on time, comfortable and surprisingly reasonably priced.

Just watched:

Croatia beats Russia in a shoot out after a very exciting game!

Early arrival to be on the safe side…45 mins. All the Irish showed up 2 minutes before take off.

The first of 6 train trips to make it back to Chippenham.

Last big day!

Day 26 – Killorglin to Killarney (via Gap of Dunloe)

47 km (1187 km. 738 miles)

Today was our last cycle day. Tomorrow we take the train from Killarney to Rosslare and the next day the ferry and train back to Wiltshire.

But it was another fine day of cycling, heading up across the hills via the Gap of Dunloe and down into Killarney National Park. We felt some refreshing Irish mist as we came out of the Gap. Wouldn’t have been right to leave Ireland without it!

We discovered that tomorrow is the annual Ring of Kerry charity cycle ride. Apparently 10,000 cyclists are registered to ride the 175km loop, starting and ending in Killarney. So tight coloured spandex was much in evidence in Killarney today. And if you wanted to nick a high-end road bike, Killarney is the place to be. We looked out of place with our heavy,but solid and reliable, touring bikes.

Heading into the hills to the Gap of Dunloe

We actually stopped at a road junction to see about a castle nearby. We saw the signs to the Gap as well as noted it on our GPS. On a whim we decided to take the Gap route. It was magical!

Such a lovely treasure to discover on our last big day.

You can pay to do the trip in a pony and jaunty

M summoning the little people with her whistle

Small bit of the ring of Kerry

Day 25 – Killorglin To Rossbeigh and back. 37km

(1140 km. 708 miles)

Today we did a bike loop out along the Kerry coast to another beautiful beach called Rossbeigh Strand, where a number of locals were enjoying the fine weather. M paddled, and claimed that the water was warm. Her feet were probably numb.

We stopped at the Kerry Bog Village, which is a modest outdoor museum depicting life in the 1840s at the time of the Irish famine and mass evictions from the land. While we were there, 7 tour buses pulled up and evicted their passengers who, in evident solidarity with their Irish forbears, assuaged their imminent hunger by shoveling down scones, cream and Irish coffee in the adjoining pub. It was all very moving.

Sign in Killorglin high street. Who knows why.

Irish wolfhound. Large, but not really the Einsteins of the dog world.

A little morning whiskey as part of an Irish coffee

“No brains at all, some of them”. -Eeyore

We continue to be staggered by the number of phenomenal beaches in Ireland. Being here on the 3 sunniest weeks in 40 years does give it an unrealistic tropical feel. Most Irish are in Spain – hols booked in February – to get away from the wet Irish summer.

Crowd of rocks on holiday posing for the camera.

Someone didn’t want to visit the fairy forest. One shouldn’t piss off the fairies!

Shhhhhh. Don’t tell Guinness. Two local brews from Crafty Divils – Iron Bridge amber ale and King Puck Irish pale ale. Both very drinkable.

Give ‘em an inch, they take a mile

Day 24 – Dingle to Killorglin 57 km

(1103 km 685 miles)

From Dingle back east along the south coast to Castlemaine and then SW to Killorglin on the ring of Kerry. A hot day with a few hills in the morning.

We stopped at Inch Beach for lunch, so called because it looks about an inch long on the map. In fact, it’s a long and substantial sand bar that extends out into the sea about 3 km, with a excellent beach facing the Atlantic. They must get some excellent surf on windy days. Not too much today though.

Looking at the North side of the Ring of Kerry which we are going to have to save for another expedition.

All the way down that hill and all the way back up again! M had to sing Paddy McGinty’s Goat again to get herself up the hill. Hit ‘tune’ below for a bit of Irish magic by Val Doonican

Here is the link to the tune:

Inch Strand. Inch was the anglicization of Inse which meant sea meadow.

A bit on the busy roads today but a lot on lovely roads like this.

River Laune in Killorglin. It has taken us all day to get the pronunciation right

The Dingle Peninsula

Day 23 Dingle to Dingle.

43 km (1046 km 650 miles)

Another epic ride. Phone photos don’t do it justice but we have no way to upload photos from our camera so here is our day as best we can show.

The Dingle peninsula is a Gaeltacht region, so most people who live here speak Irish as their first language. Evident today because most people on the beaches were locals enjoying weather they haven’t seen for years.

Steep ramp down to the Blasket Islands ferry dock. Famous photo of sheep navigating the ramp here: https://goo.gl/images/wcvUtm

The force is strong with you, young padawan, so it is, begorrah

Smaller than the Egyptian ones, but nonetheless awe-inspiring, the Irish pyramids were thought to have been built by leprechauns around 2000 BC.

Watching FIFA in an Irish Pub. England vs Columbia. Thought we should leave in case the English won.

Cracked 1000 km

Day 22 – Tralee to Dingle. 48 km with a great big hill! (1003 km. 623 miles)

The sun still out. Irish people still telling us that this is very special weather. We went to a concert tonight and one of the local performers said she had to go out and buy t-shirts for her kids! They didn’t have any hot weather clothes !!

It was a great ride today. The scenery has changed. (Except the houses…they are still tidy!!) We came up over a mountain pass. Conor Pass. Stunning.

Start of the Camino Kerry for the hikers. We just got to do a bit.

Start of the Conner pass. Increasing to 7.7 for 7km. Piece of cake.

M was singing “Paddy McGinty’s Goat” to embrace the journey up the hill.

The low point on the hill in the background was Conor Pass. Brakes continue to provide stopping power!!

Dairy farms

Day 21 – Tarbert to Tralee 72 km (955 km 593 miles)

(via Abbeydorney, Ardfert, Fenit)

We survived the night at the strange deserted hotel. Today we came across country from Tarbert, but dipped down to the coast and out to Fenit at the end of the Lee estuary, before coming back to Tralee. We could see across to the hills that we’ll have to cross tomorrow to get to Dingle. They were shrouded in rain clouds. Hopefully better tomorrow. It was cooler today, though still warm and windy. First real clouds we’ve seen.

No Guinness today.

We’re out of sheep country now and into dairy and beef farms. Cows gaze at us with mild curiosity as we zip by, content to (appropriately) ruminate on life and brief excitement we strangers bring. For most, their future is best left shrouded in mystery.

The air is filled with the sweet smell of silage fermenting in round bales wrapped in black plastic lying out in the fields. The country side is really amazing to cycle through!

How tidy Irish homes are!!! At first we thought it was the local area we first went through (and economic status?) but we have now been in 7 counties, on tiny back roads, country roads, farm roads, tourist areas and EVERYWHERE the houses are kept very tidy, often without any adornment of flowers etc. Paved drives. Even the ones that could use a bit of fixing up were still so orderly. At first it was a bit eerie but in the end it was just Eire!

Turf stacks ready for collecting. We pass house after house with sheds stacked with turf for the winter.

Typical grocery store lunch eaten in a classy park instead of random fields.

Ardfert Cathedral. 12 century. Previously on the site was a monastery founded by St. Brendan in the 6th century.

M could officially get Little People status too!

The mountains you can’t see because of the clouds…tomorrow’s route…

Hotel California, Tarbert

Day 20 – Quilty to Tarbert 71 km (883 km 548 miles)

Along the Wild Atlantic Way (which is still not wild at all) to the seaside towns of Kilkee and Kilrush, then the ferry from Killimer to Tarbert across the mouth of the Shannon river. More sun and blue skies, but fortunately a little cooler.

Staying in a weird rundown, scruffy hotel just outside Tarbert that is almost deserted and appears on the brink of financial collapse. The local people on the ferry quietly looked at one another when we said where we were staying. Then one offered to give us a good price on a room if we found the place unsatisfactory. Our standards can be fairly low. Good deal on the room. Cheapest so far. Four poster bed that has seen better times, but handy for hanging our washing on.

The schools have broken up now so there are a lot of Irish folks on holiday. Smaller roads still good. Faster roads much busier and it seems the gap the cars give us is definitely getting narrower.