Ireland: Final Round Up

I made a little film of all the parts of the trip, added it to YouTube, so its below:

Some personal tips for touring Ireland;

1. Make sure you have new tyres, the road surfaces are rough and wear tyres quickly. 

2. Fuel is available in every town, so no need to carry extra fuel bladders etc.

3. Green lanes are hard to find. Everywhere is privately owned and there is no mapping that I've found, so its a bit of pot luck. The best way I found was to use all the small rarely used roads, these are more likely to be part unsealed. But basically plan for a tarmac based trip and enjoy the odd bits.

4. Get off the WWW onto the smaller roads. There is less traffic and better views in the hidden coves.

5. Wild camping is a privilege, treat it with respect and leave no trace of your visit.

6. Get ready for lots of easy chat with the locals and engage as much as you can, lovely people

Enjoy the ride!!

Ireland: The Last Days

We were getting properly into the northern part of Ireland now, the cliffs dropped to smaller heights, the beaches remained white with find sand, but seemed more secluded. After riding over a very secluded pass, we stopped at a couple of lonely fort ruins and found a beautiful waterfall.

In front of the waterfall was a wooden monolith inscribed with Celtic symbols. The place had a very mystical air about it. 

Breakfast was a little late this morning, we found a garage selling some very basic stuff, it did have a 5 litre can of Jizer though!

Riding high above the sea, we noticed a dirt road running alongside the seashore, so a quick U turn and down we headed to try it out. It went for a good few miles close to the shore, before turning uphill through some fields and into a small village.

A short walk saw us at a concrete look out on a hilltop. There were a few folk around, including a biker couple with a little dog. The dog sat in behind them in a little box and seemed really happy to be out on a bike!

A visit to Fanad Head and another little wander along a rocky shore to a rock pinnacle. This was a memorial to the locals there who burned kelp for its iodine and quarried granite to make an income. Further along, Gareth took me onto a beach he used to go to as a kid. It's split in two, half for sunbathers and half for vehicles. We got an ice cream and watched the bikini clad ladies for awhile before heading back onto the roads.

The feel of this north western section is more forbidding for some reason, maybe the grey clouds and the drop in temperature after all these days of sunshine. 

In the late afternoon, the weather turned to heavy rain, so we bailed to Gareth's parents place in Northern Ireland. We missed out Malin Head and the small ferry across from Quigley's Point, saving it for another time.

Soaked to the skin, we arrived to whisky, a hot shower and fish n chips before a night in a warm bed. A proper Irish welcome...

The next morning, I headed back up to the Causeway Coast, riding along the coastline for the morning. I caught the ferry around 3.30pm for the ride back home.

Crossing southern Scotland, I hooked up with an older guy on a BMW. We cruised along together, with him in front. It was a really rare moment of shared camaraderie that you only find with bikers. Neither of us spoke to each other, except for a nod at some traffic lights, yet we shared the road, pointing out hazards as we rode into the foggy and damp night, both enjoying the company, yet with no need to add in social niceties.

He turned off into a hotel around 9pm and I continued home, rounding off the trip on some very familiar tarmac roads, with no traffic because of the time of night.

Time to service the bike and wash my kit... 

Ireland: Wacky Causeways & Achil Island

 Today turned out to be one of my favourites of the whole trip. We found a random causeway heading to two small islands called Inishnakillew and Inishcottle. Really secluded little places tucked away, with a small fishing industry and probably holiday homes these days. 

This whole area is made up of hundreds of little islands. It would be a great place to sea kayak or sail around. 

The WWW winds its way now onto Achil Island. The scenery around the coast line is stunning, the roads were just begging to be ridden, but the coastal views stopped us in our tracks many times.

Eventually, we stopped at a pub for some food. This turned out to have traditional Irish music, so we stayed to listen. During this, we got chatting to a family, who invited us onto another pub after this one, so off we went. Around 2am, we pitched our tents in a beer haze and slept very soundly!!

The next day, woken by munching sheep and a quad bike in the distance, we visited the abandoned village of Slievemore, which is on a peat road. Its history is compelling and the ruins are quite impressive given their age. 

After finding a mad breakfast wrap in a garage, along with some typical garage coffee and a very bubbly attendant lady, we left the island and rejoined the WWW. 

Meandering along quiet inlets and past random white sandy beaches really kept us captivated by the landscape. We rode out to Claggan Island along another beach, this one a mix of pebbles and sand. After a wander out to a rocky point, we then took in the road to the end of the Belmullet headland. 

Lunch was at the weather station that changed the date of the D Day landings. The weather man here, reported high winds and poor weather, which had the effect of pushing the landings back a day. Nothing so dramatic for us though, we just got to watch a school of dolphins drifting by as we ate lunch.

Carrowteige is a headland where peat cutting is still a big thing. We managed to get right to the cliff edges to take photos of Kid Island and the bikes, before going for a wander.

The end of the day saw us finding a small promontory overlooking a small bay. People were wild swimming until around 8pm, so we chilled and pitched our tents, drinking wine and just enjoying the sound of people splashing in the water.

A fire lit, we talked utter shite and watched the sunset.

Ireland: John Wayne, Drystone Walls and More Beach Riding

 We headed around to Westport, where I'd been before and had Guinness and oysters at the bar on my last Ireland trip. I thought I might be on familiar round, but I didn't really recognise any of it. 

Gareth knew the area well though, so he acted as a tour guide and took me to Cong, which is where the statue of John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara stands celebrating the film, the Quiet Man. The town also has loads of beautiful old buildings. 

En route, I kept stopping as there were some unique and interesting drystone walls, something Gareth took the piss out of me for!

We headed towards Omey Island, via the Sky Road, only to find a tidal beach road running across to it. After a quick tour around, Gareth got out the wooden mallet and we had a filming session of him razzing across with Thor's Hammer leading the charge!

We camped next to a massive beach called the Silver Strand. People were camped all over the place in a farmers field and a car park next to the beach. A run back into Killadoon, some 20 miles away, saw shopping for provisions and wine, which saw us sorted for the night.

Ireland: Causeways, more tyres and a B+B

 We left our castle early this morning, heading towards Galway. Another place had some tyres, which for me was becoming a necessity.  As usual, we took the scenic route via the Tarbert Ferry to cut a bit of a long ride out up and around the Shannon Estuary. As we headed closer into the coast, we stared to see more golf courses adjacent to the beaches. Most of these places have big hotel complexes and lots of expensive cars and the access is often closed off.

We stopped off at Doolin for some food and then moved off to Spanish Point. A place that had a history of seaweed farming and shipwrecks. We bypassed the Cliffs of Mohare and soon found ourselves winding through some amazing rock formations and around the Black Head Clare point. 

As time was cracking on, we made a dash of the last 30 miles to Galway, where a bike shop called Ivors, has a rear tyre for me. Both the tyres for these bikes were expensive, mine was old stock, so a little cheaper because Ivor sold me it at the earlier price.

It was late by the time we were done, but after getting some top tips from the father and son who own Ivor's, we belted out of Galway along the coast to Roundstone. The plan was to eat at a famous fish pub there. Once the traffic all died down, the road got really good and we swept across the southern tip of this peninsula on a fast roll of sweeping bends and superb scenery.

O'Dowd's had a visit from us, before we headed out deciding to find a B+B for the night so we could go back to the pub. Gareth was after live music, but there was none, so beer it was then!!

We actually stayed two nights here, doing a ride up into the Roundstone Bog and then around the mountains up there. Some excellent riding on tarmac roads and we found a couple of dead end Peat Roads to play on a little as well.