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.
