trains beers mountains and drams

Ive felt it would be worthwhile writing a bit about how i felt about the cycling and bike stuff in general , also some of my cycling equipment to remind myself of how it went and what i would do different next time !              I was anxious about the cycling before I set off at Malin Head because of my injuries and lack of training but it went well and in the end I enjoyed it , I now feel really proud to be able to say i have cycled the length of ireland , I’m glad I chose north to south doing the malmiz instead of peoples usual mizmal M2M , the Irish roads were very good for cyclists better than the UK ! It would be lovely to have a few months and do the whole 2500km of the wild atlantic way its such a beautiful friendly country , I never encountered any of the usual crap touring cyclists get in the uk which at times can even become violent       my fitness held out just ! my knee was hurting at the end from an old cartilage ski injury, I got this injury 20years ago an

Cycling over what now ?           It was very pleasant to wake up with no cycling to do , but now with the cycling completed what will we do with our remaining few days ? the original plan was to walk carnitouhill irelands biggest mountain , that mountain was back near killarney (well the original plan was actually to do the walk in-between cycling days) , it was good weather but we knew it was a 2-3 day expedition to go back to do the mountain then head of to Dublin for our ferry from there on Friday  , we opted to continue touring the towns sheila really wanted to go for a swim somewhere tomorrow also my knee was sore so we chose to head away from the hills it will give us an excuse to visit this part of Ireland again ,       after a bit of map studying and debate about choices of where to swim we settled on lough hyne which was a perfect decision, this lough ( pronounced the same as Scottish loch )is a unique sea lake because of an underwater shelf where it joins the sea

Day 8                  It was pleasant to know that i could cycle away from the van and leave Sheila to tidy up and organise our stuff of the day , she woke up early and asked me if i wanted to go for a swim in the bay , but i was shattered i wanted an extra hour , she was back within 30mins! There was a swan in the bay that had started hissing at her so she turned tail with her I’m a total warrior buff on lol . We had some porridge charged our electronic equipment and i set off cycling the final leg , it was overcast to begin with but the sun came out and by the end of the day i was sun burned , probably shoulda put some cream on .         Just outside Bantry i stopped to speak to a german cyclist he was from Stutgard , we spoke extensively about each other's bikes his was the much more interesting. It was a singe speed and classic raleigh frame with reynods 530 tubing he had put a lot of work into this customised retro bike , with his own customised back rack, a brooks sa

 Day 7 of the trip. sunday 27th of may 2018              We woke at 8 am to the sound of  loud cracking thunder and pouring rain ! so the duvet was pulled up and back to sleep , this meant it was another late start in the day as sheila dropped me back at farranfore at 11:50 but at least the thunder and rain had stopped , it was overcast but dry for my 11mile cycle back to killarney            it was 50 minuets of cycling when i eventually passed flesk camp site where we stayed last night , along that road into killarney  I past the only ghost bike i had seen on the way into town, I’ve found the drivers of ireland very courteous toward cyclist much better than I’ve experienced in the UK ,             I also past a monument to monsignor hugh O;flaherty the scarlet pimpernel of rome , i remember the old war film about his life greggory peck played the part , i enjoyed the cycle back through killarney but now it was time to head into the ring of kerry !       heading up to molls