farranfore to eagle point

 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 gap- ! as i cycled up and up  to this molls gap i kept thinking this must be near the top of this road soon , but it just kept rising and rising the road was narrow with lots of cars and busses heading up to the view points and mountain top cafe stops passing as i cycled up,  i was  extremely glad when i eventually got to the top of the mountain at molls gap, 

                  we had prearranged to meet at a place called kenmare and the cycle down into there was exhilarating and pleasant all that uphill cycling made for a quick fun downhill section ,we have got into a routine when we meet in towns sheila has already sussed out the town and generally has postcards and a place picked for lunch which is generally a bowl of soup and a pint of guiness it was 15:00 when i had my pint and soup , we had a look at the road map and our preferred option for camp destination tonight , a camp site called eagles point in a town called ballylicky , 

       it didn’t look far on the map and i thought i had done the hardest part of the cycling for that day behind me , i was wrong the steep climb up to what i found out was called the caha pass , was worse than the climb i had at molls gap yet again it seemed to rise forever and i kept looking miles in front of me while peddling  thinking it most be the top along there only to end up climbing more ,

         i passed a nice stop at druids view but this was still nowhere near the top of the climb which eventually came with long narrow ancient tunnel ,there is you tube videos of people cycling through this tunnel but it was pitch black in the middle and i regretted having no lights on the bike front or back , i had no option but to go for it but i was glad to get through the other side and a straight section of road ahead followed by a exhilarating downhill section , i was shattered when i eventually cycled into eagles point campsite at 18:10 , this was my hardest day cycling yet of this trip , 

       sheila had the camp site all sorted and the beers chilled by the time i arrived , there was only one bar/restaurant in town and it stopped serving food at 8pm . it was a short walk into town and dinner was ok . once the meals were done the band were setting up and the tables were cleared for the dancers ! it wasn’t exactly blackpool tower ballroom but the floor was dusted for the waltzing to begin,! we stayed and watched the dancers for a while then walked back to site