SouthWest Ireland

mcallaghan

I leave tomorrow for my trip around the South West of Ireland. All packed up and ready to go at this point.

I arrive May 1st and will be spending my first few days doing some local rides around the Loughrea area.

May 6th is my planned day for starting my SW Trip, by heading to Doolin.

From there...

Doolin to Ballybunion
Ballybunion to Dingle
2 full days in Dingle - to do Slea Head and Conors Pass rides
Dingle to Kenmare
Kenmare to Glengariff (Healys Pass route on this I believe)
Glengariff to Mizen to Goleen
Goleen to Bantry (Sheeps Head Penninsula)
Bantry to Allihies (Beara Way)
Allihies to Sneem
Sneem to Cahersiveen (ROK)
Cahersiveen to Ballybunion
Ballybunion to Dingle
Dingle to Loughrea

I've prebooked the first several nights at B&B's at this point though may re-look at the Goleen area as Herons Cove is the only B&B I was able to locate there (the Mizen/Malin Thread however has pointed out a few more options).

So yeah, getting pretty excited and hoping for some decent weather!

cdaly_

Sounds like a lovely spin. Best of luck...

mossym

the direct route from kenmare to glengariff takes you over caha pass, not healy pass. it is possible to do it over healy pass, which is a nicer ride, did both recently. just make sure you know which one you want to do

mcallaghan

Yes, I'm not going the direct route to Glengariff...making the excursion to head down and do Healy Pass.

All arrived in Ireland now. Going to do my first ride today now that the bike is all assembled. Might do a short ride this morning and if its not too windy, go on another ride this afternoon.

Weather has been rather nice - still a bit jetlagged so have been up 2 hours before my Aunt/Uncle got up, but it did allow me to take a walk down to the Cows who were being very vocal this morning. Lots of cows in this area - hardly seen any Sheep - but my Aunts house is at a junction where about 4 different farms meet. The one closest has about 100+ cows on the land (Dairy Farm).

jinkypolly

mcallaghan wrote: »

Yes, I'm not going the direct route to Glengariff...making the excursion to head down and do Healy Pass.

All arrived in Ireland now. Going to do my first ride today now that the bike is all assembled. Might do a short ride this morning and if its not too windy, go on another ride this afternoon.

Weather has been rather nice - still a bit jetlagged so have been up 2 hours before my Aunt/Uncle got up, but it did allow me to take a walk down to the Cows who were being very vocal this morning. Lots of cows in this area - hardly seen any Sheep - but my Aunts house is at a junction where about 4 different farms meet. The one closest has about 100+ cows on the land (Dairy Farm).

Enjoy, ride safe and keep us up to date on the cow situation.;)

Raam

The north road of the Sheeps Head gets pretty small in places.

This is from a spin I did there, and it got smaller than this... beautiful spot to cycle.

mcallaghan

I was expecting to see a lot more Sheep then Cows in Ireland

I've had my first Irish Soda Bread (homemade by my Aunt) which was quite good. I'm still undecided on pudding - White Pudding somewhat reminds me of Haggis but I can't say I would ask for it (if it was an option). Black Pudding...not so fond of, but I suppose its an acquired taste.

Dunsandle Castle is basically in the backyard here. Can't go inside of it but was interesting to walk around. The piles of stone that remain of its ruins are all covered up though the main building has been restored. Aunt knows the guy who owns the place, so might try to see if she can get us the keys so we can go inside and climb to the top for the views. Castles always make me wonder what they used to look like when they were 'new', and about the people who lived in them. Hopefully Time Travel gets invented in my lifetime!

feck sake lads

great your settling in good stuff, the black pudding will get you up those steep hills a lot quicker.best of luck on the tour make sure you take a few photos of your journey keep us posted.

i talk to you on bikeforum.net:rolleyes:

shaka

That's some serious cycling , I know the Beara area fairly well.. Enjoy , copper kettle in Castletownbere , o Neil's in allihies and Harringtons (Denars) in Ardgroom are all good food stops down there.


If you wanted you could cycle to glengariff by caha pass and on your return from bantry to allihies go up Healy pass cycle back into Castletown and continue to allihies .

Enjoy

mcallaghan

Should have taken my camera with me today. The 12 mile loop I did had some nice views and 2 Castles + a ruin. Guess coming from the States I'm not used to seeing such things...and coming from Colorado, its strange being able to look straight and see for miles - instead of having to look up because of all the mountains.

Pretty strong headwind today. Took about 50 minutes to do the 12 miles on rolling terrain. Somehow lost the little...sensor thingy for my bike computer so the only reading I got was for Cadence...which doesn't help when trying to record total mileage! Will pop back into Loughrea bike shop to see if I can either get a replacement, or get a new bike computer. Also need a patch kit - forgot to bring one - though my Marathon Plus+ tires are puncture proof I should be puncture free.

Also - the roads out here sure are bumpy! Even when smoothly paved, the contours are all bumps. Feel like I need a shock absorber on the front of my bike!

And - http://cyclowanderer.wordpress.com/ - thats my Blog for those that are interested in following my travels. May 6th - this monday - will be the day I start my trip and head to Doolin!

feck sake lads

It will be interesting to read your honest views of cycle touring in ireland warts and all ,every one always the perfect picture which is not always the case so give us the good the bad and the ugly promise we wont shoot you.:D

mcallaghan

I don't think any cycle-tour can be picture perfect, short of getting perfect weather on everyday.

I ended up doing 10 extra miles after my last post - down to Loughrea and back - and not going to lie, my legs got a little...hm...stiff? on the way back. Not sure if it was due to the constant headwind or some such, but had to give them a good stretch out once I got back.

Went to Atherny with my Aunt to do a quick food shop and also stopped by the Norman Castle (thats been restored) there. Quite a nice little joint - a large birds nest in the attic window was quite amusing (and clearly has a long history itself). About 5 blue-ish eggs in the nest though I am no bird watcher - no clue what sort of bird it was.

shaka

Road surface changes will be interesting to observe , type of road chipin parts of limerick are ass breaking compared to Kerry/Cork . And like what you said even on good surface the road can be very uneven.
D you do a lot of cycle touring ?

mcallaghan

I haven't done any since 2003, when I rode from London to Rome (and was in much better shape). This Spring for me wasn't kind - too much snow. We apparently got another 3 inches yesterday. Makes it very hard to get out and ride the bike when its sub-freezing and snow covers the ground. Not equipped for such conditions.

Hoping to push the distance tomorrow to 30+ miles (of course, not riding with any gear). Saturday I think we're going to the Aran Islands and then I'll do another 30-odd mile ride on Sunday before heading off fully loaded for Doolin on Monday. Charging my GPS right now - for some reason when I turned it on it thought I was still in Colorado, so going to look into fixing that tonight. I do have a paper map with me, but want to use the GPS since it should give better directions based on the routes I've preplotted.

feck sake lads

sounds like your having a good time.
thought they would have been a bird expert along by now :rolleyes: