Ireland Day 2 Wicklow to Wexford

Tracy's concerns about a lack of caffeine in the morning were unwarranted - Rita explained that she puts food and tea/coffee out on the kitchen table to help yourself to in the morning. Don't mind if we do!

Fuelled by toast and jam, we left around 9am, taking the coast road to Brittas bay, although sand dunes mostly obscured views of the sea. It was here whilst on holiday 1990 that Chris Barrie created the comedy character Gordon Brittas, the inept leisure centre manager (probably).

A bit of sunshine and pleasant temperatures - ideal riding conditions 

Brittas bay - what little we could see peeking around the sand dunes 

Riding on through Arklow, we were making good progress. We mused on some of the differences between Ireland and the UK.

Traffic lights - turn green very fast. Not sure why, but they keep catching us out.

Crisps - Salt and Vinegar are blue in Ireland, Cheese and Onion are green. It makes sense - onions are plants, so should be in a green packet. Bloody Walkers!

As a 70s child, this is the correct colour for salt and vinegar. I wonder if our kids would find this disturbing having grown up under the Walkers dictatorship

Glenart school - they don't mess around with restorative practice in Ireland. The white tower is their inclusion unit.

8 miles from Gorey, we had our first big problem. Tracy's front mech slipped down the frame and got jammed. I had to Google setting up a front mech and managed at least to get her onto the lowest front cog. Never mind - 8 miles to Gorey and we could get it fixed at either of the two bike shops. Slow progress, with great comedy value seeing Tracy spin her legs as fast as she could to maintain speed on the flat. 

Arrival at Gorey 45 mins later and we discovered that both bike shops were closed - turns out today is a bank holiday in Ireland. The raucous pubs last night start to make sense!

A shrug of the shoulders and "It's alright, we'll get it sorted tomorrow" was the unexpected response from Tracy. I think that she is trying to massage the whinge factor score today. We grabbed lunch at the East Coast café and had a chat with one of the locals - a retired hodcarrier named Tom.

Tom - 75 years old, owns a trike, but prefers cycling these days. He told us of his numerous travels over the years. He's had a good life he says.

30 miles left to go and Tracy stuck in the lowest gear was going to be interesting and potentially a bit painful for her. No complaints from her though - she is made of stern stuff.

She had no choice but to free-wheel down every hill, which meant that Free-falling by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers got stuck in my head. Problem is that I only know that one bit. 
"Freeefaaalling!" Every hill, very loud until Tracy threatened violence.

Riding the back roads towards Wexford allowed us to have some very important conversations.

Rich Tea biscuits. The blandest of all biscuits. Hobnobs - great, Digestives - ok, but both improved by covering them with chocolate. Rich Tea - they no longer bother with chocolate covered ones - they wouldn't sell. Rich Tea lovers couldn't cope with the excitement. Is it rude to offer a guest biscuits if you only have Rich Tea? Is it rude to turn them down after you've already said yes to the offer of a biscuit? Important world changing stuff.

We also passed some cows and once again considered the regional dialects of our bovine friends. We spent a while trying to moo with an Irish accent.

The skies started to darken as we got closer to Wexford. Tracy admitted that she wasn't sure that Wexford was famous for cheese or if it was something else that I had made up. It is true. In fact, they produce 50 000 tonnes of cheddar each year. How dare you accuse me of such deceit. 

The rain started with 20 minutes left to go. Not the warm light rain from yesterday evening hitting the dusty road, leaving the distinctive summer rain smell. This was a waterproof-donning deluge. Soaked from above, soaked from the standing water below and splashed from passing cars was not how I wanted to end the day. The rain became as salty as the Mediterranean, salt being washed from our skin into our eyes and mouth - in fact too much salt. Old salt, the ghost-sweat of rides past. Nasty 🤢 

We arrived at the Farmers Kitchen Hotel to a warm welcome. After storing our bikes in the function room, we headed to our room for a hot shower. Dinner in the restaurant followed by the inevitable starfish in our room after eating too much again.

Our plan for tomorrow:

Hit the breakfast buffet early

Ride into Wexford 

Get the bike fixed - bike shop opens at 9:30

Buy lunch stuff

Ride 70 miles to Mo's loft near Dungarvan - it's going to be a long day!

Distance travelled: 59 miles

Total mileage: 95 miles 

Tracy whinge factor 1/10 (Justifiably about my singing)

A cake-less day - Tracy is v disappointed 

Ireland Day 1 - Dublin to Wicklow

 A short warm up day of just 30 miles - we originally planned to take an overnight ferry and cycle straight out of Dublin on arrival. I had offered Tracy two choices, either climbing through the Wicklow mountains or the coastal route, with a stop at a vegan restaurant for lunch. She decided that healthy eating was the lesser of two evils.

A short day meant a later start for us - riding the Donnybrook Greenway out of Dublin, past the Leinster rugby ground. 

We weaved our way along the excellent cycle tracks, making slow progress out of the suburban area of Greater Dublin. We were impressed by the quality of the cycle provision in and around the city. We paused at a Spar shop to grab some pastries for breakfast - Tracy complaining of hunger after only 3 miles.

Pastries - the socially acceptable way to eat cake for Breakfast. Is it cake? I think so, but they could also be baked goods, like sausage rolls.

We took a long while before we escaped the built up area - makes sense since we were following the coast from the capital city. We finally, but briefly reached the countryside before dropping down into Greystones 

First bit of countryside

The Happy Pear - veggie heaven, Tracy hell

I have wanted to visit the Happy Pear for years, having been a big fan of their cookbooks. Tracy is not a fan of lentils or beans, being able to stomach them only if hidden in a meal, in the same way that you disguise vegetables from a toddler. Despite this she ordered the lentil and bean lasagne, claiming that it looked tasty. We both loved the food - so many interesting flavours in the accompanying salads and kimchi. We noticed the local thrushes picking up scraps left from other tables - must be the healthiest birds in Ireland, dining out on wholefoods all day.

Better than climbing hills all day, apparently 

Well of course we had cake. Rude not to!

After lunch we had some time to kill, so took a stroll along Greystones beach.

Strangely sinister Beach Bear sculpture in Greystones

Sleeping off a spot of lunch

View from Greystones

The roadsigns after lunch read like a hitman's to do list; Kilquade, Kilruddery, Kilpedder. Passing through Kilcoole I felt relieved to be so average. Apparently kil means church though. Cycling on to Wicklow, we have to remember that the signs are in km - seeing a bigger number than you expect could be disheartening on a longer day.

We arrived at Knockrobin cottage - our accommodation for the night. Lovely room and a warm welcome from Rita, our host.

We wandered into Wicklow to recce the place for Tracy's essential morning coffee (there being no kettle in our room) and hoping to find an open mini-mart, it being a Sunday. To our surprise, Lidl and Tesco's were both open until 9pm. We had assumed that Ireland, being an overtly Christian country, would have Sunday trading laws. Apparently they're not bothered. Most of the local population, who were not working in the supermarkets, were already in the pub anyway. Walking past the rowdy pub garden, it was interesting to hear our shared language, just spoken twice as fast.

We passed an amusement centre and decided to see what was on offer. Tracy didn't see the point of Axe throwing - darts but more violent? Seemingly we were too old for the soft play, so settled on ten pin bowling for half an hour. We do this every so often to remind ourselves that we don't really like bowling. We are both rubbish and get bored half way through the first game. This time we had to endure two. Still, won't have to do it again for another 5 years or so!

Yep - bowling. Still dull.

Looking forward to our first proper day tomorrow - 60 miles to Wexford.

Distance ridden: 31 miles 

Tracy whinge factor: 1/10 - too concerned about a potential lack of coffee in the morning 

Cake of the day: Custard crown (If pastries are cakes)

Day 0 - Travel to Dublin

We started by driving to Chester to avoid getting up at 3am and travelling through the night. Unfortunately we hit traffic on almost every motorway! Left at 10am, arrived at the hotel before 6pm. They had no parking available in the tiny carpark - literally space for 8 cars arranged in almost random fashion. Tracy performed a perfect 57 point turn to get us back out.

We then got lost in Chester due to road closures and one way streets, finally parking by the station. We walked the 5 mins back to the hotel with our bikes arriving at 6:30.

For dinner, we ended up almost next door to the hotel, a lovely little South Indian restaurant called the Coconut Tree. As always at curry houses, we ordered far too much - telling ourselves that we needed to carbo-load for our trip or replace the energy lost from our massive 1500 steps today. Best starfish impressions back at the hotel afterwards!

That unbelievably is all mine. A vegetarian Thali - an opportunity to try half the menu at once. 

We took the opportunity in the morning to rethink some kit choices - Tracy leaving behind a bunch of energy gels and some clothes, but steadfastly refusing to ditch any of the 3 fleeces that she has brought. I think that she is expecting Arctic conditions in Ireland. I expect to see her bright red and sweating on the West coast, wearing all 3 at once to prove a point. We also grabbed the first cake of the trip from a Polish bakery - the biggest chocolate croissant that I've ever seen. We split it - sorry no pictures as we aren't on the ball yet!

An easier drive on Saturday morning took us along the North Wales Expressway to Holyhead and the port. We parked up in the Premier Inn carpark and rode to the ferry under the careful direction of Google maps playing through my headphones. It was clearly struggling with some of the Welsh street names "mouse cut here" was "maes cyttir". I steeled myself for some interesting times, but then London road took us pretty much to the passenger terminal.

Waiting for the shuttle bus we met another couple of cyclists off on their own adventure. Rosalie and Eleanor are riding down to Rosslaire, hopping on a ferry to Bilbao, before riding on to Santander to catch the eclipse on the 12th. Sounds like a proper adventure - especially with the "and then we'll see what happens" plan afterwards. Not sure Tracy would cope with that level of spontaneity!

Rosalie and Eleanor - good luck. We hope the skies are clear for you on the 12th!

A 3 and a half  hour sailing across to Dublin and we arrived at the port. A minibus met us at the bottom of the ramp to escort the 4 cyclists to the ferry terminal, with instructions of "Follow me". We literally travelled 80 metres, before being told "Go through that door' - it all seemed overly dramatic.

We followed the Dublin Port Greenway which was an unexpectedly pleasant route out of the busy port and into Irishtown and our accommodation. A strange name for a suburb - would you ever have Chinatown in China? I suspect that it has a historical and most likely oppressive reason for the name.

View from the Ferry deck, where people go to experience fresh air, through a filter

Dublin Port bay

Dublin Port Greenway 

A quick rest from the massive journey 🤣 from the ferry and then we headed out to find dinner.

Our accommodation for the night including live music.

A stroll down the river past the Aviva  Rugby stadium and on to Ballsbridge and the Baan Thai.

 Inevitably we both ordered Pad Thai.

Oh no - I've turned into one of those people who takes pictures of his food.

Back at the merry cobbler now - a guitarist/singer in full flow. The stage is basically him sat above the entrance doorway. It means that he's right next to our room. Good job it's been a short day, because we're not going to be sleeping anytime soon.

Distance covered: 5 miles

Cake of the day: Polish chocolate croissant 🥐 

Tracy whinge factor 0/10 - if she's moaning after 5 miles, we are stuffed!

Round Ireland (without a fridge)

Niche title for a post that is basically our itinerary. I have shared our knowledge of each destination having done literally no research at all. 

Aug 1st - Arrive in Dublin (Ireland has a population of 5 million - this is where they all live)

Aug 2nd - Wicklow (A mountain maybe)

Aug 3rd -Wexford (Cheese, Gromit!)

Aug 4th - Dungarvan (From the manufacturer of work overalls which were historically exported in the back of a 1950s Bedford )

Aug 5th - Cork (meet up with Peak tours group)

Aug 6th - Coach to Mizen Head. Ride to Glengariff (Home to a mythical creature)

Aug 7th - Tralee (winning song from Eurovision in 1975)

Aug 8th - Spanish Point (Wrong country),

Aug 9th - Galway (Fully expecting to meet a girl that plays fiddle in an Irish band)

Aug 10th - Clifden (Retirement home of the 1960s popstar and Christian icon)

Aug 11th -Westport (A port on the West coast, twinned with Eastport in Maine, which is ironically located further West)

Aug 12th - Sligo (Named after DJ Sligo, Drum and Bass Artist from the early 2000s)

Aug 13th - Portnoo (Home to Europe's largest manufacturer of mobile toilets)

Aug 14th - Malin Head (Expecting this to be on the coast)

Aug 15th - Day in Belfast  (Where the titanic was built)

Aug 16th - Dundalk (No info at all)

Aug 17th Dublin (All of the people)

Aug 18th - Ferry and drive home

HCW Day 3 Carlisle to Whitehaven

 We had decided to start early at 7:30am, today being the longest of our planned days at 70 miles. We woke up to rain and got as far as wheeling our bikes down the hotel corridor before changing our plan and staying for breakfast. One cooked brekkie later and we departed the hotel with the rain having already stopped. Being on the road we had rather lost track of the days and it transpired that eating at the hotel was a good plan, since it was Sunday and we didn't pass any open cafés until lunchtime.

Sculpture to commemorate the formation of the RSPB 

We picked our way out of Carlisle, getting the most lost out of our whole trip when we blundered around Carlisle hospital trying to find a nonexistent path to route 72.

Having escaped the clutches of the city, we headed along the Solway Firth, where the beach scenes reminded me of the ubiquitous Jack Vetrianno prints that were everywhere in the 90s (or the late 20th century as the young people now describe it). He sadly passed away in March of this year.

Apparently the singing butler sold over a million prints since 1992

Solway firth, with it's numerous sand banks

We headed West across the pancake, nay rabbit-flat terrain. Across Dykesfield, which spends much of its time underwater. What I assumed to be the Dyke was actually a disused railway, raised up to prevent flooding.

I wouldn't attempt it!

Railway on the left, Solway firth on the right.

We finally arrived at Drumburgh, a coastal village with a "castle" - actually a fortified farmhouse to provided refuge from the border reivers. Apparently they would wade across the firth at low tide on the sandbank know as the Wath. Apparently they were easy to spot and the village inhabitants would take refuge in the farmhouse. By all accounts it was common for raiders to drown by getting stuck in the Solway sands.

A castle designed to disappoint American tourists 

I wouldn't fancy making that crossing on a raid

Riding on to Bowness on Solway, where we posed for a photo by the sign for Rome, before taking a cheeky shortcut south, the first of a few that shaved over 10 miles off our planned route.

Hmm, cycling to Rome. Sounds like a good idea...

...No.

Our next diversion cut out the loop to Silloth - a popular Victorian seaside destination until the Beeching report did for tourism. The old coastal railway must have been pretty special, with the industrial towns giving way to picturesque views across the firth to the Scottish hills. Apparently Silloth is home to the largest village green in England - tempted as we were to view a patch of grass, the reduced mileage was too inviting.

This floods apparently, even though the sea in nowhere to be seen

Continuing South, we took a brief detour to the Lowther Arms - a community owned pub for a spot of light lunch. Just sandwiches Tracy said, although I knew that she would choose a roast dinner if one was going. No roast available and no sandwiches that took her fancy she decided to order the small Haddock. She forgot the word small when the waitress took our order, so she ended up with a big slab of battered fish on a mountain of chips. I helped her out by eating most of her chips, kind-hearted husband that I am. It meant that the next hours riding was challenging, as all we wanted was a Sunday afternoon nap.

South on the coastal path through Allonby bay to Maryport and we seemed to be stuck in a glitch in the matrix. Our view was on constant repeat - grassland and sand dunes to the left, wide beach with a few people and the distant sea on the right. It turns out the bay is absolutely huge and it being quite remote, never seems busy.

Stuck in...

...a loop...

...but looking back from Maryport you can see how big the bay actually is.

We climbed through Maryport golf course, putting at least one golfer off his stroke. A father on his mountain bike passed us coming down the hill, his son perched on the handlebars, his daughter spread across his arms and the crossbar. I marvel at the efforts some people will go to in order to remove their genes from the genepool.

The sculpture is made from Iron ore mixed with resin. Ironically, the iron ore had to be shipped in from Europe

We continued to ride south, another old railway taking us all the way through Workington, whilst providing only a 5 second glimpse of the town centre. The view was the common sight of a Greggs and a neighbouring Costa. Greggs for all your pastry needs and Costa if you're too good for Gregg's. You'll see this pairing in most towns in the UK.

We finally arrived at Whitehaven, took a brief celebratory selfie before heading up the steepest hill of the day to our hotel.

I do love a wind turbine. Trump's a moron. 

Whitehaven quayside 

A reluctant selfie

We ventured out a bit later and ate at the local spoons. I'm not proud, but it is so cheap. We chatted with 4 guys from our hotel who were heading out on the Hadrian's Cycleway and into storm Floris the next morning. They were a bit nervous, but although they might get a bit damp, the tailwinds will speed them along like Olympians.

Tracy's wall collection:

Morrisons supermarket wall

Hadrian's wall

Barn wall

Farm wall

Choose your favourite.

Distance covered: 58 miles 

Elevation: 1540ft

Tracy whinge factor: 0/10 she is a delight when there are no hills to climb 

Cake of the day: Unfortunately a cakeless day, but depending on your point of view, she had two yesterday.

We are riding around Ireland next year. We have learnt that we will need more training beforehand. We were a bit blase this trip, thinking that it would be easy after LEJoG last year. It wasn't - the Pennines were more challenging than anything we did last trip.

HCW Day 2 - Hexham to Carlisle

We made an earlish start, leaving the Travelodge at 8:30. Initially our progress from Hexham was slowed by the number of park runners on route. We passed Vindolanda, another Roman fort, although we decided not to stop - we are now experts on all things Roman. In fact, we have been invited back to Vindolanda as guest lecturers next summer.

A pretty route 

View of Vindolanda 

Way markers on route

Perfect cycling weather

We continued on to the Sill - the National Landscape Discovery Centre at Once Brewed (yep that is the name of the village) for a coffee. Tracy obviously had her criminal head on today, trying to walk out of the coffee shop without paying and doing the same thing 5 mins later in the gift shop.

Cake at last - Raspberry and lemon muffin

We took a walk up towards the wall with the intention of hiking to the now sycamore-less gap. Tracy was a little underwhelmed when we eventually reached Hadrian's Wall. In her head she had pictured something a bit closer to the great wall of China, not the foundations of a construction site. We walked along a bit, but decided to head back to the bikes instead. A hike along a fragmented low wall to see an empty gap had lost it's appeal.

A mile castle on the wall

The wall itself

The remains of the sycamore gap tree have been turned into an art installation inside the Sill. The amount of merchandise related to the tree is huge, if anything it has become a more famous tourist attraction after it was felled. Perhaps Northumberland should consider a radical campaign to increase visitor numbers, vandalise their own tourist attractions. Angry tourists will flock to the site that they couldn't be arsed to visit before.   

The sycamore gap installation 

A bit like a peeled banana?

We continued on to Haltwhistle - the self proclaimed centre of Britain. We stopped for lunch and a bit of a rest and got talking to Steve. He is a keen cyclist and was asking about LEJoG, as we were wearing our jerseys from last year. He had promised himself that he would do it before his 60th birthday, but as he only has two months left, he has put the deadline back! He was asking for advice and we shared our blog address.

The lesser know variety of local sheep - The Northumbrian long neck

Creative bollards

Creative marketing 

Centre on England marker - never let facts get in the way of self promotion.

The afternoon continued with sunshine, headwinds and a bit more wall. We cycled past Birdoswald, another Roman fort - the staff begged us to come in as visiting experts to lead some of the tours, but we needed to ride on.

Tracy sat next to the sign saying please don't climb on the wall. Naughty girl

More wall. Unless it's 4m high...

...complete with a Roman garrison, We're not bothered.

We stopped again for ice-cream at Moos in Brampton, a lovely treat, but the combination of Cherry icecream and Pepsi Max gave me cherryade flavoured burps.

Remains of a mile castle

After Brampton, we were worried about the approaching  hill - the toughest of the day. Turns out it was relatively straightforward - nothing but a pimple compared with the Pennines.

Lanacost Priory 

I think the signs wrong - 12% maybe?

I think Tracy expected the mile castles to be more like this modern folly

We eventually arrived in Carlisle, the cycle route bringing us into the heart of the city through the park.

Memorial in the park

We decided to go for Thai food this evening as we worked our way through our global cuisine to do list this week. And also there was a Thai restaurant on the same road as the Travelodge. It looked full when we arrived but they managed to squeeze us into a corner. Turns out everyone else in the restaurant was celebrating a Thai lady's 60th birthday who appeared to be related to the owners. The party was in full swing and there was much merriment, dancing and singing which kept us entertained and the food was amazing. They even gave us 2 pieces of the black forest gateaux birthday cake to make us feel included. 

We then had a discussion about whether gateaux was a dessert or a cake. I'm in the cake camp (it's a chocolate cake with cream, clearly) but Tracy is in the dessert camp. Feel free to contribute but you're not allowed to Google it. Google spoils the best debates. 

Gateaux - cake or dessert?

Distance covered: 53 miles 

Elevation: 3706ft

Average speed: 8.9 mph

Tracy whinge factor: 0/10

Cake of the day: Raspberry and Lemon muffin 6/10