Category: Family

The best day yet!

(On the bike tour anyway!)

Funny as it sounds, we had an easy 44-mile ride today. As you’ll see from the photos, it was a beautiful sunny day, with a picturesque amount of clouds most of the time. It did rain around us, and there was a bit of wind, but it was nothing compared to yesterday, plus it was predominantly at our backs for a change!

It was a day of striking scenery. Mountains, lakes (loughs), creeks, bays beaches and even finishing up with a ride along Ireland’s only fjord!

It’s a little hard to see in the foreground of the above photo, but it’s a common site here: chunks of peat, freshly dug from a peat-bog next to the road, piled up to dry before being collected by the farmer. It’s really something when you think about it: digging up the ‘ground’ in a nearby field, and burning it in your fireplace! I guess they’re lucky to have all that peat, since they have so few trees!

The last circuit before riding into Leenaun for the night initially meandered along the west coast, with views such as the one above…

…And then turned inland along a series of dramatic lakes. Near the inlet to one, I spotted the above scene. Yes, those are pink rhododendrons in the lower left. One often sees long stretches of these shrubs lining the roads here (along with wild fuschia!), but until today, they all looked like they’d finished blooming a few weeks ago. It felt like a treat to find it still in bloom!

Lastly, above, is a photo of Killary Harbour, Ireland’s only fjord, along which we rode for the last few miles of the day. And what a day it was!

Until tomorrow…

Day two in Clifden

Happy 4th of July to all you Americans… I have to admit, it was kind of nice to be here, and not having to deal with a bunch of crazies setting off fireworks and such, that’s for sure!

Today dawned partly cloudy but very windy. Hard to believe, but even with all my talk about the wind, this was the windiest yet! At least it was also the sunniest too…

After a tasty breakfast (poached eggs with Connemara smoked salmon; yum!), we were delighted to head out on our loop ride for the day. It was great being able to leave our big panniers behind, and bring only the essentials for a change. Definitely made for a much lighter load on the bikes!

I think it’s hard to see in the photo above, but there were a lot of whitecaps on the bay next to the first leg of our ride. Which, of course, was into a headwind of about 35 mph!! Nice bit of sun anyway…

The first two-thirds of the ride was a big 25-mile circle down around the coast south of Clifden. A definite highlight the back-to-back Dog’s Bay and Gurteen Bay, where the sun shone onto beautiful white sand beaches. Despite the wind, Mallory decided to dip her feet in the sea…

Then it was on to the little village of Roundstone, where we had tea and cakes, and then shopped at a small open market. From there it was day two on the stretch back to Clifden called the Bog Road. Strong headwinds, once again. It looked for awhile like it was going to rain, but by the time we were back in Clifden, the sun had returned. That gave us renewed energy for the last part of the ‘figure eight’ loop, which led up onto a peninsula east of Clifden onto what’s evocatively called the Sky Road. The view from the overlook was spectacular, even if it did cloud up again a bit by the tine we got there…

Another thing I loved about this road was that it was lined in places by a gorgeous combo of gorse and heather, giving one a sort of ‘essence of Ireland’ effect:

As an aside, I have to reiterate how great the iPhone is working for this whole adventure. It takes great photos (I think you’ll agree); I’ve even done some photo editing with the Photoshop Mobile app, to improve an underexposed image or two. Seeing how I’ve been able to get wireless almost everywhere, it’s been incredibly easy to track my email and publish the blog. There’ve been less than a handful of times that I’ve needed to actually use the cell phone…

All of that is just my way of saying that I think this little tool has passed the mini-travel-computer test with flying colors!

As a postscript, here’s one last shot for today, of what has been our favorite lodgings so far, the lovely and cozy Sea Mist House:

Clifden, and a special day!

We got to sleep in this morning, since our place didn’t start serving breakfast until nine. We also knew that the ferry didn’t leave until noon, and we didn’t feel the need to do any extra riding when we had 36 miles to do once we got off the ferry. So, we just rode the short distance into Kilronan (the main village, where the ferry pier is), and Mallory did a little shopping while I hit the local Imternet cafe to check email and publish the latest blog post.

The weather looked very promising on the ferry ride, but I figured we’d probably see a little of everything, which was not a real gamble, as we’re beginning to learn…

Once off the ferry, all we needed was a quick provisioning stop, and we were on our way…

The first five or six miles were wonderful, as we had the wind at our backs. It seems to blow a pretty steady gale of 25 to 35 mph here, and mostly as a headwind, for some reason. Something about the Irish and hardship?? Anyway, once we turned west again, we were facing into it for most of the rest of the day.

Here’s a couple photos to give you an idea of the landscapes we’re riding through:

…a creek over which we rode, on an ancient-looking bridge…

…and an example of the astoundingly green bogland with the occasional lake but nary a tree to be seen!

We had surprisingly little rain up until the last couple of miles into Clifden, when it really started coming down. It was perfect, though, as we were able to ride straight to our home base for the next two nights, the Sea Mist Guest House, where we could wash up and get into dry clothes.

Seeing as today is our 27th wedding anniversary, we then headed out to celebrate! We found a fabulous seafood restaurant where we enjoyed a meal fit for the occasion. We wandered around the square a bit afterward, listening to banjo music emanating from a packed pub, and checking out a couple other restaurants for tomorrow night. Unfortunately, we’re just a little too pooped to party into the wee hours like we used to. It’s okay, as we know we need to keep resting up for the rides ahead! Me especially, if I’m going to keep Mal from passing me all the time…