Our first day of riding turned out to be an epic one. Though we only had a little less than 20 miles to ride to get to the ferry to Inishmore island, the problem was that there was a fair amount of uphill, combined with a nasty wind that was either in our faces or blasting us from the side!
We thought we’d given ourselves plenty of time, but ended up getting to the ferry with only about ten minutes to spare… After a 40 minute ferry ride, we had to go only about two and a half kilometers to find tonight’s lodgings. We unloaded the bikes and brought everything into our room …and promptly took an hour nap!
With our legs recovered a bit, but still with sore butts, we set off to explore the island. While it looked pretty threatening as we headed out, the squall quickly blew through and we had sunny skies for most of the rest of the afternoon.
Finally able to ride at a leisurely pace, and not fighting the wind too badly, we enjoyed our little tour immensely. Roughly another 12 miles roundtrip, with a stop for dinner in the village, and the highlight of a short hike up to Dun Aonghasa (pronounced Doon Aengus), which is the slightly restored ruins of a stone fort that dates from the Iron Age, about three thousand years ago. The central area is built right up to a two hundred foot cliff that drops straight to the sea. The wind was howling so hard that we both crawled to the edge (going the last few feet on our bellies) just to be able to take in the view of the waves crashing against the cliffs below and to our left in the distance. We got some photos with Mal’s camera, but I didn’t have the courage to try and take one with the iPhone! Here’s one though, of Mal next to the innermost ‘door’:
From there, which was the halfway point in our ride, the way back had the wind at our backs, which was glorious to say the least. Now we’re back in our room, ready for a nice long rest before our 36 mile ride tomorrow!
