(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…
