It was a bit tricky trying to get some breakfast but it sorta worked: after three hours of sleep (the band called it a day after their 25th encore and the guests were vocal until 0200hrs. Gits, hah-hah!
She kept watch at the top of the stairs. Frankly terrifying.
One is a relic, too thirsty and causes noxious emissions. Other one has four doors!
No way could the scenery match yesterday’s, but there were some spots…
I was quite looking forward to the first stop after 25 miles, not least for a Mocha. From the world’s slowest pouring coffee machine. Irrational sleep-deprived rage talking there, hah-hah!
Fall-back if the punditry work dries up.
Why that’s my hometown!
Hurry up you cart! Yeah, because 30 secs will make all the difference over 10 hours…
S’alright innit?
You sure about this move, Paul?
Downhill! Followed by uphill! Bollocks!
Sticking to the coast wasn’t all bad then.
Despite the not entirely kind winds, progress was okay and a late lunch was called at 65 miles in Ballina. No real dramas I thought…maybe another 35 miles and we’re home and hosed. Not so fast, pal. Er…the route in to Sligo was a main drag and a couple of local cyclists advised against it as there was almost zero shoulder and the majority of the motorists viewed the 100km/h signs as minimum speeds. No thanks. I went for the slower and longer scenic route even though it added on a few rolling bonus miles.
Your usual table, Sir? Mais our et bonnet de douche. Blinding! #teamtayto
Mate- tow me to Sligo and there’s a century in it for you.
The farmer had no problem stopping the herd for me. Does this at 0700 and 1600 every day. Can take an hour to move all 700 cattle!
If you can find them, maybe you can hire…the G-Team!
Basically it ended-up being a 110 mile day: I’ll be drawing-down on those excess miles tomorrow, as it’s probably about 95 miles…into a headwind. Still, don’t have nightmares! Tonight’s acco is fine and does not feature any live music acts within proximity. Bueno!
It wasn’t that tidy 3 mins later, hah-hah!
For Pauline…Geoff’s Mum.
So there was the small matter of finding the right pub for the post-stage Guinness: it can’t be any old gaff…in the event, Furey’s was the right choice!
Lovin’ your work!
Oh yus indeed.
Somewhere under there is a steak. Sorry, was.
The standard two items of business remain…
Not a complete walk in the park. Job done though. Onwards!
And the tune of the day is one ID’s finest, which means it is very good indeed…(sorry, that was another of his!)
There’s only another £650 to reach the magic ‘five figures’. Outstanding effort from everyone innit!
My hostess was as good as her word when she said that I could get at the cereals from 6.30am: the lady also made me a scrambled-egg sandwich for the road. Sounds bizarre, right? It was more like a Tortilla Espanola but minus the spuds. I can overlook that infraction as it was immense!
I can forgive this twee cobblers as it is a class establishment!
And away from lovely Galway: defo on the return list.
Another day, another county!
The landscape went through probably 3 or 4 changes today. Immense!
It was a dead-heat as to who was MVP today between the landscape and the weather. Bright sunshine, blue skies and mainly favourable winds were really appreciated…but, take a gander at what I had to pedal through. #thoughtsandprayers
Zero apologies for the photo bombardment but I took so many…without exaggeration, that 30 mile stretch was champagne cycling, and as wonderful as pretty much anywhere else that I’ve trundled through. Take a bow, Counties Galway and Mayo!
He might have at least used an alias! #mojorisin
Please, do not zoom-in. #nightmares
The other mission for today was to try to meet a ‘work’ colleague who was over in Westport with some pals on an er, energetic weekend. It worked-out about as well as one could’ve wished given the personnel involved, hah-hah! It resulted in an early Guinness for someone…cheers Fiona!
After 20 minutes I was away with only 17 miles to go: as per, the last 5 seemed to drag in peu…
The captions for the photos aren’t playing nice, so the one above is in because we started in Bangor last Saturday at daft o’clock. Seems like an age ago- after reading this daily cobblers, you may very well agree, hah-hah!
Here’s tonight’s acco…super friendly and with a warning that they’ll have a band playing later. Madam, you could have a Motörhead trib and I’d sleep. Although I would listen to a few numbers first…
No sign of Bono at the time of scribbling (8.19pm). Praise be, hah-hah! So that leaves just the two items of business…stats and a tune.
Today’s stage is for Gary Galbraith, who is missed by so many people. He was a huge music fan, and while I was loving today’s scenery this Dylan instrumental kept playing. Gary loved Bob and he was pretty fond of this tune too. Cheers mate…
Today’s stage didn’t look all that and a bag of chips on paper: reality bites/you don’t cycle on paper! I knew that there was no breakfast option, but I had a rare and inspired moment of forward planning as I walked back from dinner last night: stopped at a chippy for chips avec le sauce du curry. Trés bon, and perhaps it helped today?
The first mission was to catch the 0830 ferry from Tarbert to Killimer: as pronto a 15 miles as I could muster…
I make it with ten minutes to spare. In the event though…
Bet O.C. didn’t have to wait an hour…
Woo-hoo…let’s get on with it!
I didn’t have fog on my Irish weather bingo card, I must admit. The facilities at Tarbert were nil: I got as cold as I’ve been for a long time. There was a tannoy though- unfortunately the thing kept relaying maybe one word in three, and at different volumes so the net effect was more confusion. The other delayed punters were tourists mainly, with the USA and Germany well represented. I could’ve sworn that I heard ‘Is that Norman Collier?’, in German…
Just the one wind farm en route. Weren’t going hung-ho either, pleasingly…for me!
Don’t dis the Soreen. Got loads if you want some.
This was today’s landscape- rolling, rolling, rolling.
And this was amongst the larger of today’s carriageways!
Got assaulted by some lairy vegetation.
So today’s stage was made more tricky than it oughta have been by blind assumption that there’ll be somewhere along the way for me to get food and water. From mile 3 until mile 75 that assumption bit me, hah-hah! I was *this* close to knocking on some random civilian’s door to ask for water, when Google reckoned there’d be a petrol station 4 miles in the right direction. And there was! Even in the US, the longest section with zero stores was only 60 miles! Yeah, I can already hear you playing the World’s Smallest Violin…
Kilmacduagh Abbey. Thought it might be tonight’s acco, for a second…
If this was France, this bad boy would be a lifesaver! #eaupotable
Getting there. Used to be fields round here, y’know…
It was great to have a bus lane all to myself on the run-in to Galway: oh yeah, and a helping breeze too. Get in! Found the acco with no fuss and the hostess is top-notch. All except that doing my sainted laundry is not an option, hah-hah!
Water, reflections, I dunno!
Almost there, giving it some serious Van der Valk!
The penthouse suite awaits. Guaranteed I’ll whack my noggin on that ceiling, hah-hah!
Prior to embarking on a refuelling and rehydration mission. Cheers!
So the usual suspects remain: the stats and the tune…
A smidge under a ton…felt today though. #selfinflicted
There was only one number that kept on playing away, summing-up today’s rather poor lifestyle choices…
