Day 23 Rest & repairs day

Well I am now home - the sun is out it is a beautiful day - when my cold is a bit better time to head for the beach !

Just rebuilt bike from the plane transfer - unfortunately it has sustained damage from the flight- the front right fork opening seems to have been crushed somehow - so I have had to spend some time untwisting it and trying to open to get the front wheel back in - bike is not happy and the alignment is out so will have to spend some more time on this or visit bike shop. A pity planes and baggage lorries dont have bike rack system etc it seems stange that in the modern world one has to spend so much time altering bike for flight only for the bike to be damaged - I am sure a few design upgrades in plane holds etc could easily avoid all these problems. And maybe one day in the future one could just wheel the bike on or off. I remember a time when I just had to deflate the tyres ...

Charity Update - Great Ormond Street childrens hospital appeal has now reached £1090 so now a bit closer to achieving the new target of £1143... Many many thanks to everyone who has helped supported these two excellent charities...

I have ' Panda cycle arms ' lower arms brown and upper top arms bright white ! Legs not too bad today - However I have a bit of a cold/chesty cough but hopefully this will pass in a day or two.

My little nephew seems to love his tractor game action book :)

Green Dragon

Day 22 Dublin - Rest day and going home day

Well coolest hour that I have spent on trip has been the last one searching for a present for my little nephew ... found one at last. However It is rather technical so I am not sure if his Mum and Dad will have enough skills to work it all out!

Maybe I should write/design interactive book to tell my little nephew the story of my cycle trip(s) - that might be fun !





So now I have about 40 mins left in town then it is off to the airport where I will have to box and pack up the bike. Legs are a little tired today and it feels strange but ok not being out on the road by 7 am... Thighs seem a little bigger than when I started out and i need to do some walking to even out the leg muscle tone however - thanks to the gel shorts and gel saddle I dont think I can use Phils title of 'buns of steel' this year !


Hopefully my new Charity target amount will now be to try to collect 1143 pounds for Great Ormond Street Childrens Hospital and this is to match the number of miles I have cycled round ireland. So 100 pounds or so to collect and I could reach this target.

Green Dragon

Day 21 DUBLIN !

1143 miles cycling on the bike to get back where I started 20 days ago ! it would have been so much easier to drive or take the bus! Thanks Munch for promising and delivering the first sunny day of cycling. Well over 1000 pounds raised for Great Ormond Street Childrens Hospital-about 1 pound per mile cycled and about 300 euros for Temple Street Childrens Hospital. Now it is time for me to find a packing bike box from a bike shop for the flight tomorrow and then try and get some well earned rest tonight.

Day 20 Carlingford to Drogheda

Drogheda - the forecast for today was sunshine ! as you can see from Rainbow photo in Ireland sunshine often comes with rain ! so it was today ! however it did not rain as much as other days today -I wasl really really tired from yesterdays cycle -and today the first 20 miles was an ice cold head wind - a real slog - never thought I would get to dundalk...arrived Drogheda mid afternoon - very tired today - speedo says 1095 miles. I seem to have picked up a cough/cold from the cold air. Still lets look on the bright side only one more day of cycling and hopefully I should get to Dublin. My body is starting to rebel again all the cycling I think ! Take a look at the google map link on this blog to see where I have cycled so far ...

Day 19 Belfast to Carlingford

Longish cycle today,passed the 1000 mile mark.Speedo says 51.80 (1054.80).(7.87 miles)Rain again,very tired today.location N54 02.005 W006.10.862 - Once again was welcomed in the morning with showers of rain - look at the panniers - as soon as I stopped cycling and took the ferries across the lough - hey ho ! the sun came out ! I was really really worn out today - arrrived late sat night and unable to get in at the hostel so I had to stay in B & B carlinford - deciced to spoil myself in town and buy a nice meal - sea bass - mistake- it was truely awful - undercooked - smallest bass I have ever seen - had to go buy food at supermarket !

Day 18 Bally castle to Belfast

Once again over 50 miles cycled - speedo shows 975.90 miles - However this does not reflect some really hard climbing through the antrim mountains - there is a road called the B94 - really really hard getting up this one... A pain getting into Belfast but eventually managed - main problem is rain was pouring down (again) so I had to cover map and stop every so often to check navigation points - No pictures as I cant blog with my phone from Northern Ireland ...they say it might stop raining Sunday -- which is basically when I stop cycling !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 17 Malin head to Giants causeway (Northern island)

Took the ferry from Greencastle over to Northern island - Chappie on the ferry said the rainfall in malin head yesterday was a new record for July ! cycled about 60 miles or so along the Giants causeway coastal road- speedo says 919.93 miles. A nice routes started flat and then lots of up and downs - Giants causeway was ok. I cant post via my cell phone in Northern island so can only update when near internet cafe. A pain but not worth buying new Simms card for...