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...

Day 16 Malin Head

Made it! Mizen head to Malin head, Ireland end to end.Of course it rained during the last leg also very strong headwind blasting into my face made it a bit more challenging! rain stopped and made mistake of thinking it could be ok to walk 15 min to supermarket.outside Supermarket it lashed down ! Which is why i am sitting the hostel in my swimming shorts-the only piece of dry clothing i have left...

Day 15 Donegal to Buncrana

Early start from Donegal.Rain again,for most of the morning.Arrived Letter Kelly before lunch,had to wait in town 3hrs for my laundry. Cycle Speedo shows 815.80 miles.Current location N55 08.659 W007 27.164 Tullyarvan Mill Hostel,Buncrana

Day 14 Sligo to Donegal

Arrived Donegal Cycle speedo says 754.81 miles - Location N 54 39.374 W oo8 07.511 -today started with about 3 hours of rain. Cycled up and down lots of hills - However during a few brief moments when the rain eased I was able to see some beautiful scenery. Briefly cycled through a little part of Northen ireland to town called Beleek (near to Bally Shannon) on the way up to Donegal. Cycled via a place called Manorhamilton. Had to remember that in NI they normally take pounds NOT euros! Also Irish road signs differ from NI roads signs so I was swapping from R roads to B roads and then back again ! Also I realized why some of the distances on the map are marked as RED instead of BLUE - the blue ones are kilometers (Northern Ireland roadsigns gives distances in Miles ) and the RED are Miles - (Ireland road signs shows distance in Kilometres) - which can be significant if you are cycling in the rain - i.e 5 is 8 ( 5 miles is 8 km, 10m is 16km etc ) ... especially when it is hilly ! - In evening met up with chappie from Holland called Rufus - he was still trying to get over Holland losing to Russia in the football European championships-- we walked into town and saw some live Irish Music - the pub was packed and had to squeeze in at the back but Music and atmosphere very cool.

Day 13 to Sligo

Early start today and made relatively good progress.Speedo shows 699.94 miles (59 miles today).Current location N54 16.944 W008 27.772.Found a nice place to stay in Sligo,uni halls.Nice kitchen so I cooked pasta and cream and white wine sauce with Quorn pieces cooked and mixed in.Yoghurts for starters with Brie and raspberry jam for afters. It is long walk to town and shops so had to make do with what I could carry on a 20 min hike. Wether overcast and cold wind (8C+max)allday,however I seemed to have a bit of sunburn on neck,even though I had my coat on most of the day.Txt from Jon all the chaps out in town so missing this a little. Although some super Irish bands in pubs last couple of evevenings.Plan to head north on way to Donegal tomorow.

Day 12 Galway to Castlebar

Today I decided on shorter day as late start and tired from Fridays cycle,Also it is the weekend so as I learnt from Friday things book up very fast at the weekend.Cycled Galway to Castlebar ,speedo shows 640.11miles which is 56 miles today. Weather cloudy and only little rain late afternoon.Pity I missed meeting up with Rosemarys friend Tracey but sometimes these things are difficult to sort out when cycling.

Day 11 kilrush to Galway

Longer cycle today.Started in Kilrush finished in Galway.Speedo shows 586.18 (so 82.77 miles cycled today). I didnt expect to get all the way to Galway today.I arrived at about 6pm,no hostels had space,BB in city asking very high prices,so eventually found nice one called Tara house at about 7.30 in Salthill (west of centre).Wont have time to find pub and leave message for Dave and Nicole.Breakfast at 8.30 so will be late start tommorow,maybe 9am.Current location N53 15.817 W09 04.376.Galway was as far north that i thought i would make but now I'm here i will try and go further North tommorow.However left knee giving me some pain.

Day 10 Kilrush

Not many pics today as almost constant day of rain.The pic here is from the gap of Dunloe (yesterday).Today I cycled just over 62 miles (speedo reads 503.44). Kilarney to tralee to trabert FERRY across the Shannon then on to Kilrush. N52 38.257 W009 29.138. Basically it has switched from sunshine and keep raining after Munch sent me a txt hoping the weather would improve!

Day 9 310m climb

Day 9 started out from Bantry (N51 40.89 W009 27.341). Stayed not so great hostel-cheap-basic-ice cold showers.Left at 7am. Feeling sick today1, stomach upset for the first 3hrs,making the cycling really hard work.had to stop every 20 mins just to let stomach cramps ease.3 big climbs today.1st one in pic was at 310m,then two more at over 200m.The final was a place called dunloe gap,near,to Kilarney. Very spectacular views.Weather overcast but pretty good cycling weather.Cycle speedo reads 439.62 (53 miles today).Was tired so stopped just outside of Kilarney at a super 'an oige'(irish youth hostel).30sec after i stopped the rain came pouring down! It was so great to be dry and inside when it rained!

Mizen Head

Well today I cycled from skibereen to Mizen Head,Irelands most southerly place,and then up to Bantry.Cycle to Mizen Head was against a head wind with a 300feet climb at the end! 2hrs to get there 50mins to get back!Weather has been nice today good for cycling. Nice american chap called Frank donated 5 euros to Great Ormond Street, so slowly creaping up towards 1000 target. This trip is making me realise many things I take for granted. GREEN DRAGON

Day 7

Longer cycle today.Now in a town called skibereen. GPS Shows 510km(318 miles).

Day 6 cork

Arrived cork late afternoon.... current location N51 54.151 W008.27.955 distance to date on cycle speedo 263.13 miles. Weather wise extremely strange day- at one point I was cycling in the sun and rain almost at the same time ! At one point it was a case of two hours of coat on cycle 5 mins - coat off cycle 5 mins coat on etc. Tried to find my notes of everyones [in ireland] emails and telephone numbers but rain had managed to seep through bike pannier and plastic cover and all the ink smudged. I seem to be picking up an addiction for polish yogurts - every big town in ireland seems to have a polish shop and everything is Polish -thus i cant readand understand any of the labels - still the yoghurts are great. I was hoping to up the miles - curent average about 80km (50miles) a day but bike still feels heavy and many of the routes undulating and my legs are suffering at the moment - muscle cramps in thighs and pain in the right knee also had a bout of the saddles today -I wonder if I could try something else next year perhaps people would sponsor me to sit on the beach and sunbath and do a bit of spearfishing ...Hostel people have an interesting subculture ...I asked a couple yesterday if they watched tennis and knew result of womens wimbeldon final ...I received a look of stone faced incredulality...I think they were amazed to meet someone in a hostel who watched sport on TV or even TV for that matter ! ...I think I will save any conversations about sport or TV for the pub only ...I went to Jamesons distillary today - had a hot chocolate in the cafe and it was nice to take a break from the rain ...A pity my little brother was not able to join me on this cycle trip as he is the fit one and could have pulled me along up the hills...still maybe another time ....

Day 5 to youghal

Today longer than expected.GPS shows 344km (213 miles) as milage since dublin.Weather fair to start but with return of the rain.location N51 56.463 W007 50.837 Youghal.early start again 7am arrived 4pm as had a few navigation issues today. Waterproof pannier cover that dog attacked broken and lost.

Day 4

SUNSHINE! At last.Started really early today-6am.arrived tramore midday. My cell no here is 087 9829557.today had chance to do laundry in a machine. When i started out today all my gear wet through from day before nd not fun to put on wet gear.hopefully after session in dryer it will all be dry for tomorrow. Raining here now forecast more rain tomorrow.bike speedo says 161 miles since dublin.

Rain Rain again ! & dog attacks

Started from Rathdrum at 8.20am arrived about 3pm. Raining when I Left Rathdrum and it carried on raining all day with only a short 40min break.This was when I was able to take picture and you can see the next downpour on the horizon ! which rained on me heavily into Wexford town.The Rain made it really hard going today.Also I was Attacked by 2 dogs today,one I managed to cycle away from while the other one sank its teeth into my left pannier- rocking the bike until I almost fell off ! I am Glad my cycle shoes are pretty hard and a dogs nose is soft ! Odometer shows 181km cycled.Current location N52 20.254 W006 27.792Wexford. Actually the sun did come out in Wexford - that is about 10 mins AFTER I got off the bike and stored it away! It was a longish cycle today and the rain means I am pretty tired. I have a longer distance to cycle tomorrow so I will need to try to be up in the morning much earlier than today [I left today at 8.20am] . I was bitten pretty badly by mites in bed at hostel in rathdrum and have large collection of bites all down shins of both legs - and they are still itching now. A few pains in right knee this morning so I adjusted the height of the saddle and seems to have eased it a little. I am 5 kilos in body weight lighter than last year and this is helping also I have only 8 kilos packed in panniers - last year I had 22 kilos ! Still the bike is pretty heavy to ride up the hills. I am enjoying the odd but daily drink of irish back nectar however I have to say it was rather expensive in Dublin.

Green dragon

Sally gap

Started at dublin YHA N53 21.362 W006 16.094 Cycled 85km (including 10km yesterday).Big steep hill to sally gap LOTS of RAIN! Hard going. Took a while to navigate out of Dublin.Many cyclists going the OTHER way to me (towards dublin)- and I am wondering why! .current location Rathdrum N52 55.850 W006 13.899.

Temple street childrens hospital dublin

Arrived in dublin today. Found the childrens hospital on almost next street to dublin YHA!.Weather overcast,high risk of rain tomorow for big climb to sally gap .

The start dublin airport

Day 1 dublin airPort