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Published: August 3rd 2022
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Ireland the North 2. Day 5 Ballina
Not much coastline today but a venture through cattle country with green grass.
Starting off through the colourful town of Westport a climb was encountered before heading for Castlebar the country way and then an excellent cycle path into town alongside the main road. A bit early for us but we decided to have a coffee and a tiny piece of cake, just in case. As we got onto the Turlough Greenway we met Bill coming towards us on his borrowed e-bike with a big smile on his face. The Greenway has a sharp turn followed by a steep slope at the Turlough end. Despite my warnings this caught a few out and one lady toppled over resulting in a grazed leg and a bit of the red stuff escaping to freedom. A plaster seemed to stop the flow but a bit of a clean up was necessary when we got to Ballina to prevent infection. A few photos were taken of the Turlough Tower, which has an old church next to it. Not much is known about the tower, or the church, but they go back at least 700 yrs. Many rural
roads have a bit of green stuff down the middle but not enough to feed a goat and most of the main roads are silky smooth unlike those at home. After sampling both of these we came across Lahardane where we had lunch at the local post office and general store with indoor and outdoor seating. They had hot food such as sausage rolls and chicken in bread crumbs and they made up sandwiches for us with a smile. Perfect. Opposite was a church with stained glass windows which depicted scenes from the Titanic tragedy. Just down the road was a garden memorial to 11 local people who lost their lives on the Titanic in 1921 when it went down on its way to New York. Three locals survived, one of whom became a nun. The other two ladies married and lived in the USA until old age. Further progress took us past the ruins of Deel Castle,now being used as farm buildings, and then onto the ivy covered remains of Derreen Church. More bumpy minor roads and we took a nice cycleway alongside the river to the Ballina Manor Hotel. At this point it just started raining gently after
having missed an earlier drop of rain judging by the puddles. This was even more fortuitous since I stopped to take a photo about 5 miles away from the Titanic memorial garden only to find my camera was missing. Oh dear! I had left it at the garden on the gatepost whilst I found some change to put in the garden maintenance fund box. I set off back in haste only to be reminded by Bernie that Robert was behind us. I rang him and luckily he was at the garden and retrieved it for me. Saved again. A quick trip to the local bike shop in Ballina to get Bernard’s bike looked at to see what the clicking sound was. The mechanic could find no fault so it must have been my knees after all.
An end to another good biking day on the Emerald Isle.
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