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Ireland Tuesday 31 May.
Better weather today with no rain and a milder wind, but nevertheless unnecessary in my view. It should rain and blow wind at night, unless it is behind us.
The Station House hotel made a good breakfast for us to get us off to a good start with an overcast sky until mid morning and then we saw a little sun intermittently. The scenery was still good with many hills around us and little climbs to test our legs. After 28 km of chasing Lyta and Oscar we stopped at a supermarket in Letterfrack for a snack to help us on our way. Here we met a Welsh guy who was riding the whole coast anticlockwise with full camping gear but sleeping in outhouses and barns when he could. Not the average guy. The route was lumpy all day riding through sheep country and the usual peet bogs, loughs and estuaries leading into the Atlantic Ocean. I had a text midday and when I looked it was from a cycling friend from Clitheroe who saw me as he passed in the opposite direction in his motor home. A small world indeed.
The biggest climb today was
up the Doolough Pass which looked quite forbidding as we approached from the valley floor, which reminded me of the Hardknott Pass and equal dread. In the end it was not as bad as I thought and I didn’t get off to walk. Towards the top there is a memorial to around 600 people who in the famine of 1849 walked from Louisburg the 10 miles to the workhouse in Delphi only to be turned around with no food and many died on the journey being buried at the roadside. Unlike me who journeyed to Louisburg for a bowl of soup and a piece of granary bread to help me on my way. After Louisburg we headed east and the wind was behind us - pure luxury. The deviation via Westport Quay was very pretty but involved a steady climb into town to the Wyatt Arms. The hotel is quite large and must have been several buildings at one time since there are rooms everywhere reminding me of a labyrinth. Our room has twin beds and a double so plenty of room for scattering all my paraphernalia. I arrived at 3.30pm today, a full 1 1/2 hrs sooner than yesterday
for a similar distance showing how hard the headwind was yesterday.A Lower distance of 75km tomorrow so it will feel like a rest day.
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