Day 11 Weather good today as I set off from Carrigaline after a good long sleep. The only trouble was Cork. As you can guess with any big city the traffic, especially early morning is here is horrendous. I managed a minor route along the banks of the river Lee past the impressive Blackrock Castle. It was built as a fort in 1582 to defend the port of Cork and later made into a castle built of limestone, which had to burn down every hundred years, as they did in those days. Damn it, there was enough water surrounding it. Eventually I got to the bridge and wrestled with the traffic to get to the north bank. I think my wide,yellow panniers and flapping jacket helped to clear a swathe through the mayhem. One on the ... read more

Day 10 I have to confess that this trip is turning out to be a marathon. I grossly underestimated the terrain, which is like Cornwall with steep hills, some of which are not that short. I am surprised that my body is sustaining it all. My right leg was letting me know of its weakness this afternoon so I had to slow down a bit on the hills and pull a lower gear. I will have legs like Chris Hoy by the time I get home and I will be leaving everyone for dead. Regardless of the toughness the area is still beautiful and changing every day. Today I saw milk cow country and also quite a bit of arable land with grain and also beans. The coast is less rocky and there are many sandy ... read more

Ireland Day 8 Gee what a day. 150km with over 1500m of climbing. Luckily it was a dry day and a wind that helped and hindered, as it does when you keep gping along the peninsulas east and west. I completed the Skellig Ring, which is an amazing area. I rejoined the Ring of Kerry at Waterville, where I made my first mistake of the day and went up a wrong road. I returned to Waterville and had a brew and long sausage roll, which seems to be my favourite snack from the supermarkets, along with a made up ham salad sandwich for later. I stuck to the Ring of Kerry route for most of the day and on the occasions I didn't I regretted it due to the big hills which are not just quite ... read more

Ireland Day 6 The journey south continues along the Dingle Peninsula around the coast to Shanahil West, near to Castlemaine. This is recommended as one of the must see routes in Ireland. After tootling around the one way system in Tralee I took a nice smooth cycleway alongside the river and then on a pretty nondescript road heading west into the wind and a brief bit of drizzle. the O’Connor pass was a bit stiff with the continuing head wind and a climb for 7km or do at 7-10 %. With the panniers on it was a grind and quite narrow towards the summit and made Fleet Moss look like a pimple. However, it was followed down a great decent into Dingle where I had lunch basking in the sun. Dingle is a nice town with ... read more

Ireland Day 4 What amazing views today. The wild Atlantic crashing into the rocks and forming the perfect wave for the surfers, whose heads could be seen bobbing in the ocean. It started with cloud with sun occasionally breaking through. As the day progressed it was sun glasses and sun cream with a red nose to suit. The two kilometre climb out of Doolin caught me out first off with a 20% gradient which got me into my very lowest gear and grunting like a Gloucestershire Old Spot. I think I climbed for nigh on 8 km with more to come as the day went on and there was me thinking it was going to be a long but easy day. It ended up long and hard. That is the trouble following coastal roads and keeping ... read more