Ireland the North 1. Ballintoy. A little drizzle at breakfast time in our cosy accommodation near Portstewart. We set off under a grey sky but dry along the National Cycle Network No 93 through Portstewart and Portrush admiring the bays and harbours before stopping briefly at the remains of Dunluce Castle and chatting to a couple from Sheffield. That is the good thing about cycling where you are always open to chat to people from all over the world. I stopped briefly in Bushmills to photograph the important Irish inventors of the 20’th Century such as Marconi and Bell. The weather brightened up as we arrived at the National Trust visitor centre and the Giants Causeway was waiting for us in splendour with its unique blocks of stone and pillars. I took many photographs of the ... read more

Ireland the North 1 Monday. Downings. Another great day with a sunny and warm start up the hill out of Ardara after a good breakfast at the Nesbitt Arms. Not quite as special yesterday but still a great day with great views of inlets and loughs with plenty of ups and downs to please the grimpers (climbers) amongst us. Either the sunny weather and more amenable wind are having an effect on me but I am now not arguing with myself and continually checking the kilometres left to go and hoping that there are defibrillators available ahead. We found a couple more unknown coffee stops but with limited food so we’d did right in buying sandwiches in Ardara. As we headed inland we climbed a long drag up to the Glenveagh gap, passing loads of scrap ... read more

Ireland Saturday Donegal town. Great weather for our rest day, sunny and warm. The walk along the riverbank of the Eske is worth doing with a good view of the Friary across the river and the estuary and plentiful information of the trees and wildlife. I can also recommend the Tipperary boat which does a circuit around the estuary and islands with an excellent running commentary which is very clear and concise. We saw the old ticket office where people assembled for their trip to America in the times of the great famine. Only a third made it there, dying of hunger and disease. The Railway Museum is quite small but still worth a visit at 5 Euros. A good live Irish band was playing in the Diamond Square, which was a chance to soak up ... read more

Ireland Thursday June 2 Breakfast at 7.30 for an early start again as rain is forecast all day, but with a slight benefit of a tail wind for most of the day. Today we are heading for the Riverside Hotel in Sligo. Luckily the forecast changed a little with rain just in the afternoon so we had a morning with a tail wind and the occasional glimpse of sun. The coast road was undulating and quite pleasant looking out to sea with little islands just offshore in the Moy estuary. There were murals of sheep at a smallholding at the roadside. I stopped to take a photo and an old lady (actually younger than me) came out and offered us a cup of tea. Lovely people. We later had a very good coffee and piece of ... read more

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 ... read more