With the sun shining for the first time since we arrived in Ireland, we soon finished our breakfast and departed from the Woodenbridge hotel, bound for Arklow. With smooth downhill roads, the gentle breeze on our backs soon conveyed us to what should have been our point of departure for todays ride. Navigating our way on minor roads to avoid the motorway, with only the Garmin GPS to assist, proved difficult at times, but using the same principle as before of following the general direction and keeping the sea to our left we headed steadily through the Wicklow and Wexford countryside, towards our destination. I’d been thinking ‘coffee break’ for the previous couple of miles when I noticed my front wheel was feeling decidedly lumpy – well flat actually! This turned out remarkably to be our first puncture of the journey, but like Bry said if you are going to have one, make sure it’s in the front wheel and near to a cafe – and so it was! So whilst Bry set about with the mechanicals, I went inside and secured two pots of coffee. I won’t bore you with the details, but we were making very little progress on replacing the tyre until Bryan produced his ‘magic tool’ – this seemed to fix the problem in no time. Back on the road again we made our way through yet more countryside until an enticing sign for the ‘Trading Post hot deli’ saw us swing into a remote petrol station forecourt, somewhere near the village of Blackwater. Our hunger and thirst thoroughly sated by the gastronomic offerings of this humble yet hospitable abode, we departed for Wexford Town some 18k distant. Wexford has a special place in the hearts of ‘folkies’ – unfortunately the reality is much less alluring. In fact, if it hadn’t have been for the sudden hail storm that struck us just as we were crossing the Wexford harbour bridge, we probably wouldn’t have stopped off at the Potato Market cafe for tea and cakes at all! Sated for the second time in as many hours we made a determined effort to get to our final destination, the Ferryport House Hotel, Rosslare, which we comfortable achieved by  4.30.  We went to the ferry terminal to book tomorrows passage, eat at one of the very few hostelries in the district – an eclectic culinary mix of Irish and Chinese, bought some ‘carry out’ and here we are in the hotel lounge blogging – what more can I say….

Stats from todays route:

The Woodenbridge Hotel,  reputedly Irelands oldest

Call for Puncture Repair Man and his Magic Tool!

The lunch-time stop..

An interesting water mill restoration project, in the heart of the Wexford countryside

…and a very imaginative colour scheme to go with it!

Fishing boat in Wexford harbour….after the hail storm (there was one, honest!)

On a slightly different note, whilst we’re obviously very pleased with the way the financial donations continue to mount up, the ‘pledges’ on TheDoNation appear to have ‘flat-lined’! Can you please help by giving this entirely worthwhile enterprise your support? By making a pledge (actions not money) you can contribute to a more sustainable future for ourselves and generations to come. As an example, we’ve calculated that, had we have done this same journey by car (equivalent perhaps to a family holiday or business trip), we would have produced an extra 624kgs of carbon ( nearly 2/3rds of a tonne)! Even if you pledge to do something, on a much smaller scale, your contribution will make a significant difference. Sign up now!

More blogging tomorrow, as we set sail for country number three…