On the outline itinerary todays ride looked a breeze – two minutes from our digs to the ferry, all morning on the boat, off at one o’clock and a gentle ride through the West Wales countryside to Carmarthen and our over-night accommodation. Now that was something to look forward to, particularly as the weather in Wales promised to be significantly better than it had been in Ireland. Well you know what thought did don’t you – it turned out to be one of our most challenging days of the whole trip, with 46 miles covered and nearly 3,500ft total ascent in half a day! The crossing went to schedule with the sea being flat calm for the entire trip. A slight hiccough at Fishguard when we were required to produce our passports but we were soon on our way up an enormous hill which is the exit route from the harbour. Once on the right road the going was initially easy – picturesque country lanes, stunning scenery, an abundance of wild flowers and warm sun on our backs – and then the hills began! Their pattern becoming wearily familiar – a long steady incline, down through the gears, grind away in bottom until over the crest, followed by a helter-skelter descent round a couple of bends, over a stone bridge and around the next bend the hill began again! We did this for twenty odd miles, at one point in the company of a load of fellow cyclists participating in a 50 sportive, before stopping in the town of Narberth for a much needed cuppa and cake. The very nice couple running the cafe were interested in what we were up to and when we came to pay the guy gave us a donation (thanks mate)! We set off on the second half refreshed but with ever increasing aching legs. The pattern of the first half was to be repeated for most of the remaining 25 miles. At one point I was in bottom gear and out of the saddle to maintain forward momentum – I wish I hadn’t bothered! At Red Roses, where we turned on to the A477, we encountered the ‘Carten contingent’ – hundreds of mad riders cycling from Cardiff to Tenby! Well done you guys, it puts our efforts for the day into perspective. The final dozen or so miles were on the busy A40 dual-carridgeway into Carmarthen, where we arrived at the Drovers Arms at 17.50.

Leaving Ireland on the Rosslare ferry

Bry catching up on his beauty sleep

Approaching the Welsh coast, with the Bishops & Clerks Isles in the background

Enjoying a change of scenery and some warm weather for a change

Views over the  West Wales countryside

A poor picture of a magnificent orchid – Early Purple, to my untutored eye?

Check-point on the Carten route, at the summit of a sustained climb

Todays stats – usual error factors included!

A better day on the birding front. Plenty of sea birds from the ferry, including Fulmar which was new for the trip. But perhaps the greatest surprise was a singing male Redstart in the wood yard where we stopped for a break after the first big hill.

Every morning it’s the same, I wake up expecting to have been transformed by this E2E process into a lean, mean fighting machine – eating up ever-increasing daily mileage, sailing up hills, my bodys intake in perfect harmony with it’s out-goings, skin and muscle toned to perfection. And every morning is the same sense of disappointment! The truth is that my legs, particularly my thighs, ache as much if not more than on our second day, my skin in cracking whereever it’s exposed to fresh air (and there’s been plenty of that), those tiny bites I reported over a week ago have multiplied and each is the size of a 5p piece and I swear I’m putting on weight, despite Bry saying we’re definitely into a ‘fat burning’ regime. If I have lost any weight at all it’s off my frontal lobe! Speaking of Bry he appears to be in remarkably good form – though does say occasionally that his fight is a mental one – ‘wrestling with daemons’ as he describes it. Anyway, with just one week to go,  I’m going to have to rely on that old adage ‘if it’s not hurting it’s not working’ – well it’s bloody hurting, so it’d better start working!

Off to catch a boat….

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…

It had to happen, on our last day in Ireland the sun has finally put in an appearance! Following an average but expensive evening meal and the disappointment of the ‘Irish’ band, which we’d been led to believe would be playing a medley of traditional music but which turned out to be a mixture of ‘songs from the shows’, country & western and Karaoke, we retired for an early night. However, as on so many previous occasions, the slowness of the internet meant it was gone ten before we turned in. The drunken Welsh golfers, returning from a late session in the bar, woke Bry but I slept soundly on. Anyway enough of the trivia I hear you say, what’s on todays ‘bill of fare’? The answer, a relatively moderate undulating route of around 85k to the ferry terminal at Rosslare, via Wexford (though wether we’ll get to see the Slobs, I’m not sure!). The route is given below:

Here are some of the Scottish pictures that never made it into the daily blogs. Enjoy!

There’s nothing ‘low’ about these ‘bad boys’ I can assure you! From the moment we set off from the Times Hostel in Dublin we were going up hill. It took us about an hour to clear the city and then the climbing really began. This was a lung-busting, heart-thumping, eye-popping, thigh-throbbing, calf-clenching, relentless, unremitting, ‘shit bucket’ of a climb! The sort of climb that is steep enough to make you doubt yourself from the outset, which winds around the hill-side never really showing itself, testing you with sharp rises, never giving you respite, drawing you in then blowing you off. All done in a long, drawn-out kind of a way without ever giving you the real satisfaction of ‘arriving’. By the time you’ve reached the ‘top’ you’re rolling down the other side again! Well actually you emerge onto a barren plateau which goes on for several miles, gently rising and falling, before the real descent beginnings. It was misling when we set off, raining when we reached the outskirts of Dublin and it continued to pour down most the way to the top, some 25k later. The descent to our lunch-time stop was hampered by poor road surfaces, which were running with water ,and a stiffening head wind. By the time we reached the cafe at Laragh it was nearly one o’clock, having taken nearly four hours to do the 45k. We were dripping wet, exhausted and ready for a break. The glorified shed that was the cafe, doubled as a general store of sorts and a rather surprisingly well stocked wine merchants. The food,  all home-made and ‘organic’, was superb – soup with home-made bread, followed by filled rolls, washed down with excellent coffee soon lifted our spirits, whilst our clothing gently steamed away on our feet and backs! Refreshed and invigorated we set off on the remaining 25k or so to our overnight accommodation, the Woodbridge Hotel – reputed to be the oldest hotel in Ireland. Having arrived early and in the middle of another cloud burst, we decided to dry out (again!) over a beer. The very friendly and engaging company at the bar, having enquired as to our purpose, quickly made a donation to our funds. You meet some of the nicest, certainly most generous, folk in pubs!

Bryan enjoying a slightly more modest breakfast than we’re accustomed to..

Ready for the ‘off’ from the excellent Times Hostel.

Three hours later, at what serves as the ‘summit’ of the Wicklow Mountain road.

A slightly better view than we had of the Mourne mountains.

Bry finishing lunch at the slightly curious but excellent Laragh cafe cum wine merchants!

A view!

The stats for todays ride. Some of the data is a bit dodgy since I forgot to turn it on and off when I should have!

On the birding front, not a lot happening I’m afraid – only Reed Bunting added to the list. Rather bizarrely appearing to nest close to the top of the mountains!

If the internet continues to behave itself I hope to be publishing a ‘gallery’ of previously unseen Scottish pictures shortly – don’t worry, nothing too racy!

We’ve reached the half-way point of our epic ride, 953.4k covered, but plenty still to do. Legs feeling surprisingly good after yesterday’s mammoth stage, if a little stiff. Jane and I are off to do ‘the sights’ whilst Bry has a ‘domestic’ morning and fixes up his bike after the bashing it’s received since leaving John O”Groats.

Looks like it might need a bit more work than he thought!

Knowing today was going to be tough, we did our best to get a reasonably early start, so breakfast was at 07.45 and we were on the road by 08.30. The climb out of Newry was a bit of a ‘jump-start’ but we soon picked up an excellent cycle path running alongside the  motorway which took us to Dundalk. Navigation has been a challenge, us going mapless and all, so we struggled to find the designated route at times, but by heading in the right general direction and keeping the sea on our left, we got to our coffee time stop in the right place and pretty much on time. Foley’s tea rooms, at Castlebellingham, was a welcome break at the 22 mile point, with plenty of real Irish ambience. We soon found the road to Drogheda, which was about the half way point and our designated lunch stop – getting in was easy, it being situated on the banks of the river Boyne, in a natural hollow. Lunch was courtesy of McDonalds and then it was time to go…Given our aforementioned navigational issues, we had three attempts to escape from Drogheda. On each occasion this involved a sustained climb out of the town for a distance of a couple of miles, only to discover that we were on the wrong road and we had to return to the town centre! We did eventually locate the R108 and managed to escape, but it put half a dozen unnecessary miles onto an already long day. The R108 eventually took us all the way to the centre of Dublin, a distance of  about 45 miles, giving a day total of a massive 77 miles or  123k! We did enjoy a totally unexpected afternoon tea stop in the village of Naul when we came upon the Seamus Ennis cultural centre – Seamus is a bit of a cult figure to both Bry and me, being one of the grand masters of the uillean pipes. We eventually got to Dublin at about 6.00pm and successfully met up with Jane, who had flown out specially to be with us on our rest day – at the half way point in our epic journey.

Stats for the days ride are given below:

Inside Foley’s tea rooms – coffee and curios

Bryan preparing to depart after enjoying Foley’s Irish hospitality

The (distant) Mountains of Mourne – what we should have seen the day before!

Lost in Drogheda…but not for the last time!

The ‘shrine’ to the revered uillean pipe player, Seamus Ennis – the cultural centre in Naul, Fingal County

…and the legend himself.

Not a great deal to report on the birding front I’m afraid – just two Common Swift to add to the list.

More ‘rest day’ blogging tomorrow, with some Dublin pics to enjoy.

It was obvious from the moment we woke that today was not going to be pleasant! One look out of the hotel window and we could see the leaden skies, the rain on the pavement and the wind bending the tops of the trees. We watched the ferry cross Strangford Lough a couple of times whilst we had a leisurely breakfast – putting off our departure as long as we dared. We’d already reviewed our route and considered a number of options – agreeing that our proposed night time stop at Blackrock, south of Dundalk, was a little unrealistic. We decided to follow the original coastal route to Clough, a distance of about 22 miles. It was raining steadily and there was a stiff cross wind all the way to Ardglas where a slight change of direction eased things for the run in to Clough – a rather drab urbanised road junction. Our salvation came in the form of the Eurospar, which had all manner of facilities – toilets, an endless supply of coffee and cheesey chips and they didn’t mind us quietly dripping in the corner! It didn’t take much at this point to decide to abandon the original costal route to Newry, instead opting for the straight line option via the two ‘hill towns’ of  Castlewellan and Rathfriland, each with ‘lung-busting’ up-hill approaches of epic proportions, a distance of 25 miles. The weather for this leg was variable, from sustained to torrential rain! We arrived at our hastily rearranged B&B (thanks again to Jane at ‘mission control’) at about 3.30 and spent the next two hours drying off practically everything in our possession. For route/stats see below:

One look out of the hotel window and we knew today was not going to be pleasant.

Bry and bikes on the Portaferry to Strangford  ferry, which requires a phenomenally skilful bit of steering to negotiate the fierce tides

Along the salt sea strand … This bit of beach did produce our only two trip ticks – Turnstone and Pale-bellied Brent Goose…nice!

The Eurospar at Clough, comes highly recommended in adverse weather conditions (probably OK when fine too!)

I’m really enjoying this Bry – thanks for inviting me along!

..and the views of the Mourne mountains are to die for (and we nearly did!)

Four miles to Newry, and things couldn’t get worse….or could they – a thunder storm!

Well it’s half past nine, we’re dry, fed and watered and relishing the prospect of tomorrows ride down to Dublin, just 70 miles and about 4500ft of climbing….ARE YOU HAVING A LAUGH!