Ireland
The summer of 2004 I was fortunate enough to be invited by three lovely ladies to accompany them on a self guided bike tour in Ireland. We biked in the west of Ireland where I had not been before. The landscape was beautiful and empty, an impossible variety of greens and earth shades with amazing seascapes. It’s a land of few roads with wide areas of bog and uninhabited hill and fen. There are actually mountains there and we did a few passes. It seemed to rain a bit most days but only one day was continuously wet. Hot chocolate always helps on this sort of a day. A little something in it helps even more.We stayed in bed and breakfasts all arranged ahead by the tour company, Killary Tours Our luggage was transferred each day. See a Packing List here. We followed maps and cue sheets.
The ladies rented bikes but I had just come from biking in Germany with my brother so I simply brought the Bike Friday Airglide with me. And there I am at right. The group was an international one. We were four Americans, later joined by a fifth from New York with Irish roots, a couple of Brit couples and a French couple from Grenoble on their honeymoon. This last pair were no slouches, they had cycled Mont Ventoux before coming to Ireland. Needless to say the mountain passes gave them no trouble. One of the Brit couples had rented a tandem from Killary, somewhat of an experiment for them.
One day we spent on a ferry excursion to a fishing community of the isle of Inisboffen where this skeleton of a fishing boat greeted us. At the island's one bar a couple of Irish gentlemen resolutely kept them in business throughout the entire day by consuming jar after jar. Budweiser was actually for sale there. When queried the barkeep confided that "The ladies drink it." Maybe, but our ladies were made of sterner stuff and quaffed the real thing! By luck we managed to avoid a major weather event on the way back.
For over 50 years now film buffs have wondered what Maureen O'Hara whispered to John Wayne in the last scene of the film "The Quiet Man" was filmed in this locale. Whatever it was, and she's not telling, it was whispered here near the village of Cong where we passed our penultimate night. “Quiet Man” cottages seem to propagate like mushrooms here. We saw or were invited to see at least three of them. Lots of beer, lots of laughter, good company and a day of pedaling into wind and rain brought us back to Lenaune where we had started. Lenaune is home to Ireland's only fijord, amazingly beautiful in the morning light.
Killary Fiord in the morning light.
