Great Britain and Ireland, July 2007
Planning a biketrip to the UK is always a bit of a gamble. But has not been bad at all. My 18 day trip was at the tail end of a very wet period. With major floodings in the Midlands. But looking back the majority of the trip was not too wet and often even sunny and dry. So no complaints there, even though I wished I had better raingear.
I started of with Kim, Liam and Lance around Whitby. An area with beaches but also white cliffs near Bridlington and roofless abbeys for the cultural (over)dose. After that I spent a few days in Schotland and travelled through the country to Stranraer for the ferry crossing to Belfast. From there I started my round-the-clock tour of the Irish coast. That ended at the southern coast of the Shannon Estuary, from there I cut across to Dublin for the ferry to Holyhead. It is a lot of travelling if you want to visit Ireland with your own wheels, but it is worth it.
Apart from the rough quietness of the country I also absolutely love the pubs with live music at night. Kinsale to me was the pick of the bunch. Now it still is worth a visit but to my taste the large number of sailing vessels in the harbour has changed the atmosphere of the place.
The Ring of Kerry is a stunning route. The waterfall is at Sneem and the colourful houses are in Waterville. I stopped there to fish the beaches near the Inny estuary for bass. It looked promising but the rough weather had made the beaches impossible to fish due to the floating kelp and weed in the water. A shame, but there were other things to see and do.
The upside of unpredictable weather is that it was not too busy on the roads. Or in the B&B's. No problems at all to find lodgings, even as a single. The pics are almost randomly picked and I could make 3 or 4 similar selections that would be equally good. There are so many stunning views in this small country.
I ended my trip in Ireland with friends near Dublin, where I started the tour. And stopped by the Manchester bunch on the way through to the ferry home from Kingston upon Hull. I came home with a mass of brown dirt on the Suzuki VStrom, but after a quick wash the bike was as good as when I set off 2000 miles ago. It is a very very good bike for travelling and seems destined to stay with me a little while longer.
