Well isn't the world wonderful. Feeling great as we set off. We've lost a day but the plan is to complete the intended route that we should have done yesterday. One option is to push back the Saturday ferry to Sunday and push back the Friday night accommodation one night too (it's at the Causway Hotel). We'll try that out later.
The weather starts off well, but is soon becomes changeable. The rain from yesterday keeps threatening, but this does give us some crackingly dramatic skies.
The scenery just gets better, take a look at these and remember to click them to get the larger views too.
When was the last time you saw a child-picture-perfect shape of a mountain like this?
And this scene was just breathtakingly beautiful -
Time for a cuppa - huge portions of tea and coffee here, more like buckets!
The next time I'm stuck in busy traffic I shall remember this scene. Road clear of people and traffic all the way to the horizon and wonderful clear views across the landscape - wow!
More tea! Locals in bar spark up a conversation with Sandy the moment I leave to get something from the bike. On my return I can hear the conversation and I sympathise with her as the accents are so strong here, neither of us have much of a clue what is being said. It was english but we are not far from the irish-as-as-first-language area, so perhaps this explains it a little. Nice guys though!
We arrive in Sligo and the heavens open. We make it to W.B. Yeats's grave in the churchyard and check out the church, simple but nice.
Sligo looks uninviting and this feeling continues as we approach a few B&B premises, looking for a night stop. Even though the season is quiet, the weather poor and the car parks of the premises empty, we struggle to get a reply and when we do, the briefest of glances at us produces the response that they are full, yeah right!
Although Aidan tells us that the motorcycle discrimination sometimes found in the UK does not exist here, I'm unconvinced, at least here for a moment anyway. Wet bedraggled motorcyclists are not welcomed here with open arms, (okay, fair enough!). We move on a few miles, eating into tomorrows route a little.
We stop at Manorhamilton. A visit into the the B&B/restaurant opposite the Milestone Pub looks good. In I go and ask,
'Do you have any vacancies? and the reply is,
'y-e-s... we might have...'
I point out that she sounded a little guarded and she flashes back with a big smile and says I sounded a little cautious!
Barriers down and we got the best coffee ever whilst they prepared our room. Staff moved their cars to allow space to secrete the bikes from general view too. Very nice people.
Evening meal was in the pub opposite where we had the (probably) best fish and chips I've ever had in a pub - superb. Deffo they could teach Stena Line a few things about how to treat fish!
A good end to a great day.
The B&B
Route today 165 miles
The ride along Doo Lough is rather good isn't it? A wild and rugged part of the country.
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