The last day of our holiday and our stay at the San Antonia.  Up early this morning we had a wander around Kinsale before putting our bikes on the bus to get to the airport.  With a plane to catch we didn’t want to miss our flight due to mechanical failure.

Needless to say we ended up arriving there very early and spent quite a while sitting around.  Getting our bikes on the plane was much more civilised than Gatwick.  The large item check in desk was right at the end of the check ins and all we had to do was let down our tyres a bit.  No need to wrap it up like at Gatwick just deflate the tyres.

Arriving at Gatwick wasn’t too much hassle either.  We soon had our bikes and were pedalling off to find my father’s car.

The last proper day of our cycling holiday unfortunately.  We decided to cycle down to the the Old Head of Kinsale and have a look out over the area where the Lustinana was went down.

Again a mix of weather; wind, sun and showers again and again.  It explains why the land is so green in this part of the world.  My father managed to lose his sweater on our trip down to the Old Head.  It was a nice ride, through open country side unfortunately the Old Head is now a golf course so it isn’t possible to get down to the end.  We did get to wander round a tower though overlooking the sea which was nice.

On the way back we picked up my father’s jumper and then lunched at Sandy Bay were a party of sea kayakers were also lunching.  After lunch a few miles and we were back to the bridge across the bay to Kinsale where we took an excursion to have a look at James Fort and pick blackberries before heading back to Kinsale.

We had hoped to do the Ghost walk this evening but unfortunately at the end of September they stop doing it on a Tuesday night so unfortunately we missed.  Anothe early night after a tiring day.

Today a much more relaxed day.  Off we set along up inland along the Brandon River.  Relatively flat with a bit of a breeze.  Mix of weather with sunshine, showers and wind one after another but quite pleasent.

When we got back to Kinsale we took a boat ride around the harbour.

The first proper day of our cycling tour.  We managed to get be on our way about 9 am having taken breakfast at the youth hostel.  The centre of Cork was relatively flat with little traffic being a Sunday.  Unfortunately the flat bit ran out rather quickly and we found outselves climbing a first small climb only to find ourselves descending towards a river.

Onwards we pressed following the signs to the airport.  We were surprised to find that after only cycling 5 miles we found our turn off to Grange on the N27.  If only we realised which would have been the quick route we would have saved ourselves a lot of time.  Further onwards and up a side road running parallel to the N27 we found ourselves climbing above it.  Very soon it was a first get off and push session up a steep hill with our pannier bags.

Finally the road levelled off with us still above the air port.  Then the fun began with our first descent down to another river.  By this point I was begining to pick up that the cstate of country roads around Cork is not as good as those in England.  Something I was to find the guidebook warned about.

On the climb out of the valley was the first amusing sight of our trip.  Someone had taken to painting on some polythene coated bales; “These are serious bales like”. We continued onwards and stopped off at a Statoil Garage for lunch, were I was surprised to find that they served smoothies.  Needless to say it featured as part of my lunch along with a couple of Marlow’s Stinger bars.

Sign posts in Ireland appear to be a bit of a rarity and a little confusing.  First off there aren’t enough of them to navigate with, a good map is essential to work out which way you should be going given sparsity of signs.  It appears to be easier to find a company than it is to find a place.  Attached to most of the road signs were signs for B&B’s, garden centres and shops which appeared to better sign posted than places.  The other confusing thing was that it appeared that some of the road signs were in km and the older ones I think were in miles.  However that was all guessing.

This all explains why the German girl we met on her bike was rather lost as she couldn’t find any signs on where to go.  Digging out the map the best directions we could give her was go along the road, turn left where it says golf course, given that her destination wasn’t sign posted, and head straight on.

Carrying on ourselves we came across an old mill with a sign outside with information on the Battle of Kinsale with, a rather mysterious to us, lables of the English Camp and the Irish Camp.

Onwards up another hill and another sign for Battle of Kinsale.   On a bit further and then downhill into Kinsale.  Next bit was quite important, finding somewhere to stay the night.  Having found somewhere to stay it was off to stop for an afternoon tea whilst we waited for the room to be readied.

No lemonade in stock so it was back to hot chocolate, cream and marshmallows.  We had a bit of a wander round the the town before dropping off our bags and then heading up to have a look at Charles Fort.

Charles Fort was quite interesting in that it has a partner fort across the bay up at James Fort.  Charles Fort was only stopped being used as a fort when it was blown up by the IRA in the 1920’s so it was full of buildings much like Edinburgh Castle.   Some quite impressive views over the bay from the castle which was lucky enough to have a square rigged sailing ship passing by.  After that back to where we were staying and after dinner an early night having a little over 20 miles by bike.

Well we made it to Ireland in one piece and my bike’s still in working order.

We’ve had some fun and games though.  We arrived at the airport, found the check in and wrapped our bikes up and then found they were supposed to go somewhere else.  A bike is pretty easy get about on it’s own too wheels but have wrapped it up it becomes a very awkward piece of luggae.

Next I found I found my toiletries are supposed to be in a small clear bag.  Amazing I haven’t travelled by plane for two and half years and missed all these fun and games.  Not much a problem apart from my King of Shaves Gel.  Trust my luck to have something bigger than 100ml.

Off went my sister to find me a bottle from Boots.  It’s amazing how much empty bottles at airports cost.  Then we found that King Of Shaves Gel doesn’t exactly flow.  So we are there standing in the queue trying to squeeze it out into an empty bottle.  Normally I have the pleasure of doing it over the course of half a year rather than in the space of 5 minutes but we got most of it.  Have to say being three hours early at the airport is cutting things a little fine nowadays. Continue reading Day 1 – Cork, Ireland Cycling Trip →