The first proper day of our cycling tour.\u00c2\u00a0 We managed to get be on our way about 9 am having taken breakfast at the youth hostel.\u00c2\u00a0 The centre of Cork was relatively flat with little traffic being a Sunday.\u00c2\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Onwards we pressed following the signs to the airport.\u00c2\u00a0 We were surprised to find that after only cycling 5 miles we found our turn off to Grange on the N27.\u00c2\u00a0 If only we realised which would have been the quick route we would have saved ourselves a lot of time.\u00c2\u00a0 Further onwards and up a side road running parallel to the N27 we found ourselves climbing above it.\u00c2\u00a0 Very soon it was a first get off and push session up a steep hill with our pannier bags.<\/p>\n
Finally the road levelled off with us still above the air port.\u00c2\u00a0 Then the fun began with our first descent down to another river.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 Something I was to find the guidebook warned about.<\/p>\n
On the climb out of the valley was the first amusing sight of our trip.\u00c2\u00a0 Someone had taken to painting on some polythene coated bales;\u00c2\u00a0“These are serious bales like”.<\/em> We continued onwards and stopped off at a Statoil Garage for lunch, were I was surprised to find that they served smoothies.\u00c2\u00a0 Needless to say it featured as part of my lunch along with a couple of Marlow’s Stinger bars.<\/p>\n Sign posts in Ireland appear to be a bit of a rarity and a little confusing.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 It appears to be easier to find a company than it is to find a place.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 However that was all guessing.<\/p>\n 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.\u00c2\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Onwards\u00c2\u00a0up another hill and another sign for Battle of Kinsale.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 On a bit further and then downhill into Kinsale.\u00c2\u00a0 Next bit was quite important, finding somewhere to stay the night.\u00c2\u00a0 Having found somewhere to stay it was off to stop for an afternoon tea whilst we waited for the room to be readied.<\/p>\n No lemonade\u00c2\u00a0in stock so it was back to hot chocolate, cream and marshmallows.\u00c2\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n Charles Fort was quite interesting in that it has a partner fort across the bay up at James Fort.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Some quite impressive views over the bay from the castle which was lucky enough to have a square rigged sailing ship passing by.\u00c2\u00a0 After that back to where we were staying and after dinner an early night having a little over 20 miles by bike.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The first proper day of our cycling tour.\u00c2\u00a0 We managed to get be on our way about 9 am having taken breakfast at the youth hostel.\u00c2\u00a0 The centre of Cork was relatively flat with little traffic being a Sunday.\u00c2\u00a0 Unfortunately the flat bit ran out rather quickly and we found outselves climbing a first small … Continue reading Day 2 – Cork, Ireland Cycling Trip – Up and over to Kinsale<\/span>