Well, it's official, the cycle07 is underway. Spend Sunday cycling south from Belfast to Newcastle, and along the way found some lovely quiet roads, some sunny beaches! and a thundershower or two! Bicycle working well and 75kms covered.
After an overnight in youth hostel, up and off at 8am on Monday morning along the coast south of newcastle around to Newry and hence up the canal towpath to Scarva. After the busy traffic of part one, the towpath was quite delightful. The weather was cloudy and cool at one point, followed by sunny and pleasant the next ie typical ireland. The final section of the day was joining a national cycle route across country to Armagh, ancient ecclesiastical capital of Ireland.
Jaysus Murphy and Joseph, it was up and down and up again. The route seemed to go out of its way to stick to quiet 3rd class roads, which is great if you want to meander traffic free, but if you want to make kms it was not the route. Seemed to take a while and those thundershowers were still around, requiring quick dives for sheltering hedgerows and overhanging trees, which were fortunately available when needed! Arrived in Armagh after 100+kms a bit knackered, but resolute! Hostel booked up by a group so off to local B+B. Lovely big, old house with warm welcome and warm shower. And a lovely puppy welcome from Mac, the 4mos old Eng sheepdog, who gave me quite the lickin'. Quite a lovely evening down by Armagh Mall, not the shopping sort, but a green commons in the middle of town.
Staying put to recuperate, and checking out local history today, and then on west I think.
Imagine this, its raining today (well drizzle and grey overcast) - the weather has been generally abominable in ireland this summer. Last weekend numerous outdoor events were rained out all over the country. The previous Can cyclists to stay at the same B+B gave up due to rain! wimps
Well enough prattling from me, time to find a good coffee, and I'll try to figure out how to add some pics to this site.
HL in Ire.
Spending the