East Cork

On Saturday it was solo ride out day. It doesn’t happen too often because I’m lucky enough to share most ride outs with Juan and from time to time we do some group ride outs. But that Saturday he had to work exceptionally. As we had had 2 weeks without rain and it doesn’t happen too often I thought that I should take advantage while it lasted, we are in Ireland and at the beginning of October, Indian summer will not last forever.

So I left home at about 10am with the bike.

I had planned to “visit” the small peninsula East of Cork, where we had been with the car in one occasion and that had beautiful views.

The first stop was in Rostellan Lake with nice views over the village.

The next stop was to take a picture of something I love in Ireland: the hedges along the road that get together above and form a green tunnel over the road.

The first idea was to go to “Roche’s Point”, where we had been for a sunset in July:

But I missed the junction, there was no clear indications and the indications I saw did not correspond to my map.

Apart from this cape I had no fix point where to go, just the idea to take as much as possible the road along the coast. I got lost several times, I turned around several times, once because I just crossed a small junction with a handwritten sign with some plastic protection indicating “CLIFF WALK” so I went there. The road ended up in an unpaved car park (not the best for me to move the bike around), I had to get down of the bike to turn back and park her. There was only one car parked and a tractor ploughing the field next, followed by dozens of seagulls. I went down to a sand and rocks beach with a lot of seaweed and a lot of surfer seagulls 😉 . There was also a lone fisherman in the distance.

I just stayed there for a while, enjoying the sound of the waves (and of the seagulls) and watching the seagulls play with the waves. Those places radiate Peace.

After a while I went on. The roads were not the best for my bike and after getting lost several times I finally arrived to Ballycotton. The sky had been overcast all morning with a very difficult light to take pics.

I parked the bike in the harbour where there were many fishermen. And I stayed for a while taking pics.

While I was taking pics the sun appeared and the light got much better. Though I started to have problems with one of my lenses which would not focus anymore…

I tried to get something to eat in one of the pubs but they only served sandwiches and I didn’t feel like having a sandwich so I went on with the ride.

I arrived to another village, went back, ended up in a cul de sac (not indicated) having to turn in a garden entrance and back again to the “main” road. After a while I ended up in another car park on a very nice sand beach with dunes, had to do some motocross to turn the bike, and stopped to take a few pics. It was very nice, a pity that I don’t have a clue how to get back there…  

Later on I stopped in a village to fill the tank and buy some Tayto and Coke. An elderly man asked me about my bike and told me to respect her always, told me that he had an accident once when he had a bike back in the 70s and that the bushes saved his life. He told me about a good mechanics in Middleton and after a while chatting we said goodbye and I went on.

I ended up behind a tractor with a trailer full of potatoes, so full that from time to time with the (not few) potholes a potato flew away… I had to keep a safe distance until I could overtake…

At the next junction I stopped because I realised I was going the wrong way (again), so I went through a 3^rd road indicating the village I had left a while ago. The road was actually quite nice, with beautiful views…

The sky was getting cloudy again and got a few raindrops. I finally arrived to a junction with a better road, which indicated Knockadoon to the right, on my map the last cape on the coast before getting back to the main road.  It was not really a village but had a very small harbour and a nice cliff walk. There was nobody but me, and many noisy seagulls.  I sat on a bench in front of the sea to eat my Tayto and drink my Coke. The light was bad again for pics, but still nice for the eyes. And again only the sound of the waves on the rocks, the sea was very quiet.

After a good while I went back to the bike and started the way back home. The road was much better now and I went directly to Youghal where I took the main road back home. I arrived at about 4pm, a little tired but quite happy.

I enjoyed a lot riding without a fixed goal, getting lost several times but it didn’t matter.

And I always like a lot when you meet elderly men who say that they also had a bike some day and they always happen to have had an accident. This one was lucky to be saved by the bushes but others would tell you a list of all the broken bones they had then. It happened often to us in Spain and it happens also in Ireland 😉 .

I’m not riding solo very often and I missed sharing the “adventures”, but I had a great time.

I hope the bad weather will take some time to arrive and that we will have time to go for a few more ride-outs before winter.