Ride outs
Back in the saddle
After 1 year and 8 months without riding my bike because of pregnancy and then because of lack of sleep and its corresponding lack of energy, here we are with the motorbike prepared by Juan. We had planned that, if weather was good on Saturday, I would go for a spin with my bike.
On Saturday, after a full night sleep (which was brand new in the last one year and something), we woke up with a sunny morning and nice temperature, and with no wind.
After having our breakfast, Juan went for a short spin to make sure that my bike’s brakes were working fine, and then when he came back and said it was all ok, I went to put on my “biker clothes”, for the first time since July 2016!
The difference between “before Emma”, is that now, while I was dressing up, I could hear the song “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star…”
The big question was if I would still know how to ride a bike…
As it was the first time in a long while without riding the bike, the idea was that I would go with the bike, and Juan would follow with the car and Emma. Emma loves to go in the car.
Once we were all ready to go, I put on my helmet, and Emma found that funny, she put on her funny face and started laughing.
At last we went. Apart from a small incident in the first crossroad, when I forgot to put on first gear and went in neutral (road is going down), wondering why the bike wouldn’t work properly, then everything went back to normal and I could ride “automatically”, without having to think about it.
After a few kilometres on lovely backroads going nowhere really, we arrived in Mallow and followed the road to “Ballyhoura Mountains”.
After the snow and rain of the past few weeks, some roads had many potholes, and could be quite dirty on the tractors path. We always have to be careful.
That road is very nice, between forest and mountains covered in brownish and yellow velvet at that time of the year. The green velvet will come back later in the year.
After leaving the forest road, we stopped to take pictures of the mountains on the other side of the valley, with some remaining snow at the top. I had THAT SMILE back on my face. Emma had fallen asleep. And Juan, who was the camera keeper, also had THAT SMILE on his face.
We followed suit that road which then goes down. Until Ardpatrick, where there is a nice coffee shop where they serve a lovely Irish Breakfast until noon, and then lovely soup and sandwiches menus. It was later than noon, but they still had some food to make breakfast so Juan went for an Irish Breakfast, and I had soup and ham and cheese toasted sandwich. Emma had some of my soup and a big part of my sandwich…
Once batteries recharged, we went back, through another road which I don’t have a clue where it goes through, as we got lost on backroads and Juan finally had to turn on the GPS to avoid ending up in Tipperary lol. As most GPS in Ireland, the GPS was taking us to a main road, and at the first backroad turn, it would indicate to take the backroad instead of staying on the main road… backroads which were in quite bad conditions at that time of the year. But lovely sights though… 😉
After a few more kilometres we arrived home. It was still early as we didn’t do many kilometres, but they were enough to get that big motorbiking smile on our faces.
The next day it was Juan’s turn to go with the bike, while Emma and myself would take some rest.
So that’s the plan for now on the sunny days… To take the bike by turn. We’d just like Emma not to hate motorbikes for feeling abandoned when we go with the bikes. We’ll see if it works out! 😉
After a 20 months break, MariCel is back on her bike!
🙂
Ride outs
The Vee
That June Sunday morning we were to meet with Finbarr and Jim for a bike spin. Juan & myself got prepared and went for an Irish breakfast in a place we discovered in town. At 11’am we were at the filling station with Finbarr, waiting for Jim who was waiting for his bike key, which was in the washing machine… 😀
Finally we left through Midleton, then up to Lismore where we had a first stop for a Coke/tarts/tea/coffee. Then we stopped down the village on the bridge with nice views over the castle.
It’s a very nice place, beautiful castle, the gardens are opened to the public. After a short pics break we headed to the left after the bridge, direction “The Vee”.
The road to get there is beautiful, not too large but the tarmac is good. Unfortunately we ended up behind a fuel truck with no room to overtake for a while. The road was nice anyway, under the trees along a river for the first part. Then you get to the “mountain” part with nice views of the mountains on each side.
We stopped at a first car park. From there there is a walk down to a nice lake and another walk up the mountain (not with bike gear…).
Then we went on to another car park with views to the lake. It was a rather cloudy day but even with not much light Ireland is so beautiful with her 40 shades of Green.
Then we went on for another stop before a big hairpin, already on our way down. As it was quite overcast the view didn’t go far, but it was very nice anyway.
We went down the mountains and started to head back, but Finbarr’s GPS wouldn’t stop taking us through back roads lol … and at one point it was too bad for me, with mud and small stones and I wouldn’t go further. Finbarr & Jim wanted to go to a pub nearby to watch the second half of Ireland-France as Ireland was leading 1-0, so we turned back through the main road and finally found a pub to watch the rest of the match.
Then we headed back home through Youghal & Midleton.
Such a nice spin on nice roads.
So nice that the following Sunday, back from Skerries road race, we had a late waking up, went for breakfast and headed back to Lismore & The Vee through the same roads. We didn’t stop as much to take pics but had a very nice spin. The weather was beautiful, bathed in beautiful sunshine and warm. The view at the lake was still a little bit cloudy on the mountain part,
but then at the hairpin we stopped for a good while as the view was very clear all around.
Also a group of bikes coming up informed us very nicely that there was a speed trap down the road in the village… which probably avoided a fine to us and the 2 other bikes who came behind us…
On our way home we stopped in Ardfinnan for an ice cream and refreshment in the lovely gardens.
And then we followed with another stop in the Harbour of Dungarvan
where there is a castle
and also a memorial to all Waterford Men fallen in the Continent during WWI
So sad to see so many lives lost 🙁 .
It was a beautiful spin, with nice roads and not much traffic…
For sure we will head back from time to time!
Thanks to our nice guide showing us beautiful roads and places around!
V’s
