Ride outs
Solo ride out- October 2015
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 3rd 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.
Road Races
Our 2015 Road Racing Season: Faugheen 50
The weekend of the 15th of August we were going to the last race of our road racing season. There was another one in Killalane (north of Dublin) in September but we had a wedding in Asturias…
So on Friday we left at about 5.30pm to county Tipperary, at about 1h30 from home, the closest road race of the season. We stayed in a B&B at some 12km from the circuit. As I thought that Juan would go out of work late I had prepared sandwiches. But we arrived at 7.00pm, so after a tea/coffee in the B&B we went out to look for a place to eat our sandwiches.
We were at about 30km from Kilkenny, we thought of going there first, but we finally turned at some cross road before, stopped in a village to buy some drinks and went on. At the end of the village, three Asian people were hitchhiking. We stopped to ask where they were going to and they said “at 5 minutes” drive, so there we went. They were from South Korea, volunteering in the village (I think with elderly people but I’m not quite sure about it). After a while we left them at their accommodation. One of the girls told us that we could go to “Kells”, so when we saw the signs indicating Kells, we followed them and we arrived to a place with a carpark, some picnic tables and a view to a rampart and towers of what used to be a priory. We ate our sandwiches with the last sun rays and then we went for a walk around the ruins.
Then we went back to the B&B to rest.
In the morning we left after a good Irish Breakfast, we stopped in Carrick-on-Suir to buy some water and went to Faugheen village.
We parked in the first carpark we found and asked for the shortest way to walk to the paddock. The circuit is kind of a triangle and the paddock was right on the opposite side of where we parked, so about the same distance from one way or the other.
So we got to the paddock to see the bikes and the riders who had already arrived and we bought some essential stuffs for next year road races: a giant Suzuki umbrella and a hat each (Suzuki for me and Honda for Juan of course). I always wondered why we saw so many racers with hats (instead of baseball caps) on TV when they were interviewed. After a few races I understood, it’s just sooooo cold! So now we are prepared for next year 🙂 .
As we didn’t see any good place for photography on our way to the paddock, we went on around the circuit (2.2miles = 3.5km); and we stopped at the next corner “Creamery corner” and settled there. It was still early so that we had some rest in the sun.
At noon they closed the roads and started with the practice and qualifying sessions. They started with some laps for the “Newcomers”, the ones who never raced on that track so they can learn the track.
“Creamery corner” must be a difficult corner because many went straight (in all sessions). All practice sessions started with one or 2 laps leaded by a “Marshall” and with another Marshal and the doctor at the end of the group. Before every race the next day there were also 2 warm-up laps in the same conditions.
We spent all the practice sessions taking pictures…
Robert McCrum
Paul Jordan
Michal Dokoupil
William Dunlop
Derek Mc Gee
Paul O Rourke gives a lift to Derek McGee after his Kawa ER650 stopped after the first warmup lap during Supertwin practice
Seamus Elliott
Brian Coomey
Dario Cecconi
John O Donovan
Sean Leonard
Brian McCormack
John Walsh
Once the practice sessions finished they ran 2 races: Open 201-1010cc (non championship) and Support 401-750cc (non championship). The last one was stopped after an accident but the rider was back on track for racing the next day.
After a while without too much information they announced the classification, informed about the rider and opened the roads. We went back to the carpark and went to Carrick-on-Suir to have dinner and back to the B&B for resting.
The next morning we went back to Carrick-on-Suir to buy some things to prepare sandwiches as we had seen no fish&chips trucks around the circuits except in the paddock. The races had been about to be cancelled as 15 days before they had not enough racers registered to run the event. Fortunately after a call through social media and between riders they got more entries and some riders registered in more categories (for example William Dunlop brought his 125 with which he doesn’t usually race anymore. Though at last he couldn’t race with it for a mechanical problem).
We parked in the same carpark after going to the paddock to buy some tee-shirts for supporting the club.
And we went to the field on the left side of “Gubb Cross” corner, where they had settled 2 open trucks trailers to see the circuit over the hedges.
We got in one of the trailers where there was a good view to the circuit on the left and to the corner on the right, where we would witness many anthology braking, crazy overtaking and also some “too late” braking (with no dangerous consequences. Only one rider had the doctor stopping and he went back to the paddock as the doctor’s pillion lol).
Before the road closing we made friend with a man who arrived at the same time and with whom we chatted of many things while waiting. We used for the first time our umbrella with a short shower though we were quite well sheltered in the trailer. Then a couple arrived, who were friends of the man, and also very nice people and we spent a good day chatting and also laughing a lot because we never knew which race was on as the order was changed compared to the program and we were mistaken with the 2 races that had been ran the previous day, so it was a little confusing… Anyway, it was still very pleasant and exciting to spend the whole day watching the 11 races, with no incident and no rain.
There were two “breaks” with laps done by a rally car from the 70s spinning in each corner of the circuit.
The 600 race, the “Support 201-400cc Championship” and the final race were just heart-stopping, with crazy braking and overtaking at that corner (if you see the corner you won’t believe you can actually overtake there…).
Derek Sheils won the “Grand Final” (and one of the Superbike race) in spite of having missed the qualifying session on Saturday as he was racing at the Masters Series in Bishopcourt (Northern Ireland).
John Walsh
Once again we had a very nice day. On Sunday we took very few pics but we enjoyed the races at most.
After saying goodbye to our 3 new friends until next year, we went back home.
We saw fabulous racing, very well organised, there was no rain and no incident. But I used my hat for the first time and I didn’t take it out in all the day. One of our neighbours told me that he had been living in Ireland for 65 years and he was still not used to the weather… So I still have some margin to get used to it LOL.
We end up the 2015 Road Racing season on a very good note, long will be the wait until April 2016…
V’s
Road Races
Our 2015 Road Racing Season: Walderstown
On 12th of July we went to our second road race, also in Republic of Ireland. This was not quite planned and we could not go for Saturday practice. The race was in Walderstown, a small village close to Athlone and Mullingar, not too far from Kells race where we went in June.
As we arrived on the same day of the races, we had no time to go around the circuit and find the best place for pictures. In spite of waking up very early we arrived just before the roads closed, and very hungry, so we first went to the paddock…
This was the first race since Doctor John Hinds passed away. “Doc John” was a great doctor anaesthetist, who apart from his job, dedicated his free time to make road racing safer. Together with the medical team and another doctor in Ireland, he saved the lives of many riders.
He also shared his medical experience with other doctors around the world, to save more lives, not only in road racing.
Doc John sadly passed away in an accident while following a group of racers during practice in Skerries (close to Dublin) at the beginning of July.
So the racing day started with a lap in his memory and honour, leaded by the medical staff and marshals. A very nice and moving homage just a few days after the funeral. All my respect for all the people who spend their free time to make this dangerous sport as safe as possible.
After the honour lap and a minute of silence fairly respected all around the circuit, the races started.
We first were on the straight line just before the paddock, with the view on the previous corner and a good point to see many wheelies.
William Dunlop
Derek Sheils
Derek Mc Gee
Andy Farrell
We then moved to the previous corner for the next race. There was a good viewpoint for pictures from the outside part of the corner.
The day and the races went on without any incident. There was a short shower during the Classics race (poor lads), but we were in the paddock and got shelter under a big tree.
Then we moved down the straight line of the paddock. The next corner was probably the best of the circuit and was packed with people and there was not a free space to watch (though we know where to go next year). So we went back to the straight line. There we can see the pilots arrive fairly quickly, not too good for us to take pictures, but quite good to watch the races and see some nice overtaking.
We finished the day there. It seemed short to us in spite of the 10 races!
V’s
Road Races
Our 2015 road racing season: Kells
Our 2015 season started later than planned. We wanted to go to the Northwest200 in May but at that time Juan was out for work, and I just wished I could have gone as I was stuck at home in rainy Ireland while Juan wished the same but from some Californian beach 😀 .
In June at last we could go to our first road race of the season.
It was in Kells, in Republic of Ireland and it was practical because the race was on Sunday (and practice on Saturday) while all of Northern Ireland are on Saturdays (with practice on Fridays). This gave us time to arrive on Saturday, get to know the area and find the best place to watch the races.
Kells road races are run on a road that goes out of Crossakiel village and makes like a triangle.
We left home on Saturday morning at about 9.00am and after we got lost for a while (the GPS had not charged correctly during the night), we arrived to the hotel where we stayed at about 1.00pm. We had some lunch in the pub restaurant and after leaving our cases in the bedroom, we finally went to the circuit, at about 15km through very narrow and bumpy roads. We found the circuit, parked the bike and went to the first corner from the village. The road was already closed so we couldn’t ride around the circuit anymore.
We stayed in that corner and took pictures of the practice for classics, Supersport, Superbike, 125, Supertwins, etc…
Paul Jordan
Michal Dokoupil
William Dunlop
Juan had a long chat with another fan who told us where to go the next day to take nice pictures, and who also advised us that we had to go to Skerries and Killalane road races (North of Dublin) in July and September respectively.
After the practice we went back to the hotel, had dinner, and the hotel owner advised us to go to a castle 1km away. So there we went. The garden was just amazing, and the castle very nice. That’s funny that it looked much like a Playmobil castle, I don’t know if they got their inspiration from Irish castles…
The night was not so funny though as they started with a concert in the pub below the room at 11pm, just when we decided to sleep, and the music was quite loud and not as we like either… and we couldn’t rest until it stopped at last at 1.30am…
After a short resting night, we left early to have breakfast in Crossakiel (a full Irish Breakfast so that we get to the end of the races without eating) and get to the sighting place early. We left the bike (no organised car park for the bikes) and went to “Dromad Hire” corner, on the other side of the circuit. The bad thing was that there was no food/drink selling point in that field, it was on the next corner, and there was few time between the races to move. So we just stayed there, with our just eaten Irish breakfast, a bottle of water and some cereals bars for Juan…
The races went by, very exciting. We were taking turn to take pictures 😉 . We were very close to the riders, so much that at the beginning I was a little scared. Though we were on the inside part of the corner, so after a while I enjoyed it very much.
William Dunlop
Sam Wilson
Derek Mc Gee
Andy Farrell
Paul Jordan
There was an incident in one of the races that required the doctors, ambulance and then helicopter intervention. The rider, Ian Morrell was swiftly attended and is now safe and recovering from his injuries.
After the break (everything was very well organised, Cheers to all the organisers, marshals and Medical Team who saved his life in the first minutes), the race started again, followed by the rest of them Supertwin, Junior Support (one won by the Czech woman Veronika Hancocyová), Superstock, and Superbike (the “Grand Final”)… It finished at about 4pm.
Traveling Marshal
Traveling Doctor John – RIP
Stephen Morrison
John Ella
Craig Gibson
Sean O’Neil
Alan Bonner
Derek Mc Gee
Parade Lap
Barry Sheehan
Veronika Hancocyova
Paul Jordan
William Dunlop
Michal Dokoupil
Derek Mc Gee
Alan Bonner
Derek Mc Gee & Alan Bonner
After a full racing day, we went back to the village to have lunch/dinner, and then we went back to Cork, some 250km, this time through Dublin (with GPS functioning this time) and we got rain for about 150km… I think we broke a record of lasting rain (not of intensity though…).
At last we arrived home, wet, tired but happy, and with some 900 pics to sort out…
V’s
Ride outs
An entertaining month of June
The month of June did not start quite well, with Monday 1st as Bank Holiday but with pouring rain all day.
Luckily it was probably the last remains of winter, and the rest of the month looked more like spring.
On the first Sunday we met with a group of bikers Juan had met in a filling station one hour after getting out of the ferry in March, and with whom he had gone for a spin in April around the “Ring of Kerry” before I arrived.
We first met Jim from Cork, and picked up another guy on our way to Limerick, where we would meet with the rest of the group.
We had a nice Irish Breakfast in a pub while we were waiting for the others to arrive.
In total we were about 12 bikes. Apart from ours, one Deauville and one VFR800, all the others were BMW GS… All are people who travel quite a lot, with at least one 10 days trip to the continent every summer. There was another woman rider, with a lowered GS, I got on her bike that happened to be really comfortable… but I wouldn’t change mine for it.
We then started the ride through narrow roads on the hills over Limerick. The roads were good for the GS, but not so good for ours. Some looked more like tarmac pathway (with weeds in the middle, bramble on the sides, and room for only one car- it was so lost though that we didn’t come across any…) than what I would call a “road” but the views were beautiful and the truth is that we had a nice time.
We stopped a few times to rest and also to have lunch, and it was a good time to chat and get to know each other.
Between the jigs and the reels, we were 12 hours on the bikes. We ended up quite beat but happy.
The next week-end I had prepared a nice trip to one of the numerous peninsulas of the area. This was “Mizen Head”.
The idea was to get directly to Baltimore and there follow the “Wild Atlantic Way” road to Mizen Head.
Village where were born Henry Ford’s parents
One of Juan’s colleague had joined us for the ride-out, with his BMW R1200GSlc. He finally led the way and we took a long cut through a very nice place where we stopped for a while. Unfortunately the 2 pubs of the village were still closed.
Glandore
We then followed the road to Baltimore, a nice seaport that reminded a lot some Asturian port. We stopped to have breakfast, Irish breakfast of course.
There was a big yacht parked in the bay, with a helicopter. A local man told us that it was a yacht that was usually rented to people with money, and there was a rumour that this time George Clooney was there. We were not invited to check it out anyway, and the yacht looked more like it was empty…
After breakfast we went to the nearest cape, with an amazing view over the bay.
Then we proceeded to Mizen Head. We arrived to such a beautiful beach (white sand and turquoise water) that Juan’s colleague who was still leading missed the cross to Mizen Head and we ended up in Crookhaven where the road ended. We turned back to get to the right road.
The road to Mizen Head has beautiful views, between others, over a white sand and turquoise waters beach, though we did not stop because we were following our guide.
We arrived to Mizen Head, where there is a big car park and a restaurant, and the entrance to walk to Ireland’s most Southwesterly Point. There is a bridge over the cliffs that must be impressive but we didn’t go because 1-Juan was hungry and preferred to spend his money on fish&chips than on a walk 😀 2- We didn’t have the right shoes nor gear to walk under the sun during I don’t know how much time. So we’ll come back another day to see Ireland’s most southwesterly point.
The temperature was perfect and it was sunny, the perfect day to ride, and also to have an icecream while enjoying the scenery.
After a good while enjoying the views and the sun, Juan’s colleague left us to go back home, and we left a while later.
We stopped on the way down where we couldn’t stop before, though the water was not so turquoise anymore as the tide was higher. But it was lovely anyway.
We went back home through a straighter way. At last we didn’t do the whole planned route but we discovered a nice place we wouldn’t have known without the help of a local.
This day also we got home quite late, but with the head (and the camera lol) full of beautiful images.
Next week-end was for another type of entertainment. We were going to a road race… Report here …
The last June week-end started on Friday. Yeah, I know, they always start on Fridays after work, but this time it really felt like it started on Friday. Juan called me in the afternoon to ask me if I could go buy something to make sandwiches. When he arrived, we put on our bike gear, prepared the sandwiches and went, both on my bike, to a surprise destination (for myself).
After more than 45 minutes on a road, quite uncomfortable, without the rain gear (I don’t know how we could go without the rain gear in Ireland…) and with very dark clouds on the horizon, I was wondering if it had been a good idea…
But 15 minutes later, without a raindrop, we arrived to paradise: the road stopped in front of a lake, mountains and a small chapel.
We had our picnic and the sun came out of the clouds, up the mountain. The truth is that with the sun it was difficult to get good pics because of the backlit.
After the dinner, we walked to the chapel and took pictures.
We stayed there a good while, the place felt very peaceful.
But we had to go back before it was too dark, mainly because of the bumps and pot holes (we don’t see them during the day, so imagine at night) and all the small animals that cross the roads at dusk…
We covered the 70km back home with a smile on our faces…
On Sunday I had thought about doing a nice trip but on Saturday we realised that my front lights were not working and we spent the afternoon (while raining outside) trying to find the fault and correct it. Juan finally found it and fixed it, but then he wanted to reconnect the heated grips (they are not working anymore since a while but we never removed them), and it all went wrong again and a fuse blew up. Well, I won’t get into details but at last on Sunday we went to buy fuses and we finished fixing her. My bike lights are working again. Hope it lasts.
Our first June in Ireland was quite entertaining, with beautiful scenery, road races, and more charming places. It was like being on holidays every week-end! We have to enjoy the sunshine while it lasts…
V’s
Ride outs
10 years with Her
On 4th of May, 10 years ago I was buying my SV650S. I was then living in Barcelona, and I had just sold my dear first Motorbike ZZR250 with about 80.000km, 60.000 being “mine”.
The first 5 years with the SV were the richer in kilometres as I made more than 100.000 including commuting, many one-day ride-outs with friends, and holiday trips, mainly in Spain (mainly Pyrenees, Catalonia, Galicia and Asturias for the North and Almeria and Jaen for the South) and France (Lyon, Marseille, Millau, Perpignan).
In 2011 we moved to Paris region, with the motorbikes of course, but there everything is straight and flat 400km around. Some Spanish friends used to say “I don’t turn on the motorbike to do less than 500km”, and we happened to do more or less this during 4 years… but not by choice, just because around it was so boring.
Because of this, in 5 years, the kilometres average fell drastically lol and we “only” did 38.000km…
We though had some long week-ends discovering Massif Central, Champagne and Alsace (border with Germany), to get some oxygen and wear a little bit the side of the tyres 😉 (and wear again the middle to come back with 400km of straight line lol).
We also had 2 nice holiday trips, first one in Ireland (RoI & NI) for our Honeymoon trip, where we discovered our first Road Race in Armoy and had plenty of corners and beautiful landscapes in Connemara and Killarney. And second one last summer, in Czech Republic to see Horiçe Road Race and in Austria (and Italy briefly) to discover the Alps.
In 4 years without twisties around, we realised how much we missed taking the motorbikes to disconnect, to breathe… and we decided to go to Ireland 😉 . And here we are, just arrived end of April…
In 10 years and 138.000km I had no main problem with my SV:
-The typical problem on this model when it rains a lot at once and water enters in the front sparkplug hole, and I end up with a SV 325S for a while…
-I had the valves clearance done one month ago (2nd time), and everything was within tolerance…
-I changed some time ago:
*The back shocks
*The fork springs
*The seat after the first ferry trip- it was already wore but it got worst as they tightened so much the straps in the ferry.
*The clutch before going to France, to avoid any problem in the future and because we had a good and trustworthy mechanic there.
Now I have a small problem due to the rear cylinder gasket that is gone… and I have to fix that. Also the injection is difficult to adjust, and the bike sometimes stops when cold or stuck in traffic jam.
In 10 years the SV (and me) have travelled through 9 countries, and it is about to get its 3rd registration plate lol, and she posed before many beautiful landscapes.
I hope we will go on together many more years and kilometres as there is none of the new models in the market that convinces me, and if she happened to fail, I have no idea of what other motorbike would replace her.
For now, and once solved the small problem, she will pose in front of nice Irish landscapes.
As the best way to celebrate our tenth anniversary together, on 4th of May, we had our first ride out together close to our new home 🙂
R604 from Kinsale to Old Head R604
Old Head of Kinsale
Fish&Chips
Cross R600/L6098
Trips
Our Honeymoon Trip- Third Week
If you have missed the first week it’s here:
And the second is here:
On Monday, we were on the road again, for our 3rd week holiday, 547km and 6 hours according to Google…
Here is the global map of the trip (excepting the small rides in each area):
No problem on the road, some heavy (but short) showers, and some stress because we had not refuelled before leaving Armoy, and we did more than 100km without seeing a petrol station (on the motorway), until Juan got the great idea to turn on the Tom Tom and see that we had to go out of the motorway to find a petrol station… 230km since the last refuel, and 20km already on reserve for him…
We finally arrived to our destination, Killarney, at the end of the afternoon, quite tired by the travel and the rain. This time in B&B.
First day there we went for the “Ring of Kerry”, very nice landscapes, nice views there too…
but some parts of the road are quite in a bad state… and on the way back we got stuck behind a slow car and then a truck with no possibility to overtake. We were wrecked…
Last day was very rainy, so we went to Killarney center to get some “souvenirs”. And the best memory of Killarney is a nice chat with a nice local man in a pub there at night.
Holidays were coming to their end…
We left on Thursday to Rosslare, 260km, 3h30 according to Google. A little more, with rain all morning. It stopped raining just before Waterford, and we finally arrived quite dry to our last B&B.
Nice people there, very welcoming (and bikers). We went to a pub nearby for dinner, very good food and very good service. And our last pints of Guinness/Bulmers.
It was so nice that we went back the day after for lunch before taking the ferry.
The trip back was quite unpleasant for me (and so for Juan!) as the sea was not too calm, and I got sick…
When we arrived to Cherbourg, we had to get used to drive on the other side again, and got back to reality… An Irish car just out of the ferry overtook us (it was limited at 90km/h but it was 2 lanes, and I did not see any signal) and got chased by French police who made him go out to the next exit to fine him… Welcome back to France and nice French habits! :/ Welcome back to reality, end of the holidays…
We arrived home by those boring roads and had one day to rest.
I remembered Ireland as a very nice country with welcoming people, and I found a wonderful country with wonderful people…
Honeymoon trip: 3599,3km of Happiness.
V’s
Trips
Our Honeymoon trip – First week
In 2013 we had a special holiday trip as it was our Honeymoon trip. The destination: Ireland. Why? I had been 3 times in Ireland (when I was young), twice for summer “language study” and once for 7 months when I was a student. I always had good memories and I had promised to myself that I would come back some day. I also wanted Juan to know this country to share this with him. So that was a good excuse!
We took a little bit of time to prepare the trip, we bought the cases for the SV, put the maintenance up to date, and wrote never-ending lists of things not to forget (this is me).
Before I knew Juan, I always prepared my things much in advance. But since a while now, we always end up packing at the last minute (I still use the list thing though!) the same morning as we go, and we always end up leaving at 11am…
So it was a nice morning of 13th of July, and we were ready to go, at about 11am… 😉
The idea for the trip was to avoid the tolls and take National Road 12 in Versailles, and then go through Evreux, Dreux, Lisieux, Caen and spend the night in Bayeux. I have my manual GPS on with the indications, as a piece of paper stuck on the tank, and Juan has the real GPS as a Tom Tom (wedding present of my dear father-in-law, thanks a million!) in case that mine got wrong 😉 (and it was quite useful… mine went wrong a few times lol).
A quiet and boring trip, stopping for sandwiches, with a nice weather, sunny but not too warm… we were on holidays!
We arrived in Bayeux around 4-5 pm, just to have some time to visit the cathedral and go for dinner…
Dinner took too long to arrive, and we just went back to the hotel to sleep, we didn’t even hear the fireworks celebrating the National Day…
The day after, we went just after breakfast to Cherbourg, to take the ferry.
We arrived (too) early, and we had to wait with a big pizza lunch, and then get to the harbour for boarding (2 hours before) and wait together with all cars, vans, caravans, motorbikes, trucks, and wondering how we would all get in.
One hour before leaving, they called us: motorbikes first. We got separated for parking, my motorbike on the left and Juan’s in the middle. Which was first not too much of a problem, but then when there were 3 rows of cars in the middle, parked very tightly, and us loaded with all our luggage (we didn’t know then that we could leave the luggage on the motorbikes so we had things all over the luggage) it happened not to be very practical. Well. The guys told me “ok, you fasten your bike” and I had no clue how to put this stuff. A nice Belgian couple next to me helped me to fasten it (well, really he fastened it for me…). Then I went across the cars to see how Juan was doing with his bike. He actually had a big problem: when he fastened the strap on the left hand side, the motorbike was falling to the right. And when we tried to fasten it to the right hand side, it was also falling to the right… We had to desperately ask for help to the ferry guys, who solved the problem with a pair of blocks under the suspension arm and it stood still. At last we got all our things together and got to our cabin.
After a good shower we went out to “visit” the ferry and see it go out to the sea. The sea was very calm and everybody was outside.
The trip was very pleasant (16 hours), there is everything in there: pubs, restaurants, cinema, shop… with quite normal prices (they could put whatever price as we have no choice to go somewhere else… but no).
We had a bonus sunset, the company of 3 gannets, a sandwich dinner on the upper deck (a little bit windy though!) and our first Guinness in the pub by the moonlight. The sea was so calm that we did not even notice that we were sailing.
After a calm night we arrived on time to Rosslare.
We got down to the garage decks, unfastened the bikes (still with help of the nice Belgian couple), my seat had been a little distorted by the straps, we put on the cases etc, and went down quite fast.
After a small stop to finish putting on our motorbikes gear, we finally started our road trip, on the left side of course. The most difficult being the roundabouts, we just never know where to look first…
We had quite a long trip this day as we were going directly to Connemara. Not that there were so many kilometers (370) but the ferry arrived at 11.30am, and counting the time to get out, to have lunch, and all the stops to fill in the tank and rest a little, it would take some time, and we did not want to arrive too late, to be able to have dinner somewhere.
At last we arrived at about 8.30pm, with no rain but side wind for a good while, and traffic jam around Galway…
The key was on the door (self catering). We dropped our things inside and got to the village with our bike gear still on… Parked in the main street and checked all the pubs (the street was full of them), though the prices were not too cheap… we realised afterwards that it was quite a touristic place.
We finally chose one, where we had a good meal with good service, not too cheap but good and we had dinner which was the important thing!
We were quite tired because of the trip and we went back straight away to settle there. The view to the bay there was just amazing. A beautiful place.
The landlord was a very nice person who told us a lot of the history of the place and the area around.
The first week we did a lot of kilometres, just getting around Connemara and up to Mayo. 3 days in a row we did about 180-200km per day, only stopping (many times though) to take pictures or drink Coke…
We liked a lot Connemara, it’s magic. We are surrounded by green mountains, lakes, at only a few kilometres from the sea. We were lucky we had amazing weather all the week, 23-25°C during the days with this nice breeze, and 30°C the last trip day… too warm… we will not complain though 😉
1st day : Sky Road- Clifden
2nd day
Ballyconneely
Roundstone
Bog Road
Coral Beach
3rd day
Close to Leenane
Lough Corrib
Lough Mask
Lough Naffooey
4th day
Doo Lough (we called it the “horseflies lake”- Juan still has some scars…)
Westport Bay
Croagh Patrick
Sunsets & moon on Sky Road:
The last 2 days we just did NOTHING apart from visiting Clifden pubs and have a few Guinness for him and Bulmers for me.
The following Monday, with our heads full of nice landscapes, we left for about 380km – 6 hours.
