Well that was an excellent four days.
I’d packed the bike the night before setting off, so we could make an early start – with only minimal grumbling from The Fair Lady Scully. I’d been cagey about where we were going, so from the M25 I took the M40 towards Birmingham, striking off to the west just north of Oxford, picking up the A44.
If you haven’t ridden the A44, you really should. It’s an astonishingly good road. Oh, it starts slowly enough but once it’s over the border and into Wales it becomes absolutely vintage. We took it all the way to Aberystwyth, then swung south along the coast to Fishguard. As you come round the headland, the road twists down the hill and you can see the Stena ferry – huge and white and clean – tied up below the cliffs. Even then, TFLS didn’t twig that was where we were heading. It was only as we got into town and I turned towards the dock that she came on the intercom to ask if we were heading to Ireland.
That early afternoon crossing was excellent: quick and simple, with decent food. We got off by about 6:30 so I pressed on for an hour and a half, getting to Clonmel just as TFLS was beginning to poke me in the kidneys and demand a break.
Next day was what it was all about: a gentle ride through Tipperary (it really isn’t a long way – especially if you’re starting from Clonmel) to Limerick. I quickly gave up trying to invent my own Limericks, concentrating instead on the riding. We hugged the coast all the way to Tralee, then went out onto the Dingle Peninsula and over the Conor Pass. We went all the way out to Couemeenoole, then back along the south coast to Inch Beach. There were some cars and bikes on the beach, but I didn’t fancy risking the GTR on the soft sand between the car park and the beach, so we just parked up and had an ice-cream before carrying on to Killarney.
I have to say, I though Killarney was a great town. Lots of tourists, clearly – but no cheesy tourist-trap stuff. It’s just well set up to cater to visitors: lots of nice restaurants and pubs and loads of hotels. A really easy place to have a holiday – it made me wish I had more than one night there.
Dex
Tags: Aberystwyth, Ireland, Stena