Hiking up thru Ireland South to North

Thursday 16th September
Today Mileage miles 76 ∑Total to date 550 miles J

Nobody was particularly keen to start up again after our day off in Dublin yesterday, but nevertheless, the sunshine early in the morning gave our spirits a bit of a lift. We didn’t really seem to gel with the people in Dublin, however as soon as we journeyed into the country we found true Irish hospitality. We stopped off at the Sportsman’s Bar, run by a Mr Paul Keen who, very sportingly, gave us a meal “on the house” – very tasty chicken soup, a pint and a coffee to boot!! What a gent (and all whilst he was trying to run the bar for a local funeral). We got chatting to some little boys who were at the funeral – one of them was trolling about on my bike and the other one couldn’t believe that we had cycled from Dublin to Newry in a day! He also seemed to be fascinated by Corinne being from London – he kept asking her if she’d been to see Walford (where East Enders is supposed to be set). She couldn’t convince him that it was just a TV programme!! He told us that he could never do what we were doing and we told him that he might be able to when he was grown up, but he said that he’d “never be allowed!”
Weather was fabulous, sunny all day and very good cycle tracks, particularly down the A2 from Newry. Ireland is obviously a bit more geared up for cyclists. Roadworks going into Newry gave our health and safety man (John B) a bit of stress as there wasn’t much room to gel in with the cars, but we managed. The girls declined his offer of a detour that was going to add an extra 13 miles to the journey even if it was a bit safer. Actually, that is one of the balances of a trip like this – you could do the journey completely on minor roads but travel double the amount of miles, hence the need to travel on A roads at times.
We cycled cross “the border” from Ireland to N Ireland and all the km signs turned to mile signs so we knew were back in the UK. It was quite a sobering experience travelling through place names that are so familiar from being in the news, for all the wrong reasons. We cycled through the busy town of Newry at rush hour and out by the side of Carlingford Lock and out to Warrenpoint which is the place where the most casualties were in any bombing during the troubles in Northern Ireland. However, it is a lovely place – beautiful waterfront walkways and cafes and we had a great meal at a newly renovated restaurant along the front. Its a place that we would like to come back to and explore – there looks to be good walking in the “Mournes” – hills which surround this area.

Pictures to follow...must have food frst