A short ride today, but again a very enjoyable one. And it was a great people day too. Between the conversations and the fabulous scenery it was a very good biking day.
My destination for today was Ardara, which in spite of the existence of three a's in the name is pronounced Ardra. I'll be here for two nights. I'm hoping for a nice day of unloaded riding tomorrow, but the weather forecast doesn't sound too promising as the forecasters are calling for rain. If it's a real downpour there's more than a good chance that I won't ride. I'm hoping for just another gray day, but only time will tell! I'd prefer a little bit of blue in the sky, but I'm not even hoping for that.
I had a very late start this morning, but I knew it wouldn't matter since the cycling distance wasn't very far.
Breakfast was a half hour later than usual at 8:30. I skipped the cooked breakfast this morning, having juice, cereal, yogurt, toast, and tea. That worked well. While I do like eggs, I can't face them every morning! I met 4 women from Sweden at breakfast and had a nice talk with them. I asked if I would have a problem touring there with my poor language skills - no Swedish! They told me I'd be fine with English. They said there are some older folks who don't speak English, but most people speak it as a second language. I really wish I was better at learning languages; maybe someday I'll figure it out. For now, I'll have to try to get by with English and a smattering of words for the countries I'd like to visit. And the Scandinavian countries are definitely on my list of places to see.
I made three stops on my way out of Donegal Town this morning. The first was at the tourist information center to look at maps. I really wanted to see if there was a map that from a detail standpoint was between the map that I have and topographic maps. I wasn't too surprised to find that there wasn't. The map I have is a good one, and while I'd love a little more detail on the small roads I don't really need it, and I don't want to carry the number of topo maps that I'd need. When I came out of the information center a man came up to me and said "I don't want to be nosy, but do you have your route sorted for the day?". It turned out that he is a cyclist too - it was great that he asked, even though I didn't really need help. It's always fun to talk to a local cyclist.
The next stop was the Internet cafe to put a quick journal entry in for today and to check for guestbook entries. Brian Huntley very nicely translated the writing around the edge of the coins for me. When I have a chance to upload my full journal entries I'll add his translation to the appropriate spots. It was fun to see some messages there - that's part of the fun of keeping my journal up-to-date from the road. But, not having access is exactly what I expected when I started this trip. I'm coming to realize how spoiled I am by having good access at home! Before I left the cyber cafe I had a chat with a woman from San Francisco who was in Ireland for a wedding. She said she's been interested in touring by bike. You know me - I encouraged her, plus gave her my card with my email address and a link to my journal.
My last stop was a bookstore, the first I've seen since I left the Dublin airport and probably the last I'll see until I get to Derry. There are newsagents in all of the small towns, but they seem to be more convenience stores than anything else. They usually have some newspapers and magazines, but no books. I'm not out of reading materials yet, but given that I half expect to be holed up with a rainy day tomorrow, and since I read pretty fast, I wanted to be sure I had enough to read. Yup, books are heavy, but nope, I don't really care! It's weight that eventually disappears, since I usually leave books where ever I finish them. That way the next traveler can have a choice of something to read, and I can happily leave a little bit of weight behind.
All that, and I haven't started riding yet!
Tony gave me two options for today. The first started and stayed on back roads, but he said there were some rough stretches in there. The second started on N56 heading towards Killybegs, then turned onto the same back roads after Inver. I was on the beginning of the back roads route yesterday on my way to Lough Eske, and the road surface was definitely not the best. In fact I bailed rather than ride the back side of the lake. There was a T intersection with N15, and I opted to take that back to Donegal Town instead of continuing. But back to today. It's possible that the rough road surface from yesterday didn't continue onto Blue Stack Drive, but Tony did say there were some rough bits to the route today. I decided to take the N56 option, and once I was on my way I just stayed on N56 all of the way into Ardara. There was actually a paved shoulder for about the first half of my ride. The shoulder disappeared, and then the road got narrower as I headed north from the turnoff to Killybegs. There was definitely more traffic on the road than I would have had on the back roads, but nothing that bothered me. And for a change of pace, staying on N56 meant no navigation today. I could just ride, no need to think about that next turn. Well, almost. At one point there was a sign for N56 pointing straight ahead, and another sign for (N56) pointing to the right. The road pointing to the right would join up with N56 in some miles up the road because N56 later circles around. But I don't know the meaning of the route number being placed in parentheses. I continued straight at that point after a quick check of my map. And the hills? There were some, but nothing very steep. My directions for today - the ones I didn't follow - indicated that there would be a steady climb after I turned to the north after Inver before the road turned down again toward the coast. I don't know if I chose a less hilly route, or if what I encountered was the same as it would have been if I'd stayed on the back roads. There's no way to tell without going back down and riding the other route, so I guess that will have to wait for another trip.
The scenery was amazing today. I followed the northern shore of Donegal Bay as I headed to the west. The water wasn't always visible, but every so often it would pop up to the side. Once I headed north, the scenery became a lot more wild, with craggy hills, large pastures, some evergreens. It was a far cry from the sculpted and very green fields with rock walls between them that I saw on my first few days here. It was my first windy day too. The wind was coming from the south and west, which apparently is the prevailing wind direction here. My ride started heading straight west, and then turned to the north. So I had a bit of a headwind for a little over half the ride, then a tailwind after I turned north at the Killybegs / Ardara turnoff. The tailwind was a welcome change. There was a while this afternoon when I was just standing by the side of the road listening to the wind and to the sheep. Those sheep were loud, with many different variations of ba-a-a-a. In contrast, I came upon a field of sheep after dinner tonight that were so focused on eating that I could hear them chomping and biting the grass. Obviously the wind had died down by then...
On one of my small town, check out the store and buy snacks stops, I also picked up a small notebook. Last summer I started keeping notes during the day to remind me of things I wanted to write about, and somehow I left home without any paper. Interesting that it took me the better part of a week to fix that shortage. I don't think I forgot anything, but it's so easy to forget individual special moments when you look back on the overall day. I need to add a small pad of paper to my equipment checklist for the next trip. Last time I forgot to bring extra shampoo for hand washing clothes, but luckily I remembered to add it to my list so I didn't forget it this time. Sometimes the simplest things make me happy.
Do you think it's odd that as a cyclist using food as fuel (energy) I am very happy to see gas stations along the road? Let's see, gas stations have bathrooms, and many of them also have convenience stores. I did find one good spot today for a side-of-the-road bathroom break, but it was a bit precarious - in a ditch with blackberry bushes all around. I was probably lucky I didn't fall into the thorns! So yes, I was happy to see a gas station the next time I needed a bathroom break. (You didn't want to hear about that? Sorry, it's just part of touring!)
Today was a day of a lot of stopping - mainly to take pictures and to talk with people. At one point I stopped at a craft shop that had Irish linens, sweaters, and other gift items. As I walked in the door, one of the women browsing in the shop looked at me and told me that she thinks she and her friend had been following me around Ireland. "Look, there's that lady on the bike again." It turns out that they were from Newfoundland. Then I went back outside to start riding again. As I was stashing my wallet in the trailer (no, I didn't buy anything...), a couple from New Jersey came up to ask about my bike. My Air Glide has certainly attracted a lot of attention on this trip, but the funny thing is that I think it's the suitcase trailer that people have noticed first rather than the little wheels on my bike! The folks from New Jersey are in Ireland for a week, combining a few days of sightseeing with a wedding. Hmmm, that's two sets of people from the states that I met today who are in Ireland to attend a wedding. Does two make a pattern?
After the road turned north, I started a bit of a climb. When the hill flattened out I saw a man trimming the weeds in front of his farm. I stopped to take in the scenery, said hello, and he came across the road to chat. He asked where I was going, then told me that he thought I'd made a good choice of areas to visit here - especially since I am very attracted to different kinds of scenery. He said that the southwest area of the country is more built up, and also that it attracts more (most?) of the tourists. I've heard that several times before too. He told me he visited Boston for a week last November, and that he saw the Big Dig. He even asked me about the Zakim Bridge (although he didn't know its name). He said he thought it would be beautiful lit up at night. I told him that I agree, it is a beautiful bridge, and it looks great at night. I was so happy I had a chance to walk on the bridge last year before it opened to traffic this past winter (or was it spring?). Interesting talking to people about home when I'm so far away from there. Before I pushed off, he said "this is bloody N56 - how do you deal with the traffic?". Mind you, at this point N56 was a narrow 2-lane road. Yes, there was traffic, but nothing that I'd consider to be heavy. The worst thing was a number of large trucks that kept thundering by. I usually just kept riding as close to the left side of the road as I felt safe, but there were one or two times when I actually pulled off because there was oncoming traffic too. I turned out that the trucks were carrying dirt and were bound for a "road works" site just a short distance up the road. Once I passed there, the truck traffic was gone. There does seem to be a pattern though. Many of the Irish people I've met think the roads carry too much traffic. It's just so much less than I'm used to...
I'm staying at Rossmore House B&B here in Ardara. It's an older house and quite a contrast from yesterday's B&B, but my hosts are very nice and my room is fine. I was again greeted with a pot of hot tea and cookies, which I enjoyed before heading to a nice hot shower. And my bicycle was given a spot of honor inside. They have plenty of space inside for bicycles. So although I may think this place is a little bit funky, my bike thinks it's wonderful. At the very nice B&B yesterday my bike spent the night outside, but here it is well sheltered. I asked if they get a lot of cyclists staying here, and they do. Just last night there was a cyclist from California staying here. He left this morning to head back to Belfast and County Down. It turns out that I am not very far from Belfast (just all of the way on the other side of the island) if I were to travel in a straight line. Of course I'll be meandering, so I won't get to Belfast for another week!
After my nice hot shower, I headed into town to explore. It's not a big place, but there are several choices for food, and I even found a restaurant that has a single computer with Internet access. It's a bit more expensive than the cyber cafe in Donegal Town - 4 Euros for a half hour of access - but it was worth it for a quick journal entry. It almost didn't happen though. When I walked in, someone was sitting at the computer trying to get it dialed up. Yes, believe it or not, the access was by a slow dialup line. I sat in a comfortable chair and started working on today's real journal entry on my Jornada while he tried to fix the computer. I wouldn't be surprised if it was just a temporary server problem though - he gave up on it, and another guy came out to try to "fix" the computer about 15 minutes later. He finally got it to connect, and told me I could use it. After I finished, I decided to stay there for dinner. I ended up getting two starters instead of a main dish. I had a big bowl of seafood chowder, followed by sautéed monkfish and prawns with melted mozzarella cheese and a small salad. Sounds like a full dinner to me, and felt like one too. That's possibly because both dishes were very rich. I usually use low-fat dairy products, but I'm sure everything I've had here has been made with full-fat milk, cream, and real butter.
I also stopped in a shop that sells wool clothing - knit sweaters, and clothes made from woven wool. They had 3 looms - large and fairly old ones - in the back of the shop, and a man was sitting at one of them weaving. I stopped to watch and to talk. I have a loom at home, and while there were similarities, there was one big difference - in the way the shuttle was thrown. The weaver actually had a mechanism that allowed him to switch between 3 shuttles with a rope that he controlled with one hand while the other was occupied with the beater. That same rope mechanism also allowed him to control throwing the shuttle. He was weaving with a pretty fine wool. He handed me a bobbin so I could feel the yarn, and allowed me to walk around to take a look at the looms. I took a picture of him in action - after asking for permission. That was definitely an interesting stop. I need to go back to the Heritage House tomorrow too - the restaurant where I used the computer and had dinner. The other half of the building holds an exhibit that I believe deals with weaving, spinning and wool, and the history of this area.
I met Maureen (my hostess) when I returned to the house after dinner. She was out when I arrived, and her husband got me settled. She told me there is a pub down at the corner that has Irish music every night. I'd actually seen the sign when I walked by, but it was too early when I was in town. Unfortunately, the music doesn't start until 10, and by 10 I'm usually fading. Guess this would be a good place to be a late-night person. That's not me, but I'll see how I feel a little later. I have a feeling I won't want to go out again.
