...to Tony Boyd of Iron Donkey
Looking back after the trip...
This trip was a first for me - a solo self-supported trip that was planned by someone else. Iron Donkey offers self-guided tours, and has a selection of 5 pre-planned trips. Of course, being me, I had to do something slightly different I asked Tony to plan a variation of two of the trips for me, and what I actually ended up with touched pieces of three of his standard trips. Custom trip planning - not a bad way to go!
Tony supplied a map, directions, B&B reservations, and his knowledge of the area and of the roads. I had a cue sheet and highlighted map for each riding day. The directions were excellent - even though I was surprised when I first looked at them to see that there were few road names or numbers in the directions. Like my back roads rides at home, much of my route through Ireland was on unmarked roads. Not a problem - the distances noted in the cue sheets helped me to make turns at the right times. And the roads were as promised - back roads with little traffic. I was on roads that I would have found on my own, and roads that I wouldn't have seen without Tony's directions. I'd say that most of the roads are small roads, but those teeny tiny ones - the ones I thought must be driveways and not roads? Well, I needed a little help to find those... and I got it!
As a self-guided tour, my day to day itinerary was planned ahead of time. As you'll see if you read the rest of my journal, I took some liberties with the directions, shortening, lengthening, or changing days as I saw fit. Having both the directions and a good map made me very happy! My behavior with following the planned route (or not) was typical for me. When I was following Adventure Cycling's routes last year I found that I strayed off route on occasion, and the same was true on this trip.
I was very happy with my accommodations. Every one was different, and every one had a very friendly host or hostess. I was often greeted with an offer of tea or coffee before I got settled in a cozy room. And all of my homes for the night were within walking distance of restaurants - which to me is very important. I know some people don't mind riding to dinner, but I prefer to get cleaned up and then give the bike a rest for the night.
Choosing a self-guided option on this trip worked well for me. I didn't need to spend time ahead of the trip really researching the entire island of Ireland. I spent enough time reading to decide the general area I wanted to visit, and used Tony's expertise to pinpoint the towns and things to see. I did some more reading after I received my itinerary from him, but I didn't feel pressured to spend a lot of time doing research before I left on the trip.
Tony did a great job of putting this trip together for me. He gave me a lift from Belfast to my first B&B. That was the last I expected to see or hear from him - but he actually stopped by at the end of my first day of cycling (he was heading home from starting another group of cyclists off in the southwest), and he called to check in with me on my last day of riding. That was a nice touch, and as I said, totally unexpected.
