So work was boring and I needed to get away on the  motorcycle. Great for clearing the head. So after work Friday and the bike loaded I head for County Galway. Clifden to be correct. Leaving Belfast at 11.30 am I made it to Clifden camping site around 7.20 pm. Finding a peaceful corner on the site was hard but given that most people don’t want to be to far from the restroom, I headed to the farthest corner and home for the night.

The ground was a little soft from the rain but peace was found. a shower and into town for a meal. The town was busy and finding a table in the town was proving harder that finding a peaceful corner on the camp site. O’Mally’s restaurant had a table and I count myself lucky. A minute later there was seven people standing looking tables. With a grand meal and a pint of beer at the bar after it was time to face the walk up hill back to the tent. With a slight dampness in the warm night air the Irish midge was out in force. These little flies are so small but I think they are just a set of teeth with wings the way they bite.

Clifden nested in the valley with the Twelve Ben’s/Pin’s standing guard in the background.

Saturday saw me packed up and leaving for a ride north up the around the County Mayo coast but first I ride out the Sky road loop.

Has you can see it was a grey overcast start, this photo was taken just after 9am and a warm breeze pushing in the cloud. Back through Clifden and out the Westport road towards Mayo county.With the roads starting to get busy with tourist following the  Wild Atlantic way  .  A few miles out the road and  I follow the Connemara loop at Letterflack back onto the N59. After passing through Leenane its left onto the R335 and I’m into county Mayo .

With my feet in mayo and my camera pointing at Leenane in Galway it sits in shadow has the rising sun lights the hills behind. Any one that drives the roads around the west of Ireland can tell you about sheep, they sleep, feed and rest on the road sides. A danger to cars but deadly to motorcyclist, but so far I have never had a problem with them till today. A young sheep decided to cross the road just has I was passing, well lets just say it was close and thankfully there was no on coming traffic. While taking a photo, one of it’s kind was a few feet away watching. Meet one of county Mayo’s  many sheep.

So on up through Newport and around to the town of Mallaranny and out onto the Corraun Peninsula.  Just off the coast of the peninsula are two islands.

The larger one in the background is Clare Island and the one in the foreground is Achillbeg island.

So at this point I changed my SD card, and here my photographs have to end. I could not access the card due to an error.

A quick note on the rest off the trip. I continued north through Mayo up to Bangor before turning north-west to Belmullet. Turning east on the R314 across the northern coast around to the town of Ballina. Across into county Sligo and stopping at the Beach Hut Bar and campsite for the night. This morning it was across Sligo and up into Northern Ireland and a three hour ride home. Clean and sort my gear, dry and pack the tent and then discover my faulty SD card.

Thank you for joining me on this weekend trip, a total of 653 miles. Lets do it again soon.

George