Where’s my tent, I’m away

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.

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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.

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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.

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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 .

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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.

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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.

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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

 

 

Irish Photo Rally 2017 (3)

So out on the road again, this time over to Boyle in County Roscommon. This is listed has number 23 on the rally map, link Here .

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While getting this photo I met a local lady, No name given but was told a little of the history behind the steam driven motor and the generator sitting to the front. She lived outside the town when a child. She is 80 years young and bright has a spark. Her father use to take her and her sister up onto a hill top close to her home to see the northern lights. It was only when she got older that realized what her father was showing them was the electric lights in the town of Boyle. It’s a Blackstone engine  and helped generate electricity for Boyle until 1965 with DC power. After our chat I did offer to take her a spin around the town on the bike, with a wink of her eye and telling me if she was ten years younger we parted with a laugh and a smile on my face. A wonderful women.

My next trip out was to County Mayo over on the west coast, this time to a remote, or  has we would say ” in the asshole of nowhere” to find a disused footbridge. The ride out to it was all single track roads, passing  a remote house out here you wonder what it must be like in winter since its flat scrub land and the wind was racing across it. When I got to the bridge the road ends and a private lane continues up to a farm about a half mile away. The river it crosses has brown water due to it running through the peat bog’s, and here’s a tip don’t drink the water.

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It turned out to be a long day in the saddle and the rain held off for most of the day.

My next ride out was up to the northern part of County Donegal, Glenveagh National Park area. The day was great with blue sky’s from early morning it promised to be a warm day. Going direct from home to the rally point was around 3.5 hours but I’m not known for going the direct route. The plan was to travel through Counties Monaghan, Cavan, Fermanagh and into Donegal. Up the shore of lower Lough Erne in Country Fermanagh to Kesh.

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This was taken from a view point just outside Kesh town in County Fermanagh, this is looking north up Lower lough Erne.

Then onto the small town of Pettigo which is in part of Northern Ireland (UK) and part in Donegal (ROI). Through Donegal town and a drive up the centre of the county to Church hill. Then follow the R251 (road)around the north of Glenveagh National Park and down to lough Dunlewy.

 

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This is looking down from the road on the side of Mount Errigal, Donegals highest mountain. The lough in Lough Dunlewy and the area with the church ruins in the bottom left is the Poisoned Glen. The history of the glen is linked with the photo rally point which is just out of shot in the top right of this photo. Here’s a link to the Poisoned Glen.

The church ruins in the Poisoned Glen was a photo rally point a few years back.

Next the Rally Point, this is number 1 on the map. It’s called Lugh Lambfada and another link. Lugh

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Not a great time of day for photography with high contrast but sometimes you have to make do. This is Lugh and here is the pilot of the bike to give scale to the sculpture

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Complete with body armour in case I had to fight him. I done another rally point in Northern Ireland on the return trip but well leave that from another post

Thank you all for visiting and be safe wherever you are.