Day 1
After a gentle reminder to myself the photo rally in Ireland is coming to a close shortly I decided to pack up and hit the road for a few days. The plan was to leave home in Wexford (SE of the country) and hit in to Kildare and pick up point 9 the famine pot. It's a short enough ride and after about an hour I was there. Got chatting a woman about her days biking coming to an end when she broke her ankle. Still wearing a Kawasaki jacket, the tattoos on her face and knowledge of many bikes had me thinking she must have some great stories to tell. Lovely to see her and chat about the bikes of today vs yesterday
Onwards from there I hit point 8 and 5 both old churches before setting off towards Belfast. All in it was about 6 hours on the bike with many breaks in-between. The places the rally brings people are epic. Take the first nights camping for example, once I hit the last point for the day I knew there was a wild camping site nearby. I definitely wasn't disappointed, I rang the owner who guided up a rural track behind some locked gates.
I thought I took a wrong turn somewhere along the way as there were no sign posts to be seen. I was then greeted by the owner and his dog. He told me the story of days of old but there's a trail near his land and he was getting young people coming for booze ups. He removed all the signs and website from public view and now only goes by word of mouth. Nice guy gave me a tour of the building block his also owns, great story about the naturists too-he thought the group of people would need the heating knocked on as a cold snap came in, little did he know he would find them all butt naked living their best life !
After a gentle reminder to myself the photo rally in Ireland is coming to a close shortly I decided to pack up and hit the road for a few days. The plan was to leave home in Wexford (SE of the country) and hit in to Kildare and pick up point 9 the famine pot. It's a short enough ride and after about an hour I was there. Got chatting a woman about her days biking coming to an end when she broke her ankle. Still wearing a Kawasaki jacket, the tattoos on her face and knowledge of many bikes had me thinking she must have some great stories to tell. Lovely to see her and chat about the bikes of today vs yesterday
Onwards from there I hit point 8 and 5 both old churches before setting off towards Belfast. All in it was about 6 hours on the bike with many breaks in-between. The places the rally brings people are epic. Take the first nights camping for example, once I hit the last point for the day I knew there was a wild camping site nearby. I definitely wasn't disappointed, I rang the owner who guided up a rural track behind some locked gates.
I thought I took a wrong turn somewhere along the way as there were no sign posts to be seen. I was then greeted by the owner and his dog. He told me the story of days of old but there's a trail near his land and he was getting young people coming for booze ups. He removed all the signs and website from public view and now only goes by word of mouth. Nice guy gave me a tour of the building block his also owns, great story about the naturists too-he thought the group of people would need the heating knocked on as a cold snap came in, little did he know he would find them all butt naked living their best life !
. I set off from rural Galway through the city and hit onto the motorway to pick up the last 2 points of this trip, point 23 and point 7. From there it was a spin into Dublin and then hammer home to the south. Pretty much a day of motorways but it was a nice blast compared to the slower pace of the previous days.
Interesting to see on your back seat .. just a bit of flat plastic to level it out to put stuff on or a "proper" additional plate ?
You spoil me ! Thank you once again for the pointer. The good Mr Byrne has messaged me before about offering routes and advice for an Irish trip which could have been this year or next. BUT there is a 20 day Norway trip in the planning for next Sept so as you can see I am scouting "important and much needed extra kit" already ! I digress but you get the idea ! 
