A Dildo and a Bumblebee tour Ireland Apr 2010

davidgibson999 · Apr 19, 2010

I always like to get away for a weekend's camping in Ireland at the start of the year with the aim of bagging a few photo rally points. Hasn't happened yet to date so I lined up this weekend past. The day before departure Si (SiJohnston) said he'd join me. Weather forecast was looking too good to be true so we saddled up Friday morning and headed south.
Having fitted risers to the varadero (shall be referred to as the "dildo" from here on) the night before I hadn't realised the clutch cable was a bit strained :blast

Felt it slip just beyond Letterkenny so after Si rummaged in his panniers for his toolkit I got it adjusted and we rolled on.

First stop was for coffee at the delightful cafe at Drumcliffe church

Americanos downed and carrot cake scoffed we tootled off to Easkey Castle, the first of our photopoints. Beautiful spot with some surfers making Si wish he'd brought his board

The scenery and the weather was unbelievably good.

Valerie the varadero in all her glory:

davidgibson999 · Apr 19, 2010

Through Westport and on out the N59 we stopped at Moher trout fishing lake to grab some lunch:

The N59 from Westport to Clifden is a great road - just as well because 40 miles later Si realised he'd left his pannier keys in the panniers and they'd worked loose and fallen off :blast

Ah well, nothing else for it but to retrace our steps, me blasting on ahead back to the picnic area while Si came after me scouring the hedges... No luck but at least we got to do the N59 again. And then again as we headed back towards Clifden. We knew the corners fairly well by this stage!

Off to the next photopoint - the Cregg mast. Lovely wee "road" up to it

davidgibson999 · Apr 19, 2010

Stopped here to jimmy Si's pannier locks open with my Gerber (took all of 4 seconds). Note to self, don't bother locking my own...

At this point we decided not to march to GerryC's tune and rather to take our time, smell the roses and cover a bit less ground than initially anticipated instead of racing off snapping photos of broken down castles and monuments

So we set off from Leenane towards Ballyconneely in search of a suitable spot to camp...

Aidan1150 · Apr 19, 2010

Good start there David. Bring it on. :thumb2

davidgibson999 · Apr 19, 2010

So we headed round the coast towards Ballyconneelly and saw an expanse of green fields with some beautiful beaches at the end of them. Si asked a guy on a ride on mower if there was anywhere we could camp. He waved at the fields and told us to go anywhere so long as we closed the gate - great! :aidan

Si waiting at the gate:

The sand was amazingly white and the sea turquoise - stunning really....

Dildo arriving at the gate:

Si was clearly hoping to catch me fall on my hoop in the water but thankfully I disappointed him

Onwards and upwards:

Dildo plodding across the fields:

"Let's stop here ye boy ye"

"this'll do nicely"

Definitely the best spot I've ever rough camped at:

Tents up, it was time to strip off and skinny dip. You'll be delighted that there are no photos

sijohnston · Apr 19, 2010

davidgibson999 said:
Tents up, it was time to strip off and skinny dip. You'll be delighted that there are no photos

I can't believe you admitted that! Like we don't have a reputation enough as it is. Oh well, for every time that accusation is made, I'll have to date another 100 women :augie

davidgibson999 · Apr 19, 2010

A few light ales appear :beerjug:

The cuisine wasn't up to much

Don't know who was more startled:

As the sun dropped so did the temperature:

Having had a long walk on the beach, polished off the alcohol, watched an episode of Peep Show on Si's iphone we were getting a bit bored, resorting to lighting Si's MSR stove regularly to get the heat from the initial flame ball that shot up:

Contemplating the fact I'd brought a really crap sleeping bag to save on space :blast

davidgibson999 · Apr 19, 2010

sijohnston said:
I can't believe you admitted that! Like we don't have a reputation enough as it is. Oh well, for every time that accusation is made, I'll have to date another 100 women

I'll not mention walking back to the tent and hearing you say "I'm still trying to coax my cock out". That water was FREEZING!!!!

davidgibson999 · Apr 19, 2010

Woke up to beautiful sunshine, packed up and headed off, dropping the dildo in the soft sand for good measure.

Bikes packed up:

Around the coast to Roundstone to dump off our rubbish.

Stunning landscape - Connemara fast becoming one of my favourite areas of Ireland:

davidgibson999 · Apr 19, 2010

Rode round the shoreline of Lough Inagh and up and a boreen skirting the Maumturk mountains. Cut off and rejoined the main road to Cong aiming for a photo point on the shore of Lough Corrib. GPS doesn't work for the location and I vaguely recalled reading about that on ukgser at some point :rob

As I turned up a lane a guy building a house started to laugh and greeted me with "you'll be looking for the tower then".
Turns out I wasn't the only one doing this!

Eventually found it:

Cracked on towards Galway on the hunt for oysters and a half of Guinness. Found a great spot called Paddy Burkes (have forgotten the town name) and had a half dozen each, experienced both the worst coffee and the best Guinness. Turned out the Americanos were "instant americanos"! Never heard of such a travesty before but they tasted rotten and were neither drunk nor paid for.

Soon we were in the Burren, another rugged and beautiful area:

Si poses for the camera:

richie · Apr 19, 2010

As a Varadero owner, I must say....

I like the look of the 800GS

davidgibson999 · Apr 19, 2010

Having never seen the cliffs of Moher but not willing to pay tourist prices we rode up some boreens as far as we could and then hiked over some fields and stopped to admire the view:

Last photo point of the trip was the Five Pilots monument on Loop Head so we had a quick skelp down there. Took me a while to realise the monument was for ships' pilots and not airmen :blast

The big anchor in the background didn't even alert me...

ChubbyThumper · Apr 19, 2010

As Aidan says :keep it coming David :thumb2

Is that a sea shepherd logo on your pannier?

davidgibson999 · Apr 19, 2010

Since the weather was so fine rather than head up the middle of the country and bag a few more photo points we decided to stick to the coast for the homeward route. I've never had such fantastic weather in Ireland on a biking trip before so we determined to make the most. Decided to head back to Lehinch but it didn't seem that nice so we went back to Doolin and paid 8 euro to camp at the harbour. Had a great meal in a little pub, downed a few Guinness, listened to some eejit play the spoons, wandered back to our tents, saw a shooting star, I froze my bollix off yet again and did what anyone else would have done the next morning:

Tossed my sleeping bag, lest I be tempted to take it on another trip:

Chain lubed we were ready to go:

Set the sat nav to Go Home and did just that.

Superb weekend. Fantastic company. Unbelievable weather. Great roads and great bikes

davidgibson999 · Apr 19, 2010

ChubbyThumper said:
As Aidan says :keep it coming David

Is that a sea shepherd logo on your pannier?

yes it is! was quite proud to sport it and support them until the knobheads collided with the whaler and lost that new boat of their's

Still a worthy cause though in my book :thumb2

davidgibson999 · Apr 19, 2010

richie said:
As a Varadero owner, I must say....

I like the look of the 800GS

Typical...

Aidan1150 · Apr 19, 2010

davidgibson999 said:
Tents up, it was time to strip off and skinny dip. You'll be delighted that there are no photos

Thank feck for that David.

The sight of one rather generously proportioned <s>Pioneer</s> Tosser in his shorts on these boards is quite enough for those of us of a nervous disposition. :eek

davidgibson999 · Apr 19, 2010

Aidan1150 said:
Thank feck for that David.

The sight of one rather generously proportioned <s>Pioneer</s> Tosser in his shorts on these boards is quite enough for those of us of a nervous disposition.

I think I know the photo in question :augie

richie · Apr 19, 2010

Anorak Question?

Did you fit the centre stand yourself????

Sidestand alone seems a bit dodgy to me, on mine.

davidgibson999 · Apr 19, 2010

richie said:
Did you fit the centre stand yourself????

Sidestand alone seems a bit dodgy to me, on mine.

Nope - dealer fitted mine as an optional extra when I bought it...

A Dildo and a Bumblebee tour Ireland Apr 2010

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Nice but unfortunate husband.

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Nice but unfortunate husband.

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