I managed to get a pretty good night's kip in my cabin - unlike Pricey who spent most of the night sweating under his duvet; a bit like most of his ex-girlfriends really. We jumped off the ferry at 7 (by a strange quirk of coincidence, "Road to Nowhere" was playing on the radio) and hit the road from Cork to Mizen hungry, as we didn't want to spend £9 on breakfast on the ferry. Unfortunately, it's Bank Holiday Monday over here, so pretty much everything, including all the cafes, was shut. The weather was pretty much as expected; crap. We stopped at a Spar in Skibbereen that actually sold bacon baguettes and the rain really started in earnest. Morale was low, but as we drove further south, the rain started to ease. When we arrived in Mizen it had actually stopped and the sky looked a bit brighter. With hope in our hearts and energy drinks in our bottles, we struck out to rapturous applause from the local wild fowl.
I was told by a local before we left that the roads in Ireland were not the smoothest. This proved to be completely accurate, and soon we were bouncing up and down on the tracks they call R roads over here (stands for rural apparently). The scenery here is gorgeous - mountains, loughs and everything is just a deeper shade of green. We breezed through the first 35 miles, passing through pretty villages and fantastic views. We stopped for lunch in a small garage, straight out of 1950's England. We walked in and there was a cold counter full of meats and salad. Rob asked if we could get some of it in to a baguette. The elderly lady attendant very kindly and patiently explained that they didn't do that sort of thing on a bank holiday - could we come back tomorrow when this would be absolutely no problem at all? Fortunately, there were some sandwiches already made up so we tucked in to them. She then asked us where we'd come from. When Rob told her Mizen, and that we were heading for Millstreet, she just stared at him like he was from another planet; a bit like most of his ex-girlfriends really.
We carried on to Macroom and after a quick break, headed up in to the mountains towards Millstreet. For the first time during the day, the rain came down heavily, giving us a wet end to the day. The surprise of the day was that it was pretty flat going. Pricey went well, with me having to work hard at times to keep pace on my slower, heavier bike. I'm proud of the boy!
Got to Millstreet and on to the Bulmers and Guinness. Checked in to our B&B for the night, greeted by our convivial and talkative hostess Noreen and her "tree" year old niece with some un-pronounecable Irish name.
Song of the day - Mr Tambourine Man
Nature watch
2 x crows - dead
2 x foxes - dead
1 x rabbit - dead
1 x stoat - alive
1 x hedgehog - dead
1 x otter - dead
1 x pair of Pricey's socks - wet and dead.
