Longford to Irvinestown - 71 miles

Today started with a bang! Dave and Nic drove us back down to Edgeworthstown to begin today's journey, where we began our morning ritual of filling up bottles with energy drinks, stocking up the shortbread box, etc. Then Garfy pumped his tyre up, only for it to explode 5 minutes later. It transpires that there are no bike shops in Edgeworthstown, so a typically friendly local pointed us in the direction of nearby Longford, where another typically friendly fellow put a new tyre on for Garfy and helped with directions up towards Omagh. Photo above of Garfy's new wheels.
A sunny day! Both myself and Garfy agreed that today's scenery was the best yet, but to be fair to the rest of Ireland, we haven't seen any of that in sunshine at all. Out of Co. Longford into Leitrim, Cavan, then across what was once the Northern Irish border into Fermanagh and Eniskillen, which is a stunningly beautiful place. Our spirits were certainly lifted by the weather all day, despite poor little insomniac goblin boy only getting about an hour's sleep last night and us going 6 miles out of our way. We were only chased by two dogs today, one of which, a sheepdog, wins the award for persistance by keeping up for 1/4 mile. Couldn't unclip my shoe whilst peddling like mental quickly enough to injure him though, sadly. Met up with our wonderful support team in Irvinestown where they'd not only already arranged for our bikes to be locked up round the back, but racked up a couple of black ones on the bar too. Nice bite to eat there then back to a big luxury B&B right in the sticks outside Omagh. A good day overall, despite the late start. Last day tomorrow - a mere 78 miles or so up to Malin Head.

Song of the day - "Fire and Rain" - James Taylor
Naturewatch:

2 x crows (dead)
1 x stoat (dead)
1 x blackbird (dead)

Over and out, so I am.

Support Team Update no.2

Day 2 consisted of a lot of time in the car as we set off from Millstreet just before midday. We went in search of the narrow guage railway at Tralee only to find it had become extinct due to the collapse of Celtic Tiger funding – sadly a common story. As time was against us we motored on to Nenagh where we located the B&B and then the evening’s entertainment at Andy’s Bar; Katine had an opinion on everything!
Day 3: Once the boys had their tyres pumped and bottles filled we headed to the Cliffs of Moher on the west coast. It mizzled and drizzled all day, but we managed to get a dry-ish window to take in the views. OMG they are stunning/dangerous/beautiful/moody and we saw Puffins for the first time – Woohoo!! It is a sanctuary for sea birds including Kittywakes, Guillemots and greater black-backed Gulls, and they collectively sounded like a distant football crowd! Then it rained, so we started our long journey through the purple Burren mountains to meet Rob n Garfy at Granard. Alan didn’t like the new motorways and spent a long time “recalculating”.
Sean poured a lovely pint of the black stuff at his Great-Grandfather’s shop-come-pub the John Donohoe – a very welcome tonic for day 3’s battle against the wind. It was then a case of food and then bed for all of us; bring on the sunshine...!!

BMW Dent Watch = two clear days with no damage! Fingers crossed......

Forgot to mention the Mad Mountain Axe-Man of Granard wobbling into the John Donohoe - is it a Hurling stick, or an Axe wrapped in a paper bag...um...and why are the Garda sat in a car on the corner of the street..."ah! he's harmless enough so he is! comes to town for the day to fill up on ale! one of his brothers will bring him home alright...". Thanks for the reassurance Sean!