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| From My Pictures |
Over 30 years ago my parents used to take my brother and myself on caravan holidays to Ireland. I have to be honest and say I can remember little of them except disjointed memories of various "incidents". I do remember long boring car rides from our home in the UK to the ports either in South or North Wales punctuated by stops for something to eat and drink. I remember the rain drumming on the caravan roof with us all playing Monopoly for hours. I remember setting fire to a hedge, kissing the Blarney Stone, falling asleep in a pine forest, seeing a pony and cart in Kerry, walking along the Liffey in Dublin, writing a journal of when we went to Bantry, and of course if I didn’t already mention it did I say I remembered the rain?
One memory that does stick out was of a visit by the family to Galway, or as I discovered this weekend, to the resort of Salthill just a few miles outside. It was one of those rainy days and we had been couped up all day in the caravan with little to do. The rain had stopped so we jumped in the car and went for a drive. Ending up in Salthill father parked up and we went for a walk along the seashore. We passed an amusement arcade and my brother and I pestered my parents about going inside to play. We were given a choice. We could either get 10p each or come with them for a cup of tea at a cafe just down the road. Well it was no contest and grabbing the 10p each of us we offered we entered the amusement arcade to play the slot machines. I was probably 10 or 11 years old and my brother 6 or 7.
We exchanged our 10p into shiny 1p coins and headed to the slots. Now I have to be honest I dont remember if they were pennies or 1p coins. I have a feeling that they were big old pennies. Anyway I go upto a slot machine and I put in my coins anxiously watching the wheels spin round hoping to win something. My little brother watching by my side eagerly holding his 10p hoping to have a go after me. On my last coin the most fantastic thing happened, I won the jackpot, which at that time was £1. Ka-chunk Ka-chunk, Ka-chunk and our ears were filled with the sound of 100 pennies being disgourged from the slot machine made two little boys very happy. With big smile on our faces we took our winnings to the change booth and in return was given a £1 note, probably one of the first ones I had ever had.
My little brother eager to have one of his own gave me his 10p and asked me to get him one as well. Being confident that it would be no problem I gladly took his money and then made a big show of walking up and down looking for a suitable machine. I would stop at one and look at it and my brother would look up with expectation, I would shake my head and say "no, not this one" as though I knew what I was doing. Eventually I chose a machine and inserted the coins. After 5 tries I had won nothing and my confidence was beginning to wain. After 8 I was thinking that all was over and that I would have to share my newly won £1 note. On the last coin I won 2p which was hardly what my little brother was expecting. His face looked up at me with an expression of bemusement and he couldn’t quite understand why I hadn't won yet. So I went for broke and inserted the 2p winnings and unbelievably on the last try I once again won the jackpot. A huge smile lit up my brother’s face and once again we exchanged the coins for a £1 note.
At this point my parents came to pick us up expecting us to have lost the money only to find two very happy little boys clutching our winnings and with big smiles on our faces. And thats about all I remember of Galway.
So why did I mention this? Well I caught the 6pm train from Dublin to Galway after work on the Friday and then cycled the short distance to Salthill going right past the amusement arcades and tea shops that had been the scene of my one and only gambling success story from 30 years ago. The place looked so much smaller and less impressive than it did all those years ago but it did bring back the happy memories.
I stayed in a B&B run by the mother of one of the chaps I am currently working with and who happily agreed to supply me with a cold breakfast in the morning. The only bad aspect of the start to this weekends cycling was that I had forgotten to bring my water bottles with me having left them on my desk back in Dublin. After settling in I popped out for a Chinese meal around the corner, where I was complimented on my skill with chopsticks so I guess not many people in Salthill get to use them, and then to the supermarket for more bananas for the next day.
Waking at 5.15am I crept around the B&B so as not to wake people and ate my breakfast. Heading off into the pre dawn gloom I was soon flying down the road to Spiddle with my sights firmly set on Clifden which was my destination for lunch today.
The bike was performing well after having been repaired this week. Last weekend my gears started to really play up with the chain constantly slipping off when using the middle cog. When I took it to the shop they told me that my gears were completely worn out and that they needed to be replaced. Then they didn’t have the set in stock so it was a bit of a panic to get them delivered and fitted before I left. I shouldn't complain as the bike has done something like 4000 miles.
The scenery was stunning with the sea to my left and the rolling mountains of the "Twelve Bens" to my right. I could also make out the Arran Islands and The Burren.
I was making such good time that I covered the first 60 miles in 4 hours so instead of having lunch in Clifden I in fact had breakfast. This made me feel a bit like a hobbit having "second breakfast" but I needed the calories. One nice thing that had happened was that I had stopped for a roadside chat with a fellow cyclist who seeing that I had no bottles kindly gave me one of his. A lovely gesture that I was unable to resiprocate as I had no spare gloves (he had lost his).
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| From My Pictures |
I had planned to finish the first day at Leenaun but yet again because of the speed I was going I reached there by midday. A lovely little town at the end of Irelands only fjord it was very tempting to stop but apart from nipping behind the church to apply some vaseline to a very sore butt I decided to press on and get lunch elsewhere.
I did bump into another cyclist outside Leenaun who was probably the most ill prepared cyclist I have come across todate. He was riding a mountain bike and had a tent tied to the cross bar with remaining gear hanging off his rear rack. Wearing jeans and a heavy woolen top he had just stopped claiming himself to be "feckin bollox'd" having cycled 4 miles and in need of a fag break. Mick was quite a character and we chatted for 10 minutes, him smoking a cigarette from which he had removed the filter and me munching an oatmeal biscuit. His declared destination for the day of Letterfrack was about 10 miles away while mine was still a good 6 hours cycling away. With a cheery wave we set off in opposite directions with a hearty bon voyage. He was heading for the closest pub and I couldnt help wonder if he had the right idea.
The ride upto Loiusburgh was delightful and I passed a French couple eating their lunch. They were mighty impressed when I told them I had cycled from Dublin but it somewhat paled when they told me they had spent last year cycling all over the Far East. We exchanged stories about Vietnam and I moved off with me feeling somewhat jealous of them to have been able to do something so adventurous.
I found a cafe and had lunch being served by an English lady who had been a taxi driver in Brighton for 18 years before deciding that enough was enough, sold up, and moved to Ireland to waitress in a cafe and semi retire. Couldn’t fault her choice of location as it was truly a beautiful area.
Conemarra with its bogs and mountains was a delight to ride through and with the weather turning out to be glorious I couldn’t think of a better place to be.
Westport and Newport came and went and before I knew it I was on Achill Island somewhere I thought I would have been having lunch the next day. Not far from my final destination for the day I bonked and had to lie down and rest for 10 minutes to regain some energy. Lying flat out on my back looking up at the sun munching a biscuit I took a rest though I did get a few glances from passers by and one old lady stopped to ask if I was ok. Eventually I arrived in Dooagh where I had a wonderful meal of local fish before checking into the B&B and grabbing a shower.
Watched the sunset and then headed to bed. My longest day in the saddle yet and a heck of a distance covered
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