Sliabh Liag

I woke up this morning and the room was flooded with light.  Our room had a full-size French door onto a rooftop patio and we left it wide open all night to cool the room.  Thinking it was time to get up, I took a shower, then looked at my phone.  5:45am.  Drat! I was fooled out of an hour of sleep by the early sunrise again.

The good news was: the sun was out.  The forecast called for little to no chance of rain, and even some sunshine.  And it turned out to be a beautiful day.  Our perfect record of rainy days had finally been broken.

I had the full Irish breakfast, minus the pudding.  I had to look up what Irish pudding was.  Irish puddings are traditionally savory sausages, commonly black or white pudding. Black pudding is made with blood, while white pudding is made without blood, but includes ingredients like pork, oatmeal, and spices.

Ewww.  

No wonder I didn’t like it.  Our B&B host for this evening was not surprised when I told her to skip the pudding for tomorrow’s breakfast.  She told me it’s an acquired taste.  Some people never acquire it.

We put on another 46Km today, not as much as yesterday, but we did some hiking to fill in the difference. The route took us mostly along the coastline, on some very up and down twisty roads, past scattered homes and sheep pens.  A beautiful ride, but something I would probably not do without electric assist.

We stopped a few times along the way to view the scenery, but the first scheduled stop of the day was Muckross Head, a viewpoint over some smaller cliffs and a couple of beaches.  We spent some time hiking around the tops of the cliffs and down to the water’s edge.

Sometimes, the beauty is in the small stuff as well as the large, and little tide pools offered their own variation of beauty.

We took some time to walk one of the beaches in this area also.  Kind of a sandy oasis in the middle of all this rugged rock.

We rolled into the town of Carrick at just after noon and spotted a stone picnic table in the middle of town.  Perfect place to have lunch.  Then back on the bikes to make the trek to Sliabh Liag (pronounced ​Slieve League​), some of the highest cliffs in Europe and a very popular destination.  At the visitor center they told us that the road was closing to be repaved so they recommended that no one go up there.  The shuttle service had been shut down and many people were leaving.  When pressed, they told us that they didn’t require us to stay away, just strongly recommended.

We went anyway.  We rode the bikes up to the car park about 2Km farther up the road and about halfway to the viewpoint and then hiked the remainder of the way.  Séamus had told us that he thought the bikes could be ridden to the top, but the hill after the car park would be one that we would remember.  It was memorable even when hiking it.  Very steep, I’m not sure these bikes would have made it, even on the highest power setting.

The cliffs are beautiful and we’ve read that they are even more amazing when viewed by boat from the bottom.  It is a very popular place but the number of people here at the top was probably greatly reduced because of the impending road repairs.

There’s history even on the top of these cliffs.  A signal tower from 1805 can be seen from here, a communication system used to counter the threat of a French invasion.  And during World War II, the Irish government placed whitewashed signs along the coastline to indicate neutrality to aircraft pilots, both Allied and German.  One of these can be plainly seen from the path up here.

We rode out to the Teelin Pier and saw the remnants of an old church up on the hill.  On the way there, we saw what was perhaps the only viable eatery in this small town: the Rusty Mackerel.  It’s where we ended up eating a little later.

We dropped our things off at O’Neills B&B, a picturesque little bed and breakfast overlooking the River Glen.  Then we biked to the Rusty Mackerel and had dinner.

One thing we’ve discovered rather quickly is that all the local bars and restaurants have essentially the same menu.  And that menu is rather limited. So after a few days of eating pub fare, we’re probably down to repeating menu selections because we’ve tried everything they have to offer.  The bar at the Tara Hotel yesterday actually had pizza on the menu in addition to this standard fare so I had that, and it was very good. Today’s selection was Guinness Beef stew.  Very good also, but we’ve seen this on every menu for the last few days.  Deb was expressing a longing for pizza this evening but it is not to be had in small-town Ireland.

Now we’re back at O’Neills B&B, resting from our activities and enjoying the cool evening breezes coming in the windows.

Tomorrow’s ride will be nearly 60Km.  My legs can feel the effects of the last few days, even with electric assist.