We had a lovely breakfast at O’Neills B&B this morning. Bríd O’Neill served up a traditional Irish breakfast and even made some hard-boiled eggs for Deb, complete with their own little egg stand.
It was heavily overcast this morning but no rain was predicted. We were hopeful for a second day without rain. As the day went on, it brightened up and we even saw the sun for a while. We had to peel a few layers of clothing off due to the warmth.
We loaded up and hit the road, aiming for detour on the route towards Port, a town on the coast that gradually died out as people left. It added another 20Km onto the total for the day, but it was worth it. Not much left of the town other than a few recognizable piles of rocks, but the view is amazing.
Port is one of the most remote and wildest areas of Ireland. Right on the water, it boasts some scenic views of the rocks and cliffs and rugged coastline. The road to get here is 10Km of narrow, twisty, sometimes steep, two-track. At least it was hard-packed and smooth, adequate for a bicycle.
The way in to Port was mostly a coast downhill, the way out was more of a hard slog uphill and against the wind. It was even more uphill as we approached Granny Pass and had to do some steep climbing. We were rewarded by a long coast downhill, however, into a very picturesque valley. I took a video of the coast downward which can be viewed here.
At the bottom of the valley, at the end of our coast, is Maghera Beach and Caves. You wouldn’t know it even existed from the road. The beach is an enormous expanse of white sand (think Lake Michigan beaches) and the caves at the edge of the beach can only be accessed during low tide. We asked the guy who was managing the car park when low tide was and he told us it was at 1pm. Looking at the time, it was 12:45. Perfect. We walked across the beach to one of the caves in the rock and walked inside until it got too dark to see. There are several caves here which fill with water at higher tides. Kinda fun walking into these caves, but you wouldn’t want to get trapped in there by an incoming tide.
We stopped briefly at Assanarca Waterfall, one of the most impressive waterfalls in Donegal and located right next to the road. An easy stop and easy photo op.
We rolled into the town of Ardara and stopped at our location for the night: the Atlantic Lodge. We talked to the owner for a while. He ran a grocery store for a while but just couldn’t make a go of it, so he remodeled the building and made it into a 9-room hotel and is doing much better. The only other hotel in town, a 50-room building down the street, is all full of Ukrainian immigrants that fled the war. They came here because Ireland offered free housing and free food and €250 per week spending money. This filled many hotels in many towns like this, choking off tourism because there’s now no place for the tourists to stay. Ireland is starting to walk back on those policies, however.
Atlantic Lodge is a very nice place to stay. Located right on the main street, the rooms are on the second floor and overlook the street, so we can watch everyone walk and drive by while sitting on the bed.
We talked to two women in the tea shop next to the Atlantic Lodge. They told us that they were the only game in town for dinner past 6pm as several of the larger establishments were closed on Wednesdays. We did find a take-out pizza place right across the street and mentioned this to the owner of the Atlantic Lodge. He panned the pizza place and recommended the tea shop. “They have leg of lamb and good food,” he told us, adding that this was much better than the pizza place.
We were really not in the mood for leg of lamb or that class of food, and pub fare was wearing a little thin, so we ventured into the pizza place and had pizza for dinner. Simple, but it was a nice change and it was good, too. And considerably less expensive.
Tomorrow the forecast calls for 90% chance of rain. No biking for tomorrow, as we will be transferring by taxi to the town of Westport, so perhaps we will avoid getting wet.
Total distance covered today: 54.5Km.
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