There's No Such Thing As Bad Weather

...Only bad clothing

And that would be a suitable description for today: bad clothing.  Definitely a bad-clothing day.

The forecast called for the greatest chance for rain in the afternoon, so we thought we would get an early start.  So after breakfast we packed all our stuff up and retrieved the bikes from the hotel storage room.

It probably would have been good to explore Donegal a bit more as there appears to be a lot behind each crowded storefront.  We stopped in one gift shop last night and talked just a bit with the proprietor, an older man who would probably fit the description of a leprechaun very closely.  Maybe he was trying to play the part, but it was rather startling.

Even the hotel, appearing somewhat unassuming from the street, sandwiched between other buildings, was larger than it looked, evidenced by long hallways, a grand ballroom, a large restaurant, and other spaces that would never fit behind such a small facade.

In the storage room we adjusted seat heights and packed everything in the panniers and then ventured out into the street.

About a half of a kilometer later we had to stop to dig out our rain gear because it started to rain.  So we are 5 for 5 on rainy days.  Then we set out and followed the route programmed into the GPS provided by the outfitter.

It rained on and off for the entire route.  57 kilometers of wet roads, puddles, driving rain at times, narrow roads, and bad clothing.  I was soaked through when we reached Killybegs.  I took some video of one the roads which can be viewed here:

But it was not without its high points. The scenery, even in the rain, was great as we rode right along the Donegal Bay and Inver Bay at times.  And even the farms, with their painted sheep and stone walls and grass-roofed cottages, were picturesque.

We took the optional 15Km spur out to St. John’s Point, a narrow peninsula which juts out into the ocean.  Kind of reminded me of Old Mission Peninsula by Traverse City, Michigan, only with sheep farms instead of cherry orchards.  We were told that the view from the point was fantastic, but as we approached the lighthouse on the point, a woman came out and told us we were on private property.  So we turned around and headed back the way we came.  It was raining anyway so the view was probably not all that great.  Later on in the day, our waiter in the restaurant ribbed us about it, trying to get a reaction from us for not hiking out to the rocks.

We had lunch on a lone picnic table overlooking St. John’s Point Beach, with a lovely backdrop in spite of the gloomy weather.

We stopped at a small handweaving shop on the way back from St. John’s Point, run by Cyndi Graham, who has been weaving for most of her life.  She operates from a small grass-roofed cottage, using a loom from the 1880’s.  She gave us a demonstration of the loom in action, and probably would have talked to us all day if we would have let her.

Kind of fascinating to watch and I just wonder how she makes a go of it, being located on a minor road on a peninsula far away from anything.

A couple more stops before we arrived in Killybegs:  first, the ruins of McSwyne’s Castle: a couple of partial stone walls perched on the rocks overlooking McSwyne’s Bay.  These ruins date back to the 15th century.

Then a short walk to Killaghtee Cross, situated in a cemetery with the ruins of a church that dates to the mid 12th century.  The most important gravestone in this cemetery is the Killaghtee Cross which dates from around 650AD. It is thought to mark the grave of an early monk.  We had to slog through waist-high grass to get here, and the entire area was overgrown in tall grass.  Obviously not maintained regularly.  Interesting, though, to see something that is 1400 years old.

Once we left this site, it began to pour in earnest.  We rode the last 10Km into Killybegs in a steady downpour which soaked clothing, shoes, and anything not waterproofed and even some things that were supposed to be waterproof.  We arrived at the Tara Hotel looking quite bedraggled and spent quite a while drying our shoes with a hair dryer.

Rather than venture out, we had dinner at the restaurant in the hotel.  It just felt good being dry.

While it was a very wet day, it was a very enjoyable day, with the exception of the last 10Km of the bike ride.  Tomorrow’s forecast looks better.  Perhaps we can break a perfect record.