July 3, 2015
Ballymacoda to Kinsale
Tail wind day.
We spent the day being blown along by a fresh Easterly, one of those days that you think that you’ve finally conquered this touring thing. We followed the coast to Garryvoe, a strange, overdeveloped holiday place, a perfect example of how to ruin what people come to a place for. Lots a holiday homes, mostly empty, the place had a hollow feel to it. On to Ballycotton another pretty harbour, with a busy fishing fleet and a big lifeboat. Just off the harbour is Ballycotton Island, a steep rocky island with a nice lighthouse on it. We were then blown on by the Easterly past Ballymaloo House which is another famous Irish restaurant, home to the Allen family, they run a cookery school where they celebrate local Irish food. The area has lots to see, bit potteries, good cafes.
Getting hungry we headed to Middleton, a good sized town not far from Cork. Famous as the home of Irish Distillers who are a huge whiskey producer, and who distill Middleton Extra Rare Whiskey, apparently very nice if you can afford a bottle. We ate in the Farmgate cafe, we had been there years ago, it has grown up from being a rustic cafe to a fairly fancy restaurant, expensive but very tasty.
We didn’t feel like navigating our way through a very busy Cork city, it’s a great place and worth a night or two if you haven’t been before. Skin had studied there and we know it well so we decided to press on to the ferry at Passage West which would cut out the city. This is a nice way to avoid Cork, the roads are quiet, we passed Fota wildlife park, but couldn’t see any of the occupants there. We timed the run to the ferry perfectly arriving just as the ferry docked, a ten minute crossing.
The next stretch out through Carrigaline was busy, urban sprawl, petrol stations, car dealerships, seemed to stretch on for ages. We were keen to get the to start of the WAW so we decided to skip Crosshaven, playground for rich Corkonians, and head to Kinsale via Minane bridge and Belgooley. This was a really tough road, very hilly with long steep climbs, that we could just grind up at 4km an hour. The winds had got very blustery and the clouds threatened rain. We were happy when we coasted down to Charles Fort just outside Kinsale, this is a massive star shaped fort, now managed by the Office of Public Works (OPW). It’s really well preserved and has a great view over Kinsale harbour. We weren’t that interested in the fort as it was now starting to sprinkle rain and we were cold and tired, a bit of scouting around eventually yielded an adequate camping spot. We were lucky to get the tent up in the dry and we cooked pasta from the shelter of the porch. At least we’d got to the start of the WAW.
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Today's ride: 90 km (56 miles)
Total: 305 km (189 miles)
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