As we sat at the breakfast table, I was filled with a sense of dread. It was raining. We knew we had to take a detour for some bike repair. At best, it was over 60 km to our next B&B . How much cold and wet could I take?

We waited for the rain to slow and set off for Kilrush. Miraculously, the predicted rain held off. Kilrush was not on itinerary, in fact it was in the wrong direction. But the repair job Filan helped us with was not perfect, the bike was not shifting well and the chain was too short to use all of the gears. We set off looking for Clancy, in nearby Kilrush.

When we arrived in Kilrush, we asked a gentleman where Clancy’s was. He told us, but also said he could help us if Clancy could not. Having no loyalty to anyone in this town, we asked him to help us get our bike fixed. I’m sure he was heaven sent. Turns out Michael was the owner of the rival bike shop (and hardware store).  He introduced us to his mechanic, Martin, his son Paul (a local historian) and his wife Mary. We had to wait a couple of hours for the chain to be replaced and Michael insisted we borrow a copy of the local walking tour (written by Paul!).

Martin, the mechanic

We enjoyed our time in Kilrush. Michael, Mary, Paul and Martin, made our day and I think we made theirs! Mutual photos were snapped and we were on our way.

Paul, one of the Gleeson family.

The rest of the ride was relatively uneventful. The wind was strong, there were some hills to deal with, it’s still cold, but we made it safely to the Wild Honey Inn. It did not rain and we did not fall off our bike.

Who says water bottle holders should be used for water. Cookies fit just fine!

Supper was totally tasty–lamb for Ken and three kinds of smoked fish for me, with stout ice-cream for dessert.

We will sleep well to night!

Be Careful What You Ask For (or the kindness of strangers)

There is a saying, “be careful what you ask for, you might get it.” We tend to look for vacations with a bit of adventure. Today we got it.

We were cycling in the Dingle Peninsula. Almost as far from our B&B as possible, about as far away from our tour support person as we could be, when the bike stopped working. Pedalling was easy but we were going nowhere. The main chain had broken!

You need to know, we own six bikes and have cycled thousands of kms. We have never broken a chain, ever.

Trying to fix the chain.

Unfortunately, we left our chain repair kit at home. We began walking, a couple of kms later we got to a cafe and asked for help. An elderly gentleman came out and looked, thought it would be a simple fix and left us to it. We were unsuccessful and ready to call a taxi. He wouldn’t give up. “Just let me finish my Guiness and we’ll head to my shop”. It started to rain, we ordered tea, he had a second Guiness. To make a long story short, we eventually got the bike back together and went on our way. Filan (sp?) refused to take any money and only said it was nice to be useful.

Filan

Filan is not the only one to show us a bit of extra kindness. I’m not sure if it’s the bike, but one of our hosts drove us into town so we could get supper and another actually did a load of laundry for us!

The other thing we will remember of this day is our visit to castle ruins. This castle is marked on the map as a place for tourists to visit. In our North American thinking, we were expecting a large parking lot, well maintained grounds, an interpretive centre and of course a ticket booth. What did we find? A car park mostly filled with road building materials, a stone fence to clamour over, cow paddies to avoid and a single sign. No ticket booth. No other people.

The castle at Carrigaholt.

By the way, it was cold and windy, it rained about four times during the day. Hot showers at the end of the day feel really good!

But, today, we never fell off!