Donegal Just finished a lunch of turnip and ham soup, chips and curried chicken on rice at a wonderful pub/hotel called Lakeside Manor. Well the truth is I couldn't finish lunch; Irish portions are large. I'm just going to drain my tea and hit the road. Everything is grand as they like to say. I'm an hour and a bit out of Dublin. At Celtic Rider I was greeted by Jonathan. He was my optional riding instructor back in March of 2011 when I came over for a short 5 day ride. This riding orientation has now become a mandatory part of the packages for North American riders. I'm glad to hear it, as it was such a great boon to me back in 2011. Jonathan is showing me a slide of a corner with a disappearing apex, you cannot see the corners exit, when he says, "always ride to the point"...but I'm sure I heard "pint"! He corrects me and finishes..."if you cannot stop your bike at the point where the road disappears over a sudden hill or on a blind corner, you're going too fast." It's good advice. That I'll most likely ignore later on. Even with good advice and instruction Celtic Rider has been plagued by accidents.Five last year and one this past month. In that case a rider from Toronto flew over picked up the bike on the same day he arrived and likely fell victim to jet lag and crashed during a moment of inattention. Fly, but give yourself a day to get over the jet lag, especially if you come from the west coast or if you are an older rider. The one hour audio visual instruction is followed by a riding loop through the northern outskirts of Dublin. Still I make it a ”pint” to finish each days ride with a point. After the M50 freeway and once off the N designated roads I discover something nasty about the cut down F650GS. It has really limited suspension travel. This was my fault. I assumed Celtic Rider would have the tall version available and did not specify what I wanted. Live and learn. Still, the little squirt has some serious go power. I attribute it to European mapping and a lot less pollution control or maybe a different final drive sprocket. Although I'm on my own, I've got a guardian angel on board directing me through the Irish countryside; a Garmin Zumo 300. It's especially great at roundabouts. Traffic circles don't intimidate me. I have a number of them on my daily commute to work. One is actually a multiple of three like some of those found in Europe and GB. They're the best part of my ride to work providing a place to get some serious lean angles. Over here in Ireland the Garmin gives me lots of warning regarding which exit I need to take so I can concentrate on just riding through. Remember clockwise in Ireland and GB and counter clockwise in NA. I'm going to get one of these Zumo's It's a breeze to have the days final destination mapped. I do go off course sometimes to planned and unplanned diversions, but the GPS always brings me back. Today it brought me to a stunning B&B located on the ,top of a hill overlooking a tidal basin of the North Atlantic just outside of Donegal. What a great finish to a first day ride. After meeting my hostess, Jackie Brown, and checking in it was off to Donegal Village for some grub and fun. I took a cab and left the bike behind, unfortunately along with my camera. Here's a Google snap of Donegal Dinner was in this fine old pub, where a met a gentleman and his wife who were up from Cork for a short holiday. He was an avid fly fisherman so I showed him some pictures of the Gordon River on Vancouver Island and pretended to know all about fly fishing. He graciously pretended to believe me. After word nit was off to the Reel for some music, Guinness and craic. Eventually I stumbled into a cab and returned to Rossmore House my home for the next two nights.
We ( 3 couples) did an 11 day tour with Celtic Rider on Sept 1-11th. Had a really great time in Ireland. Still sorting through the 3000+ pictures we took. What room do you have at Rossmore House? We had the Hobbit room. Isn't that driveway a challenge! Have fun! greg
Hope the photos get sorted. Not displaying (for me at least) currently. Looking forward to more installments.
