Day 63

December 5, 2021:

I slept well. I packed up in the morning, then rode my bike back down the trail. I captured a little bit of gopro footage from those woods before the battery almost immediately died. That was the last of my gopro batteries, so I wouldn't be able to record any more footage until I got to a charger overnight. The batteries take a good little while to charge.

I rode into Ennis. I felt I had to, even though it was out of the way. The Irish name was Ennis is Inis, which is the same name as one of my favorite board games, the one Palmer had gifted me some years ago. Ennis was a really nice town, and I'm not just saying that. There's a friary there by the River Fergus, as well as a cool-looking hobby store that had model trains, kites, and board games. I spent a good bit of time cycling the streets there. Then I went back down the N68 out of town.

I wanted to make it to Kilkee by the end of the day. That would give me time to see Loop Head, then cycle up the coast towards Galway before Storm Barra hit. (Had I planned this better, I’d have decided to head directly to Galway and double back after the storm had passed through.) Palmer had sent me forecasts showing that the winds would be truly terrifying as the storm slammed into the coast, and I'd want to be indoors when it hit.

I followed the N68 pretty much all day. The road was pretty straight, and it led me through several forested areas. It was the closest I had seen yet in Ireland, or at least since the land just north of Cork of the photos Mama had sent me of Scotland. There were hills, but I pushed through them, making good time to Kilrush.

There, I saw a Tesco. Palmer recommended I shop there over Centra. How right he was. Definitely a clutch tip. Tesco is a real super market, where as Centra is like a gas station convenience store. Tesco also has premade foods, and they had a section of discounted food that was close to the expiration date. That's not an issue for me, as everything I buy gets eaten pretty much immediately. I bought a tin of pine nut pesto pasta, a tin of spiced (ie flavorful, not spicy) cuscous, a tin of cole slaw, a pack of raspberries, and a literal bucket of blueberries. All for like 7 euro.

I didn't spend much time in Kilrush, instead following the road down the coast. Instead of going to Kilkee, I made my way down further towards Loop Head. I saw a sign for a caravan park, and wondered if I'd find good camping there. On the way, I passed an alpaca farm (in Ireland, I know!). Unfortunately, the caravan park was closed. I called the number given, and the guy said the off season wasn't covered under their insurance, and all the facilities were locked up. I looked around, and saw a B&B in Carrigaholt I figured I could try.

I went on my way, passing through Carrigaholt in the evening. It was a nice fishing village. Evidently, the B&B was in a farmhouse beyond that. I arrived at the B&B. Glen Carrig. It was a big, red house, with white window frames. I rang the doorbell, twice. I walked around the back. There was one car there, but no one was home. I went back to the driveway, seeing if there was a number I could call. There didn't seem to be, though maybe there would have been one online. Oftentimes there actually isn't in Ireland though. It wouldn’t have mattered though, since my phone was out of battery. A neighbor drove by, a husband and wife with kids in the back. They called Luke and Mary - the hostel owners, and they were just five minutes away. I decided to just wait there. The husband said something I couldn't understand, and had to repeat himself a few times before I realized he was describing the type of car they drove so I would recognize it: a red Citroen. I'm just not familiar with that type of car as much. Had the guy said Jeep, I'd probably have understood irrespective of the accent. Anyway, he really didn't have to describe it. The next person who came by would surely be the B&B owners, such was the size of the road.

And sure enough, they soon came by, gesturing for me to park my bike in the back. I wheeled it around the back, leaning it up against the outdoor wall. It took a few minutes for Mary to run inside and get things set up. They did have availability, and the room cost 60 Euro. That's steep. But what else was I going to do? My devices were now totally dead again, and I rather like having my audio book to listen to in the evenings. I don't strictly need a B&B. I think I'm too reliant on power for my phone and computer.

I rested upstairs. It was an exceptionally nice room. There was also a billiards room and a sitting room. Mary made me some tea and we talked for a while in the games room. Luke is a navigator, and runs a sea angling tour business in the summers out of the B&B. The whole place is themed as such, with navigational charts of the Shannon estuary and the north Atlantic on the walls, as well as demonstrations of various knots and photographs of large catches. One photograph showed Luke with his son David having lured in a giant shark. Apparently the thing weighed 300lbs, and would have been a new Irish record had they not decided to let it go.

The wifi wasn't the strongest, and I had to have Mary show me how to reset the router in case I needed to do so again. No need to waste my cell data on a hotspot if I didn't need to. I should have spent the time catching up on my blog, but instead I watched funny videos. Mostly comedians, but also bad drivers. It's a particularly bad kind of YouTube video. Anyway, I did eventually get to sleep, and slept well.