Day 30: Sligo to Ballyshannon

June 13, 2024

A stormy adventure

We could hear the rain as we woke and pulled the covers up higher. But we had a date for breakfast, and we didn't want to miss another fantastic breakfast by Mary. After our enormous breakfast (Mary makes the best pancakes) we got busy donning the rain gear and packing up the panniers with all our freshly cleaned clothes. We slowly made it out the door - and I mean slowly.

All weather reports indicated rain all day long on our route plus strong winds from the southeast. After last Sunday's experience in the rain, we decided to dress differently. We bought the necessary clothing for this trip, so now it was time to put it to use. We put on our arm & knee warmers and vest - the usual attire here in Ireland - but we added the waterproof shoe covers, rain pants, rain jackets with hoods under our helmets and helmet covers (for more visibility to the drivers). There was a point when Chuck said that the running into rain drops stings at 55 kph. That was on a downhill with a tailwind. Then there was a stage where the wind was so strong, we didn't know if we could keep the bike on the road and going forward. Winds were in excess of 35 kph with gusts of 50+. It was definitely an adventure.

At this point we're wondering if all the gear we're wearing is going to keep us dry today ... will it or won't it?

The route out of Sligo took us across a pedestrian bridge where we saw that a small boat had sunk in the river. A few turns later and we were out of town on quiet country roads. Well, quiet as in cars, but not quiet as in wind.

Crossing the river as we are leaving Sligo.

All that can be seen of the sunken small boat. Wonder when this happened?

Outside of Sligo is the large flat topped rock formation, Benbulben. We could see it as we rode into town 2 days ago, but today it was draped in mist and rain. The iPhone camera shows it much better than we could see it. Maybe it was because our glasses were covered with rain drops.

It is really wet out here. What you can't see is the rain and wind.

We did another diversion from our route today and we were once again following the Eurovelo 1 signs. We reviewed our routes last night and knew that the EV1 had a shortcut and we thought with today's weather we might want to take it. So, off we went. It worked really well because we were sheltered from a lot of the wind by the hedgerows. After a while we decided to check the map because we thought we should have reconnected with our intended route by now. The joke was on us. We took the first EV1 diversion which added a peninsula loop and it wasn't the shortcut we were planning to take. Oh well! We rode out to the ocean with a great tailwind and took a couple of pictures before turning back and finding our way back to the route in the headwind.

The Atlantic doesn't seem to rough considering the weather conditions.

If we continued down that road, we'd end up on the beach. We didn't think that was a good idea, so turned around.

Once we were back on our route, the storm let loose. Lots of rain, but it was the wind that created the most havoc. This was probably the strongest wind we've encountered to date on our trip in Ireland. Again, we were thankful for hedgerows, but they weren't sheltering us very much this time.

Finally the storm started to let up a bit, and when I was looking around I saw a castle on the hill. This time the castle wasn't a ruin. I knew we were headed to Mullaghmore, which has some history. This is the Classiebawn Castle that was built in 1874. This property was passed down to Edwina Mountbatten, wife of Lord Mountbatten. For those who remember their English history, Lord Mountbatten was assassinated by the IRA in 1979. They blew up his boat in the harbor at Mullaghmore when he took it out to set crab pots. Our trip around Mullaghmore was the highlight of our day.

Classiebawn Castle on the hilltop which overlooks the Atlantic and Mullaghmore.

The gated entrance. Notice the seals on each side of the gate - MB for Lord Mountbatten and EMB for Edwina Mountbatten. The property is currently owned by an Irishman.

We stopped to admire a monument to the men and families that built the castle.

While admiring the view we noticed how smooth the ocean was and that the wind had subsided. It was really nice out now - still gray, but not raining and not windy.

Chuck patiently waiting on the road for me while I'm off taking pictures.

We walked out to the end of the pier and saw these sailboats anchored. We assume that Lord Mountbatten's boat must have been out there somewhere.

Inside the harbor the waters were very calm.

It's really nice out right now. We're headed north and it doesn't look as nice up there, so we kept all the rain gear on.

Our next stop was in Bundoran. This town is definitely focused on summertime tourists and reminded me of Seaside, Oregon, but on steroids.

That's a huge amusement park area behind us - several water slides, a ferris wheel, and much more. In town there were many amusement facilities.

At a couple of miles from the end of today's route, we ran into another tandem touring in the opposite direction. We stopped and chatted. They were dressed just like us and carrying about the same amount of gear.

The couple from England touring on their Landescape tandem.

Our arrival in Ballyshannon has been interesting to say the least. When I booked the hotel back in January, I called in because they didn't respond to emails. I remember hanging up and wondering if I really had a reservation or not; and I never received a confirmation. I confirmed our reservation via email a couple of weeks ago. Our check-in was just as odd as the phone call. An elderly man was assigned to help us park the tandem. That ended up being very odd, too. The poor soul, we think he may be suffering from dementia. We've talked with him 3 times in the space of 2 hours and he helped us park the tandem, but the last time we talked to him he had no idea that we'd already talked and he was so happy we'd parked our bikeS in the hotel.

So, my advice to anyone doing this trip, skip Ballyshannon. There's only the one hotel - it must've been beautiful in its heyday - and there are no restaurants for dinner except the hotel. One restaurant closed at 5 pm and the other isn't open except on weekends. One of the three pubs was open, but the menu was one of those with way too many things listed on it so who knows what kind of food we might have found there.

Note to ourselves: We wore the full rain kit today and it worked very well. We were warm and dry.

Accommodation: The hotel is very dated and dark, but the room is large and quite adequate. I'd probably figure a different route next time.

Today's ride: 77 km (48 miles)
Total: 1,943 km (1,207 miles)

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