Day 31: Ballyshannon to Teelin

June 14, 2024

A challenging yet beautiful day with lessons learned

It was a fitful night sleep for the both of us. No reason, just was. We were eager to get on the road since Ballyshannon felt a bit disappointing to us. With the panniers packed, we set about loading routes on our Garmins and lo and behold! Ride with GPS is down!!! We've gotten a tad lazy and normally just use the electronic pinning system instead of downloading all 42 routes at one time. Hmmm . . . lesson learned. We spent a good 45 minutes trying to make things work and get some maps loaded. Finally we gave up on the Garmins and used the app version on the phones.

Dorrian's Imperial Hotel in Ballyshannon.

With the route available on the phone, we loaded the bike and it started to shower on us. We stepped back into the hotel for a bit to wait out the worst of it. When we set off, it was dry but chilly - a mere 11 degrees Celsius. Once we were out of town, we found ourselves on some really quiet and tiny backroads. Some were overgrown by the trees, it was really quite pretty.

It was a climb out of Ballyshannon which gave us a nice view of the ocean.

At kilometer 6 we came to the cute village of Rossnowlagh and its great beach. If anyone is considering this route, we suggest staying here instead of Ballyshannon. Our route wanted us to go down the boat ramp and ride along the beach. If you look at the maps, it takes you onto the beach. There were cars driving this section of beach, but a loaded tandem probably wouldn't do well on the sand even with the 38mm tires. We opted to stay on the road and follow the route signs for Eurovelo 1 instead. It was a good choice and we still got to see the beach, just a few hundred meters farther along.

Looking down at the beach of Rossnowlagh.

Lots of folks were learning to surf here. There were several surf schools advertising at the beach.

Lots of fun scenic roads led us to Donegal Town. I think this is another place that we should have spent a night so that we could've wandered. But we did a bit of wandering anyways. We visited the Donegal Castle and the Church of Ireland. And, based on the recommendation of the guide at Donegal Castle we felt we had to stop in at the Blueberry Tea Room for a chai latte and something sweet..

Tranquil scenery as we climb up and over the first steep hill of the day.

Donegal Castle was built in the 15th century by Red Hugh O'Donnell as his personal fortress. An English captain acquired it in 1616 and remodeled it and added a manor house to the original castle.

Interior of the ground floor that was most likely used for storage.

Contemplating what life might have been like living in this stone building back in the 1600s.

The Church of Ireland in Donegal Town. It was built between 1825 and 1828. Its elegant needle spire is a landmark feature of the Donegal Town skyline.

We checked on the status of Ride with GPS and it was working now. We downloaded the route onto the Garmin and stopped using the phone. That was a good thing since the battery was running at 50% now and we still had a long way to ride.

We entered the town of Killybegs and were surprised by the pier. It was full of large commercial fishing vessels. The town center was a tight squeeze and we had cars following us, so pictures weren't taken. Again, it's another town that should be explored.

About 20 kilometers of today's route was on a highway with no alternatives allowing us to get off of it. The highway was rather busy with fast moving traffic. This kept me from taking pictures and we were set on getting it over with as fast as possible. Finally we turned off of it onto a small road that will eventually take us to Slieve League - another site that has been highly recommended. We'll visit it tomorrow, but need to make our way towards it. This new road is narrow and we encountered very few cars. However, these final 18 kilometers weren't easy - the three big climbs were quite steep. My Garmin said 18% at one point, but I know it's usually high. The final stats indicate the maximum grade was 13.6% with a bit of a headwind.

We did stop at the top of the climbs to take in the views.

We felt like we were in another world far from the busy life of today's world.

I would never tire looking at this view.

Challenges today: 1) Setting of without Garmin maps loaded. Lesson learned - load all your routes beforehand and don't rely on doing it the day of the ride. 2) Over 20 kilometers of highway riding - tiresome. 3) Climbing those kilometer + hills with gradients in double digits. As the saying goes "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger."

We arrived at the Rusty Mackerel in Teelin without any rain today! Yahoo!! While we were eating dinner, a very heavy rain started and has continued the entire time we've been writing today's entry. So happy to be inside and dry.

Note to ourselves: No rain!! Temps remained below 15, so we wore arms, knees & vests all day.

Accommodation: The Rusty Mackerel is a pub and restaurant with accommodations. So far, it's a great place: clean, comfortable, and the rooms are newly constructed with modern comforts. Dinner was very good, too.

Today's ride: 82 km (51 miles)
Total: 2,025 km (1,258 miles)

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