Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Day 21 - Westport

Just spoken to Dad and he is in Westport (not the one with a lake about half a mile from home !).  Been a bit of a mixed day on the bike today ... this morning weather fine but this afternoon he's had rain.  He is currently in the Old Mill Hostel.  He did pass a campsite but it had closed for the season - do they not know there are still tourists in Ireland in late September! Saying that the Hostel seems good value at 18.5 Euros a night.

Dad had a good night meeting up with his pal, Dave Boot last night. It's probably 9 years since they last saw each other. Dave's wife picked Dad up for the Hostel and they went back to his house which was a couple of miles up in the hills - good job Dad wasn't trying to navigate up there on his bike ! A bottle of wine and few hours chat and Dad was back at the Hostel.

This morning Dad headed off and cycled for about 3/4 of an hour only to find that he'd been cycling back towards Galway (I always knew my Dad had no sense of direction !)  However he found a road (probably the R336) and headed up the mountain pass and had a great time cycling around the Twelve Pins. He stopped off for lunch in Leenanne. Following lunch he then had to decide whether to cycle the 60 km around the coast road or take the more direct route (the N59) to Westport. As it had just started to rain Dad plumped for the direct route to Westport (it also helped in the decision making that he'd got a tailwind).

It was still raining when I spoke to Dad but he was going to "brave the weather" to go in search of a pub for food and a pint !

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