Monat: April 2017

Ireland 2017

Tipperary to Kerry

After Teaand Toast breakfast we started off to a small town near Cahir where I have been 22 years ago. We are travelling mainly on the smaller roads with stone walls to both sides or guarded by rows of trees … wonderful.

It was still a bit cold so a hot chocolate when we refilled the bikes kept us warm. And then suddenly blue skies and sunshine – the weather changes frequently here – as we visited some historic sites with wedge tombs and stone circles.

Further south we came through the Cork mountains to the sea and headed for the Beara coastal road and later across Healy Pass to Kenmare.

Ireland 2017

Ireland!

After a great Irish breakfast on the ship and  repacking the stuff – amazing how every time you pack after a day you find out that you need the things on top the least and the ones below most frequently – we finally arrived at Rosslare. Shortly after we left the city on the main road we turned left into the wild narrow countryside roads and the adventure began …

Ireland 2017

On the road

After a very busy Friday morning at work we saddled up the Africa Twins an headed towards France. As it is one week before Easter the roads were full of people rushing off for a holiday and it took us a while to get to Burgundry where we made a stop for the night.

On a perfect spring morning we continued our journey across France and in the afternoon reached Normandy’s Omaha beach and the neighbouring D-Day sites from WW2 where we made a short final stop before embarking the Irish Ferries ‚Oscar Wilde‘. As there was the opportunity we chose a five star suite – what a difference to our usual travels taking deck passage in sleeping bags but honestly after the 1200km ride on one and a half days we deserved it.

Ireland 2017

Final preps

Two days to go and fully stressed – not from the travel preps but more from a project I need to finish before I leave. The idea to be on the road soon is the light at the end of the tunnel. Collecting some GPS data I discovered my track from 1995 and was able to convert and extract some of the points I visited then. Also I packed things in the waterproof bag … amazing how little you need on such a trip. I am getting better from time to time and am really proud of. Had some 5mins to pack only … ok and about two hours to find one single item that I stored and forgot where. As usual – but better than on the title picture twenty years ago, hell that was a chaos every day.

Now we are ready to go, tires changed, bikes serviced, gear packed and soon we are on the road 🙂