We've just finished a week of Szgiet, the Hungarian music festival and its been BRILLIANT!
Aside from everything being covered in dust and Timolo's wisdom tooth deciding to make a reappearance I have really enjoyed it here! I think sunny weather makes a biggg difference to the mood in festivals and makes camping so much easier!
We've seen Friendly Fires, LMFAO, The Vaccines, The Killers, 2 Door Cinema Club, Snoop Dog (talk about bling...), Paolo Nutini and lots of others! The best thing about festivals is discovering the weird little stages and seeing the theatre acts. There's an African-Asian Stage where this little group invite musicans and just have a jamming session every night. A Blues Stage right next to the tent, good to hear when the Hungarian music stage is quiet (it also seems to be a lot of heavy metal there).
One of the best things is probably the variety of food, lots of yum yum and yummier.
We're off to Belgrade, Serbia in the morning to see Marija before she heads back to Belfast. Hello 9am train...hello 5am wake up to beat the crowds getting off the island...hopefully!
Sunday 12 August 2012
Monday 6 August 2012
Louisberg - Cliften
Louisberg to Cliften started out a bit grim to be perfectly honest. Misty, rainy, and the first 10km uphill! The only thing to think about uphills is that they have to go down again! And it did, gloriously all the way round the Mayo mountains. Stunning scenery even if it was still misty. We were making good time to Leenaun then Timolo got a flat tyre, only the 2nd one of the trip so it was alright! After breaking the tyre levers, we managed to get the tyre off and a new inner tube. Turns out the side wall of the tyre was more than a bit shredded so we patched it with duct tape and hoped it would last til Cliften or Galway.
We headed into The Village Grill after seeing other cycle tourers inside and had a greasy fry which was really good! Inspired us to head on.
The next part of the journey was majorly hilly, and pretty difficult. It also tipped it down. I don't really mind cycling in the rain, its quite nice as long as you have somewhere dry when you arrive! Tents are not entirely ideal. I keep thinking oh maybe I should have chosen France but I think it'd be too hot there!
Finally got up to the campsite, which was up another hill of course, and found it was really boggy and full of midgies! Typical Ireland!
We headed into The Village Grill after seeing other cycle tourers inside and had a greasy fry which was really good! Inspired us to head on.
The next part of the journey was majorly hilly, and pretty difficult. It also tipped it down. I don't really mind cycling in the rain, its quite nice as long as you have somewhere dry when you arrive! Tents are not entirely ideal. I keep thinking oh maybe I should have chosen France but I think it'd be too hot there!
Finally got up to the campsite, which was up another hill of course, and found it was really boggy and full of midgies! Typical Ireland!
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| Mayo Mountains |
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| Timolo being all 'dramatic' camera mode |
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| Hi-vis by Kylemore Abbey |
Ballyvary - Louisberg
Today was meant to be another long day but after 55km of riding into a strong headwind we (mainly me) were wrecked. Initially we had planned to go to Leenaun, there is quite a distance between campsites in this part of the country and we didn't fancy wild camping and are on a bit of a budget. We cycled through Castlebar and headed to Westport, all main roads. Horrible roads! Normally main roads aren't too bad and they have a hard shoulder but everyone on this road insisted on driving really close to my bike so I wasn't best pleased.
Westport is lovely though, it was a sunny day so we saw it in all its glory! Had a walk round the town and then a nice lunch in a seriously busy cafe!
However...by the time we had got to Louisberg I had had enough! B&B time! Everyone needs a treat.
The B&B was a welcome change...a bed! I promptly washed clothes and made a washing line in the bathroom assuming our 'quick drying' clothes would dry before morning and we headed out to find food.
Had a nice meal in the only open restaurant! Went back to the B&B to rest before cycling to Cliften the next day.
Westport is lovely though, it was a sunny day so we saw it in all its glory! Had a walk round the town and then a nice lunch in a seriously busy cafe!
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| Morning stretches on route to Westport |
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| Westport |
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| Westport Quay, lovely place! |
However...by the time we had got to Louisberg I had had enough! B&B time! Everyone needs a treat.
The B&B was a welcome change...a bed! I promptly washed clothes and made a washing line in the bathroom assuming our 'quick drying' clothes would dry before morning and we headed out to find food.
Had a nice meal in the only open restaurant! Went back to the B&B to rest before cycling to Cliften the next day.
Strandhill - Bellavary
Early start today, well we left at 9.30am early for us! Today was a day of villages with similar names and a lot of farms!
We headed for Coolooney, Coolaney and then Cloonacool before stopping for food in Aclare. Or trying to! Definitely a lack of cafes! There's generally a small shop and maybee a pub in most of these villages, not so good for a cyclist trying to get a cup of tea!
In Aclare I asked the shop keeper if there was any cafes or places we could get food in the town and he looked at me like I was completely dense! Then a woman in the shop told us to come to her house and she'd make us tea! We went and had ham sandwiches, ribena, biscuits, tea...she was lovely! Definitely Irish hospitality, she would ask us if we wanted something, we would say oh no thank you we're fine then she would make it anyway! Patricia Maye is awesome :)
We finally got to Foxford and bought dinner before heading to Pontoon on Patricia's recommendation. It really is beautiful there, you cycle around the lake and most of it is down hill. We then tried to find the campsite which we knew was somewhere near Bellavary. We decided to head on a bog land, white road route and ended up getting a little loss! It was a good lost though, saw all the peat farms and the peat all stacked up drying out. We were about to ask someone for directions, when Timolo saw a campervan through the trees! We had actually managed to cycle directly through the campsite! Brilliant stuff, after putting out bikes on the bike rack we went to reception to sign in. No one about, a crash behind us brought the owner out and we realised that bike racks not attached to the ground are not good places to put fully loaded bikes! The campsite is called Carrowkeel and is pretty good. The guy there is from Holland, bought the places over 20 years ago after cycling through Ireland and deciding he didn't want to leave!
We cycled 80km today. Good work team!
We headed for Coolooney, Coolaney and then Cloonacool before stopping for food in Aclare. Or trying to! Definitely a lack of cafes! There's generally a small shop and maybee a pub in most of these villages, not so good for a cyclist trying to get a cup of tea!
In Aclare I asked the shop keeper if there was any cafes or places we could get food in the town and he looked at me like I was completely dense! Then a woman in the shop told us to come to her house and she'd make us tea! We went and had ham sandwiches, ribena, biscuits, tea...she was lovely! Definitely Irish hospitality, she would ask us if we wanted something, we would say oh no thank you we're fine then she would make it anyway! Patricia Maye is awesome :)
We finally got to Foxford and bought dinner before heading to Pontoon on Patricia's recommendation. It really is beautiful there, you cycle around the lake and most of it is down hill. We then tried to find the campsite which we knew was somewhere near Bellavary. We decided to head on a bog land, white road route and ended up getting a little loss! It was a good lost though, saw all the peat farms and the peat all stacked up drying out. We were about to ask someone for directions, when Timolo saw a campervan through the trees! We had actually managed to cycle directly through the campsite! Brilliant stuff, after putting out bikes on the bike rack we went to reception to sign in. No one about, a crash behind us brought the owner out and we realised that bike racks not attached to the ground are not good places to put fully loaded bikes! The campsite is called Carrowkeel and is pretty good. The guy there is from Holland, bought the places over 20 years ago after cycling through Ireland and deciding he didn't want to leave!
We cycled 80km today. Good work team!
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