Tuesday June 24th - From Balleybofey to Malin Head

After a really good fry-up we set off in dry but cloudy weather at about 10am. There was good news and bad news about the bike - the good news was that the bottom bracket was fine but the bad news was that now the right-hand pedal was falling off. It had probably been rattling for a few days but I must have assumed that the noise was coming from the bottom bracket and not the pedal. The axle through the middle of the pedal was still ok so I guessed that, even if the pedal did decide to stay in Ireland at least I could still put my foot on the axle and get to the finish.
The group split along the usual lines with John, Pete, Lee and Robert off in the distance, Rob and I next with the remainder not far behind. At the 9-mile mark we came to what was the biggest downhill of the whole trip, a 1 in 5 which lasted about 3 miles. I decided to go for it and didn't touch the brakes until the very bottom and hit 40.5 mph which is scary enough on a bike on smooth roads but with Irish potholes everywhere it really was a white-knuckle ride.
Rob and I were unsure which direction to take when we reached the roundabout at the bottom so I asked in a petrol station in the town of Letterkenny and the lady there tried telling me I needed to go back up the hill. That wasn't going to happen and when I checked the compass on the gps I knew she was wrong. By now the rest of the gang had caught up with us and after a few discussions about which way to go we took the road to Newtowncunningham where we all descended upon a roadside diner and relieved them of their cakes. Several doughnuts later we were on the road to Buncrana and before long the fast group, otherwise known as Pete, Lee, John and Robert came up behind us. It turned out that Lee had broke a spoke just before Newtowncunningham and had spent some time getting it fixed. This is what happens when you try to do an end-to-end in Ireland on a bike rescued from a skip. Obviously, my bike was perfect !
When we reached Buncrana we stopped in The Drift Inn where Steve was waiting for us and we had lunch while the rain started falling outside. Steve wasn't feeling 100% so he wanted to make his own way to the finish. Before long the rest of the gang went past, their plan was to stop for lunch at the next town on, Carndonagh. When we got moving again we started to see signs for Malin and Malin Head so we felt as though the end was in sight, however it wasn't in sight - it was hiding behind a big hill. Getting over that big hill was no fun either - the rain was heavy, the wind was blowing us sideways and it was 700 feet to the top. The last few miles to the finish seemed to take forever, I kept thinking that Malin Head had to be behind the next hill but then another one would appear. Eventually Rob and I could see what looked like a castle on top of a hill in the distance and guessed that was the end of the road. Our guess was proved correct when we saw Lee, John, Pete and Robert riding up the hill towards it, only about a mile or two ahead of us.
The final 1 in 5 hill up to the finish was a killer - just what I didn't need at that point but there was no way I was going to get off and push so close to the end. I was hoping for a brass band, a ticker-tape reception, Miss Malin Head in a bikini and a tape across the road to welcome me but I was to be disappointed. The wind was blowing a gale and it wasn't exactly tropical there but I wasn't leaving without at least one group photo.
We waited for the rest to arrive and it wasn't long before they appeared in the distance, John had been sent on ahead to photograph everyone else finishing, after him came Bob, Maurice, Dave, Sue, Brian, then Steve and Tracey. Sonia was there with the minibus and she took endless photos of us all looking cold but pleased with ourselves. The van that would take the bikes was still an hour away so we had no choice but to head for the pub down the road to wait for it. When it arrived we threw everything in and said goodbye to Malin Head, an hour later we were in a rainy Derry with the group split into two B&B's. We found a Wetherspoon's pub and had a really good meal there - it felt strange paying in sterling after having just got used to spending euros. The plan was to leave early the next morning to drive back to Dublin so that the Solway group could get their ferries while the Torbay lot would stay there the night and fly back to Exeter the day after.
The ten days cycling and the 560 miles had flown by and the good points such as the people we met, the scenery and the great food far outweighed the minor bad points such as the bike problems and the potholes. We had a couple of rainy days but nothing like as much of the wet stuff as I expected, although if I was to do it again, I would invest in a pair of waterproof over-boots. We had the full range of abilities in this group and I guess the ones who had never done anything like this before probably felt the biggest sense of achievement.

All that is left now is to plan next year's jaunt. Santander to Roscoff anyone ?