Tuesday June 17th - From Tralee to Kilrush

The group had split into two B&B's about 50 yards apart so after the full Irish breakfast we made our way down the road and had some group photos taken outside their place. A rather large black cloud was looming overhead but fortunately it was moving south and we were heading north so we managed to miss it. I hadn't bothered trying to fix my bottom bracket axle as I figured it wasn't going to get any worse and it wasn't slowing me down. I did think that some of the others in the group were running a sweep to see how far I got before it died on me but I was 99% sure it would get me to Malin Head in seven days time. At least I now had the new bearings so I could fix it if it did throw a wobbly.
Our first destination was the town of Abbeyfeale about 20 miles north-west of Tralee. Before too long Pete, Lee, John C & Robert from Manchester decided we weren't going fast enough and they went on ahead. I was quite happy to have a nice leisurely ride and, after yesterday, I thought it best to stay with the puncture repair experts. The first 7 miles was a steady climb but nothing too steep which was then followed by a really good, long descent. We then had another easyish climb followed by another descent which was even longer than the previous one. This sort of cycling is the best way of covering a lot of miles for very little effort. We arrived in Abbeyfeale at lunchtime just as the quick lot were leaving and they recommended a cafe for lunch.
From Abbeyfeale the plan was to head northish to a town called Tarbert where we would catch the ferry across the Shannon and then to make the short ride to Kilrush. After a few miles of deserted country lanes we realised we had missed our turning and had to double-back a bit, it wasn't a major detour. The houses in this area were typical of what we had seen all over Ireland - immaculate detached bungalows set in acres of land. Every house seemed to be in pristine condition, the Irish were obviously very house-proud as a nation. It's just a shame they couldn't spend a bit of money on fixing the potholes in the road. After yesterday's puncture spree I realised that my tyres were not designed for the rough stuff so I decided not to ride directly behind anyone anymore and instead I kept in a position where I could see the road (and the potholes) ahead.
Half-way between Abbeyfeale and Tarbert we came to a village called Moyvane and the rain started - nothing heavy, just a steady drizzle. We stopped outside a pub to put our waterproofs on and two minutes later, just as we were about to leave, Steve emerged from the pub with half a guiness in his hand. We left him to it and carried on slowly and it wasn't long before he caught us up.
We arrived at Tarbert at 4pm and didn't have to wait too long for the ferry. They had a shop on board which was very welcome as I was starting to suffer Snickers withdrawal symptoms. The crossing took 20 minutes during which the rain belted down, fortunately we were under cover and it had stopped by the time we reached the other side. The terrain on the north side of the river was much lumpier than that on the south and we had a strong cross-wind to battle against which made it even harder but it was only 5 miles to Kilrush and we arrived just before 6pm.
Again, we split into two B&B's and arranged to meet at half an hour later to go out for dinner. The B&B landlady recommended a place just up the road which did really good food and they even had the footy on so I could watch Italy knock France out of Euro 2008. We did a really easy 46 miles today (not including a couple on the ferry) which took the total for the trip to 148 leaving about 350 ahead of us.