Day 80
Ping goes the spoke
Fiona, our Warmshower's host, had gently but firmly explained that we would be mad to miss out on the chance to ride through the Killarney National Park. We had planned on riding up the Gap of Dunloe, then up Moll's Gap. Deciding we didn’t really need two gaps in one day, we would bow down to Fiona's wise local knowledge and head for the park. There is a local tradition to take a boat along the Killarney lakes towards the Gap of Dunloe, then complete the circuit by walking downhill through the Gap, so we will come back and do that one day Fiona!
Killarney was the first National Park created in Ireland. The Muckcross estate was donated to the Irish Free State in 1932, and since then it has been expanded to cover over 25,000 acres. It has oak and yew woodlands of international importance, the only red deer herd in the Republic, lakes, a backdrop of stunning mountains, white sand secluded beaches, the most extensive covering of native forest in the Republic, awesome fauna, rare species due to its diverse habitat, I could go on. What this meant to us two intrepid cyclists was that we were in wonderland. Naturally it has a car free track for us to cycle through, the sun shone down and we rode slowly, slack jawed at the beauty all around us.
All good things must come to an end, and we popped out of our dream world to join the N71. Now experience has taught us to avoid N roads. They are generally busy main roads linking towns, however this was our only option for Moll’s Gap, so off we went. Thankfully today the road was really quiet. Moll’s Gap is 260 metres high, and we felt each of them as we slowly rode upwards. A quick soak of most of our clothing in a small stream halfway up cooled us down. Off we went again. We had the stunning views of MacGillycuddy’s Reeks mountains to look at, they were certainly worth the climb.
Then a minor mechanical, 80 days of riding fully loaded over some very rough trails had been a lot of stress on Tom’s rear wheel. Ping!! A drive-side spoke snapped. We were nearly at the top, so we taped up the spoke and carefully finished the ride to Kenmare. The bike shop was actually on route but closed. No problem, the shop also owned the next door shop, they loaned us the tools and we were soon sorted. Thanks everyone at Finnegan’s Cycles.
We were heading to a campsite onthe Beara peninsula, an easy few miles on a quiet road and we were home for the next 2 nights!
