Day 84
The Mayo curse
It was hard to leave Tim and Marie. Their two dogs, Tyson and Millie had stolen into our hearts too. But we had a ferry to catch and the miles needed riding. From Skibbereen we headed up, and up. It was a climbing day.
At Kilbrittain we passed the remains of a fin whale. They are regular visitors to this area. The whale had been washed ashore some years back on a beach nearby. Many locals stopped to see it, a massive traffic formed and between them they decided to save the skeleton and put it on display, where it remains to this day.
We didn’t linger, we had more hills to climb. Nearly at the top of one, a chap in a blue van stopped for a chat. This is quite a common occurrence, so Tom stopped for a natter. He asked were we lost, no, we were heading to Kinsale. He laughed heartily, that hill that’s coming up is “madness” he said. With trepidation we headed on up, Tom cleaned it, I nearly did, but then we are a little bit mad I guess!
As regular readers will know, today is the final of the All Irish Gaelic Football series. Since our Warmshowers host David had gifted us a Mayo flag for Tom’s bike we had become firm fans. So tonight we needed to be able to watch the match. Now when we left home, our wonderful neighbours in Ridge Green had clubbed together and bought us a voucher for a night in a hotel. We had saved it for a special occasion and nothing could be more of an occasion than the Mayo v Tyrone match. We arrived at our B&B at the top of a very steep hill just in time. Could Mayo win and break the curse? Within seconds they scored, it’s a fabulously fast game, a mix of rugby and football is as close as I can describe it. We could barely keep up as both teams gave it their all and the score board changed from Mayo ahead, then Tyrone, then Mayo. Slowly the better team on the night pulled ahead. The other team missed chances. The end came.
A curse is a curse and it remains unbroken as Mayo lost their 6th final in 10 years. All of Mayo, half the nation and two weary cyclists wept. Maybe next year.