The “Fark” Bird Arrives !

Yep it was the seasonal return of that well known migratory avian the "fark" bird - it's sounds echoing throughout the glens and valleys strangely enough not far behind me and co-incidentally every time another hill came into sight !

If this was a Collingwood football game Joffa (read Henley) would have had the jacket out after only 8kms of this mornings ride signalling that the game was well and truly over !

We were well equipped for the day by a full English Breakfast made by our friendly b&b owner and backed up by a couple of made up curry chicken rolls (danger) from the store in town as our maps showed bugger all else on route other than some serious hills !

After already doing some long grinding hills we hit a real beauty. On the downhill side it was steep enough to cause my disc brakes to start smoking and on the uphill side (at least 30%) it was enough to cause both of us to start smoking as we pushed our heavily lade bikes up the hill one metre at a time !

With Kev indicating that his use by date was well past, we emerged on to the main A road (dual lanes at last) to head south and you guessed it straight into more hills.

Finally over most of our 900 metres climbing for the day we hit some level road just in time for the mornings showery conditions to turn into rain. With Kev's energy levels running low he settled for a waterlogged sandwich while I continued on to find a coffee shop / pub where we could sit down take a cuppa and dry out !

It was 20+ kms before I found something, a Pub out in the middle of this isolated landscape. When Kev finally arrived (I'd already finished one pot of tea) I recounted the story to him of a motorist I'd met who'd indicated being on the Drumbeg road loop that we did yesterday and had to turn back because a caravan had ended up in a ditch blocking the only road for everyone !

The "Fark" bird made a strange indoor appearance at the pub when Kev was served a just warm 1/2 froth Latte !

Slightly refreshed we donned our wet gear and took a magical 20km downhill ride through a beautiful isolated Glen that lead us right to Rosehall and our unique accommodation for the evening a railway signal box which with beds in place gave us about 2 inches of walking movement.

All that remained was for us to head back a couple of kms to the only eaterie in town to the local pub to relive over a beer (yes even H had one) some of the days dramas !

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