clairedavieswriter

Today was a bit of everything – from a rain-washed morning in a nondescript car park in Northern Ireland

To a sun-drenched evening on the Republic’s Atlantic coast

From the town-scape of Enniskillen, on an island in the river Erne

To the landscape of rural county Fermanagh, south of Lough Erne

Team Bernard experienced highs in the morning sunshine:

And (relative) lows when sheltering from afternoon rain in the doorway of a derelict barn

Though in reality I was feeling pretty pleased with myself for staying dry – the lows mostly came from a cow in the next-door byre

Four days ago, I was cycling in a scorching 21 degrees. Today, the temperature had dropped to 6 but officially ‘felt like’ 4, even in the sun. I was putting a brave face on it here:

But my knees were freezing. At lunchtime, having dodged this nasty little squall:

I whistled up an emergency rendezvous with Team Midge, both to add more winter layers and to take advantage of the facilities to make a hot lunch (baked beans and two fried eggs, Andrea, obviously. And no cottage cheese). Midge threw in a view of Lough Melvin for no extra charge:

Highlights today included this inspiring message, randomly affixed to a low wall outside Ballyshannon:

I duly made the decision right there to divert from my route, and was immediately pleased I had, because otherwise I would have missed this view:

Once again, we needed eagle eyes to spot the international border. It’s under Bernard’s wheels, where the road crosses a tiny stream. If you look carefully, you’ll see a speed limit sign a hundred yards further on, in km/h, denoting a return to Ireland

Otherwise, and somewhat incongruously given we were on a tiny country lane at least 100 miles from the nearest ferry port, this was the only overt sign that we had changed countries – a warning in French and German to drive on the left

But with our destination in sight, this was undoubtedly Bernard’s highlight of the day: weaving between surfers, dog walkers and burly lads in tractors (yes really) on the hard-packed sand of Rossnowlagh Beach

Although I preferred the quieter bits:

And the view from the campsite:

And better still the refreshment (with an even better view) at the Smugglers Creek Inn this evening

We’re taking another break tomorrow. Plans are weather dependent: watch this space, or see you on Tuesday for the ride to Derry/Londonderry.