Pugsworth in the Irish Republic - County Donegal

Within about half an hour of leaving Derry I was in the Irish Republic, not that they make a big deal of the border. There must have been a sign but the first I noticed was when the distances were measured in kilometres not miles, boy do they melt away so much faster on the bike. The other thing to adjust was the currency - my first encounter with the Euro. My tour of Northern Ireland began at the opposite end of Ireland from where most visitors begin, and a place most of them don't even get to, County Donegal (pronounced Donygall). It's basically the narrow northern strip of the republic to the west of Northern Ireland, and it is a very beautiful place. Since I was starting in the north, why not do it properly and head to the most northern point of Ireland, Malin Head on the Inishowan Peninsular. The coast line is fairly scenic and has some very steep hills. So much so that what with the sun shining I decided to stop for a swim to cool off at Kinnagoe Bay, located in a narrow valley between two steep hills. The water was beautifully clear and very cold but I stayed in for about 10 minutes. It was my second swim of the summer and my first in Atlantic waters. When I got to the most northerly point the following morning I rode and found the spot, not much to look at of course but a nice view from the top of the cliff. Then I decided to walk around the cliffs a little and to my surprise found some brilliant cliff scenery a bit further on. The cliffs were not straight down but on an angle so that you could see the rock formations below and there were some amazing shapes, caves, crags and all the rest. Narrow channels through the rock and waves constantly beating the cliffs, I just love that stuff. What made it so thrilling was it was of those things I just found. There is no sign, and the walking trail appears to just go over green fields, you wouldn't even know there were cliffs there, and then when you come to the edge you just get this great view below you and if you keep walking around there's just more and more. So if you ever find yourself up that way, go to Malin Head, go out past Malin Head town to the end of the road, where you will find a car park just below an old tower. There's a nice view from there but then take the other path leading across green fields. It's about a 30-40 minute return walk but it's really worth it. Apparently the coast line of Donegal is all really pretty, however while it seems largely undiscovered by foreigners, it is becoming a very popular spot with Irish holiday makers and has recently become very built up. Riding along all the houses look like they've been built in the last five years. Most of them probably have, and the ones that weren't are freshly renovated. This is the result of the Irish boom (or Celtic tiger as they call it), and it's actually a bit of a shame and spoiling the coastline. Ireland is no longer the remote backwater it used to be. So I decided to head inland and check out Glenviegh National Park, one of only six in Ireland. What a fairy tale scene that is. Again it was a beautiful sunny day and being a Sunday, the crowds were out but that didn't take away from its beauty. The park is basically a glacial valley, two of the largest mountains in a small range and the lough (lake) that runs between them where the glacier used to be. On a small outcrop into the lake is an old castle, where I discovered various cultural events taking place, music and food etc plus a large garden with plants from all over the world. Beyond the castle I escaped the crowds and while this meant pushing my fully laden bike up a rocky mountain bike track and crossing a muddy stream it was well worth it for the view. On the way up you have the lake and two very pretty mountains. Then from the top you can look back and see the lake sitting far below between the mountains and the castle on the edge of the lake just poking out from between the trees, it really is a fairy tale scene, would you believe it reminded me of Shrek? The really great find of the day though was the road from the top of the national park down to Doochary. It's a back road that not many people would take and was all down hill but the best thing was that it is untouched by development. It's just a road down though farming country and local communities doing their thing, just what I imagine the old romantic Ireland to be. So it’s still there, if you can find it. The final highlight in Donegal was the cliffs of Slieve League. I wasn't staying close enough for a day ride out to these so I decided to hitch hike instead. I did use the bike to get to a good hitch hiking spot on the road though so still a 25km cycle day - easy. I caught 7 different lifts over about 80-100km but never had to wait more than 20 minutes. I took a back route through the Glen Gesh pass, which is pretty scenic in itself and got a real spectrum of Irish of people including a priest and guy called Paddy driving a wagon - a real paddy wagon! - who took me all the way to the top of cliffs, which is about 10 minutes beyond where he was going. I'd made good time so was able to stop for an hour so and have some lunch to take in these really magnificent cliffs. They are the highest sea cliffs in Europe and absolutely stunning. They are not you're ordinary vertical sea cliffs with a level running cliff tip but slope back at about 70-80 degrees and have various high and low points along the top. They're also sandstone or something similar and have the most brilliant colours, especially as I was again enjoying a beautiful sunny day. The view from the top is also great, you can see right across to the coast of county Mayo in the south. On the way back I saw Paddy giving somebody else a lift up - what a friendly Irishman. By this point of the trip I was getting pretty travel fatigued so I'd arranged a week woofing (Working On Organic Farms) near Boyle. So that was my next stop but it's another story (or post) in itself. I did have a great day's ride getting there though past the mountains north of Sligo and slip streaming behind a tractor for a couple of kilometres! I was going into a head wind all day and going up this hill a tractor over took me, but only just. On the way down, I caught it up but instead of over taking it I just sat behind it and it basically pulled me along. I wasn't going much faster than I normally would so it didn't seem that dangerous, but I was using half the effort! I don't think the driver realised what I was doing but he didn't seem to mind. I still missed the last train though putting my arrival back a day, but that didn't matter, it just made me more pleased to get there.