Our original plan was to cycle from Derry to Larne, spending the first night somewhere Lough Neagh, but the wind was still very strong and we didn’t fancy it. So we decided to take a train from Derry to Mossley West which is between Antrim and Belfast. The station in Derry is on the east side of the river, but Sustrans 92 runs along the western river bank and over the main road bridge and from there we rode to the station off-road. The station staff couldn’t have been more helpful with the tandem, admitting us to the platform before the other passengers to ensure we had space to load it!

The early part of the train ride is through marvellous countryside: along the east side of the River Foyle with near views of wader birds and mudflats in the estuary and a distant view of Insihowen. Next we passed some sandy beaches, went through a series of tunnels with glimpses of beaches and then into Castlerock station. Next we followed the estuary of the Bann with much better views than when we’d had going in the other direction on the bike, and crossed a wobbly bridge into Coleraine station.

The ride from Mossley West to Larne was pleasant on minor roads was not too hilly. As we hadn’t planned this portion of the trip, we used the GPS and its OpenStreetMap database  (see practicalities) to plan the route, and the result was impeccable - we couldn’t have chosen a better route with any map - except for the final entry to Larne where we had to search a little for the harbour.

At the port, P&O Irish Sea said it was OK to cross a day early and then we queued up with the cars. Then everything became rather mad: we wondered why they didn’t let us on before the vehicles as usual; when we eventually arrived at the checkpoint we were told that wind had prevented the Troon ferry from arriving, but they were holding the slow ferry to Carnryan (in Loch Ryan, near Stranraer) and that a coach would transfer us to Troon. They then told us that we were not allowed to ride on to the ferry without high-viz jackets and instructed us to go on the passenger bus to the ship. We were very cross, but eventually they did fit the tandem into the passenger bus and we made it onto the ferry. At Cairnryan, we got to the coach before the foot passengers and managed to put the tandem into its storage bay. Eventually we arrived in Troon and went to spend our last night at Norma’s B and B - Copper Beeches, with a slow puncture that we were coping with by pumping furiously.

On Friday we fixed the puncture and set off for Glasgow. The weather was still cold and a strong wind against us and when we got another puncture near Irvine we decided the head for the station and take a suburban train to Glasgow. Fortunately the station staff were tolerant and we held on to the tandem between two pairs of doors all the way to Glasgow Central where we were quickly able to change our cycle reservation to an earlier train for London and load the tandem without trouble for the journey to London.