Monday 1st - Tuesday 2nd July

Monday July 1st
London - Swansea -Cork by train and ferry.
We took the tandem on the 4.30 train from Paddington, arriving at Swansea at 7.40 pm. The town was mainly closed down and very quiet. We found a small cycle track (marked as Sustrans 4) to the ferry port, which was unmarked.
The ferry boat is a second hand Greek ship with a crew who are mainly Polish. The ship left late and arrived about 2 hours late in Cork. We slept well in our cabin in spite of the rough sea. Breakfast was difficult as we experienced communist style lack of service from the eastern european waiters.

Tuesday July 2nd
Cork - Kinsale - Timoleague - Clonakilty (Co. Cork)
As we left the boat, the morning was fine. We had a nice ride through lanes to Kinsale. Distances are marked sometimes in miles and other times in kms - which is somewhat confusing. We later deduced that only the old sign posts have miles and that the new ones specify km. The lanes are full of flowers - 12 foot high fuchsia hedges, foxgloves and a few rhododendrons.
During our trip we were to see fuchsia hedges again and again - they seem to grow almost everywhere that is not too high.
We had a nice lunch in a café in Kinsale, which is a very attractive place with colourful shops and houses and a marina.
Then the rain started we passed alongside continuous estuaries full of waders (curlews, oyster catchers, cormorants, herons and others we can't identify). We stopped to dry off in a friendly bar in Timoleague, then rode on a further 11 km to the B & B at Desert House in Clonakilty, where we had already booked. It has a nice view over the water. Fortunately they have a large airing cupboard and we were able to dry out lots of clothes as well as our passports and E111s.
Evening meal at An Susan of fish chowder and fish pie - both very good.

Ireland greets us with rain	A wet arrival in Clonakilty
Plenty of pubs everwhere!	Clonakilty
How do they choose the colours?

B & B. Mrs Dorothy Jennings, Desert House, Clonakilty. Tel 00353 (0) 23 33331.
Distance 39 miles today