Leaving Cork was quick and easy. There’s bike paths and lanes that link up with a Greenway that follows the river Lee until you are well clear of the city.
There’s a much shorter way to Youghal, but I wanted to visit the old port town of Cobh. That’s where many of the migrant ships would have left for Australia and other places.
Today, the skies were blue but as I approached the ferry just past Passage West, it started to rain. It was confusing others too. We couldn’t see any rain clouds but we were definitely getting wet.
Over to the other side, and it was a quiet trip into Cobh, so I stopped for a coffee and a pastry land it rained while I was there – for the final time today. Out of Cobh were two steep climbs that I knew would be the last big efforts for the day.
I stopped in Midlebrook for some lunch and found the Toastie Cafe. I just couldn’t resist. And of course, at a specialist toastie place, you have to have the ‘special’. My expectations were sky high.
The ‘special’ should be called the ‘average’. It was too full of meat to be nice. Deflated, I left and rejoined the trail.
On the outskirts of Youghal, near the beach, I used Komoot to plot a route to the Airbnb I’d booked. Komoot said it wasn’t possible. So, I stopped for a coffee in town and tried Google Maps. It found a way with ‘moderate hills’. It wasn’t far, but the moderate hill was a 21% wall that had me quickly off the bike and pushing very quickly. Arriving at the Airbnb, I swore I wouldn’t be riding or walking back to town tonight.
I had a quiet night and slept pretty well.
