En route to Kinvarra yesterday, Bronnie booked a bike hire for me in the coastal town of Westport which is known for a 49km stretch of greenway where you can ride along an old railway line, now paved, between there and Achill sound in County Mayo.

It was an hour and a half drive back north of Kinvarra but we made good time and arrived in Westport at about 10:15am. The cycle shop appeared closed so we contacted them, to be told that even though there was an email saying that they were looking forward to us and that it confirmed our booking, that we should also have called to confirm. Not happy. But, to our good fortune, there was another bike hire place nearby that was open, so we both decided to have a go.

After the initial challenges of organising gear, getting used to the feel of very different bikes, getting toileted etc etc, we headed off to find the greenway. Also, not necessarily a straightforwards exercise, but we got it sorted eventually. The actual ride was very nice and with only one major wrong turn, seeing us interrupt a local fellow who was raking his driveway alerting us that we'd made a wrong turn. The first 12 km into Newport were smooth and enjoyable. As ever, I was keen for more, so we parted company for a couple of hours and I headed another 19km into the next town. This scenery was lovely with plenty of scraggly sheep, open areas, but unfortunately some decent headwind. Having arranged to meet up again at 2:10pm, it was a bit of a concern that the ride there had taken me an hour and it was 1:35pm...oops. So, with considerable huffing and puffing, self criticism and feeling the burn of not having been pedalling for 10 weeks, I got back only 2 minutes late. Thank goodness for the cross tailwind!!! Back to Westport we went, pretty pleased with a different sort of adventure.

The town itself is well and truly set up for tourists. Loads of pubs, shops, cafes and infrastructure and I suspect it is quite the tourist mecca in high season. A nice drive back to Kinvarra for us and we decided to treat ourselves to a dinner at a pub rather than self-catered tonight, finished off with a try of Irish Whisky. Red breast 12 is very nice. Tomorrow we head for county Cork.