Friday: Fishguard/Rosslare to Dungarvan .. in search of the Black Stuff

Comfortable ride down from Llandovery after meeting Mark and Mike this morning and a very pleasant crossing. Mike had ridden a mammoth ride from Wigan, not bad for his first real tour, he was already at the Cafe - left home at 4 am, and called me while I was riding to meet Mark at the OK Diner to let me know he had arrived.

After LLandovery, we realised time was running out for our 13.15 crossing - we needed to be booked in 30 minutes before so we needed to get a move on. Our plotted route avoided the long boring A44 and turned off on to the B4313 toward Bethesda. This was a great choice but a bit alarming as the Garmin was saying an arrival time close to the check in time. Luckily, when we arrived there seemed to be some kind of delay in checking in anyway, so all was fine in the end. Mike getting his first impression of Sports bike vs Adventure bike on B roads !

I was really impressed with the Stena staff and the tie downs on the Ferry. Loads of space between the bikes, there were a few other bikers making the crossing too. Great weather, and a forecast to stay that way so we settled in to our introductions in the Cafe / Restaurant.

Mark, Mark and Mike

Then we started picking our way through the back lanes after New Ross and down in to Dungarvan the 73 Miles from Rosslare for our first night stop over at the Lawlors Hotel.

With Mike being fairly new to Motorcycle Adventure/Touring and having ridden such a long stint already, we stopped off a few times between Rosslare and Dungarvan. Being on a Sports bike without a large screen and down on his wrists we needed to be careful Mike enjoyed these few days away riding distances. A little lie down in a hedge helps with this we found .. at one point I thought he had nodded off!

These equivalent B roads I had plotted are far more bumpy and uneven than anticipated, quite tiresome after a while. A few more stops to give Mike a break (he's done well on his GSX-F). I really felt the search for the black stuff had already started (Tarmac that is).

Later, as we travelled north of Cork, just past Carrick on Suir we picked up the R 676 the main road that drops us down into Dungarvan we past on our right the Comeragh Mountains, and as the sun started to drop in the sky we travelled the last part in cooler mountain shadow. A quick fuel up just outside Dungarvan and arrived about 7.30 pm at the Lawlors Hotel.

Dungarvan Harbour

After a wash and brush up we were out to sample the real black stuff (Guinness) followed by a Curry at an Indian Restaurant on the Harbour front. I was given a really strong Madras that I didn't order (thought my Ghust was a bit fiery), but eventually got the right order, not before eating half of it (I paid for that later I can tell you)....