Dare I call it, an Irish reJig?

Less than 100 days to go!

My original plan was to catch the Pembroke/Rosslare ferry. I mentioned in the previous post I was waiting for a discount offer. An offer was received but not a cash discount one as such. The offer was a fully flexible booking at the same price as a standard fare. Worth a look. On taking a look, I discovered to my horror, that there were no sailings available on the Pembroke route for my day of travel! 🤯Return date was fine. Mild panic ensued. What were my options?

1) I could go a day earlier and book another night at a hotel, costing something over £100.

2) Go on the same day as planned, via the only other route, Hollyhead to Dublin, at no extra cost.

The decision wasn't too difficult, though I had to re-arrange my stopover. Originally I was going to bed down at my daughter's in Pontypridd. That is no longer viable, as I am now travelling from the other end of Wales, so I've called on my auntie Linda, who lives on the outskirts of Manchester and she's agreed to put me up. Hopefully I'll get to see my cousin Caroline too.

Obviously, I've had to change my routes for the first 2 days but travelling up through England has given me the opportunity to build in a visit to Lincolnshire's answer to the Angel of the North, a full sized steel Lancaster bomber. I'm really looking forward to that.

Ferry timing from Hollyhead means that despite there being a 2 hour ride from Dublin to Wexford, as opposed to 15 minutes from Rosslare, I should get to the hotel at around the same time. Grizzly has said he will meet me en-route, instead of meeting me at the hotel but we have yet to decide where exactly.

That's pretty much all there is to update at the moment, apart from Grizzly has asked if we can visit the Falls Road when in Belfast. We've done Derry before, so why not? Maybe I should do the shouting talking though. 😉

That's all for now.

  

Here we go again!

As the nights draw in and the winter prepares to envelope us, what's a man supposed to do except plan the next tour? So that's what I've been doing.

Grizzly and I agreed after our Greece trip that I would save him the trip over the Irish sea on our next tour and visit him in his home country. It's been 13 years since the four Wild Hogs last rode across Ireland, so having covered many thousands of miles across most countries in Europe, it was time to do something a bit closer to Grizzly's home. You may remember we stayed in the UK in 2021, so it's only fair, I reciprocate and head west. Welcome then, to the Wild Hogs Ring of Ireland Tour.

As seems to be the case on latter tours, I've done most of the planning and booking before creating the blog, so there won't be many updates, I don't expect, before I head off in June. I have already booked the hotels and identified places/points of interest to visit. Grizzly has been most helpful in helping me tweak the initial route, suggesting roads to take (probably all straight 😁) or avoid (probably twisty and/or covered in cow 💩 ), so thanks to him for that. I've yet to book the ferry, hoping for a discount code, which often pops out around February time. Black Friday was disappointingly only for Dover-Calais crossings.

I'll leave home on Saturday 20th June, bound for Wales, where I plan an overnight couch stop at daughter Jen's house. On 21st I'll ride to Pembroke and take the ferry to Rosslare. I'll then take a short ride to Wexford and the first hotel, where Grizzly will have some refreshing beverage waiting to greet me. On the Monday we then begin a 9 day tour around the coast (ish) of the whole of Ireland, arriving back at the same Wexford hotel on 30th June. On 1st and 2nd July, I'll reverse the run, ferry, Jen's house, home.

It's a shorter tour than normal, mainly because Grizzly has other commitments but I'm sure it won't be any less entertaining. How could it not be, with a whole country full of paddies!

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That's all for now.