KILMACUD CROKES / BCI NISSAN M2M 2022 DONIE'S BLOG DAY 4
https://eventmaster.ie/fundraising/pages/DD68910935
Not quiet sure where to start today, fairly rough night last night and not a lot of sleep had. Tommy thinks the mark on his face was some sort of reaction to the fluff on the facemask so Mark and i said nothing and there's harmony in the room.
Today is a big big day for everybody and a lot of people are going to cycle further than ever before,180k for most.
Our day started with a bit of fun in the dining room. It was Dave,Bradley,Byrne's 70th birthday and as he was having breakfast young Syed wished him a very happy birthday and asked him if he had any plans for the day !!
Not as much detail on the route today,but from Kiltamagh we headed for Swinford,again Kev used one of the group with local knowledge to lead the way. So up stepped Pat ,the cop, Conlon and got us all the way to Tubbercurry in Co. Sligo for our first coffee in a local garage.just before we left the garage a massive line of vintage tractors and support team,who were actually doing Mizen to Malin ,passed us by. We all thought this was great till about 10k up the road we ended up stuck in a massive traffic jam on the narrow road caused by them and the backlog of normal traffic. No problem to our Kev,he took us down a small boreen to try to get past them,now there was grass in the middle of this boreen (a lot of grass) which made me think this wasn't going to end well,after about 2k on the tiny boreen we came to a complete dead end,next we were confronted by this very upset farmer and his wife who actually thought we were trying to raid his chicken coup.....i kid you not,18 lads and 2 girls,on bikes and dressed in lycra ,down a country boreen and he was worried about his chickens !! Bart was itching to try for another sale but Mick,the banner,Culligan got him out of there as quick as possible. Another bad day for Kev !!
Anyway, with the tractors long gone, we headed on through Sligo and out to Grange for another short break,from here we took a small detour down to Mullaghmore on the coast,well worth the visit,spectacular. At this stage we were late for lunch ,so we had to fly on down to Bundoran for our next bit of grub.120k done now. From here it was a long slog to Letterkenny(77k),past Donegal town ,Ballybofey and eventually into Letterkenny at 7pm. That was a long long day in the saddle and a few groups were still behind us,some finished just before 9.
Arnie Hill(chairman of BCI)joined us in Bundoran and completed the final 77k ,which was impressive. Fair play to him and a good bit better than his St. Patrick's performance, less said the better !! Arnie joined us for dinner in the hotel and spoke really well,as usual,about his love for Kilmacud Crokes and all the fabulous work we do for BCI. All of us are really tired this evening after the mammoth efforts over the last 4 days but nothing will stop us getting to Malin head tomorrow !!
Louis,the "go pro" guy ,who's Bart's roomie, told me he found a load of feathers in their en suit,can't imagine what that was !!
Tired as I am now I can't go without thanking our road crew...these guys have been absolutely amazing all week,loading and unloading our bags daily into the vans,supplying us with water,bars,bananas and anything else we've needed along the way, giving us directions every time Kev got us lost !! The 3 guys on the motor bikes just seemed to turn up at every roundabout we came to and all the guys in the vans are volunteers from the club. Club chairmam,Kevin Foley and Liam o Flaherty in our van,Micky Green and Robbie Kelliher in van 2,Mick Leahy and Ciarán Sheeran in van 3, Gerry Park and Vinny Patterson in van 4 and Micky Finn and Liam o Carroll in the jeep. Liam has serenaded us every night before and after dinner and kept spirits high all the time. It's hard to explain how much these guys have contributed to the overall trip but from myself and all the cyclists "lads we really appreciate it " !!
Garda escort out of Letterkenny in the morning and on up to Malin head for us all then.....no detours please Kev !!
I've included the link to the charity page at the top the page....just in case anyone has lost it !!
Talk tomorrow......well maybe Monday.
Regards Donie.
