Northwest to Southeast
Trip Start
May 20, 2010
1
5
9
Trip End
Jun 02, 2010
Newry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Wednesday, May 26th
Today was a driving day as we headed south east across to the Mourne Mountains and hopefully some good hiking. I thought Newry might be a good place to set down, but we had no accommodation booked so the slate looked fairly open. Like smart tourists, we headed straight for the Tourist Info office and were fortunate to enlist the help of Adele who solved all of our problems. She helped us find a great B&B close by and gave us all the info we needed to plan a good hike for Thursday and a bike ride for the afternoon. Once we’d off-loaded our bags at the home of Michael, the proprietor of a beautiful bungalow overlooking the city, we drove up the road to rent a couple of bikes. Between Newry and Portadown there is a Canal Towpath which has little to no traffic, so it was well suited to my cycling style. Once we found the carpark for the path, we got going only to discover a rather taxing headwind. Secretly I was thinking about my next pint, but Judy seemed little fazed by the elements and as is her usual disposition on a bike, she was in fine fetter. Again, whatever good deeds I’d done along life’s road were surely being cashed in because we were again blessed by blue skies. There were some beautiful herons nesting in the grassy banks of the now defunct canal, and of course the usual compliment of very content looking livestock in the surrounding pastures. About 5 miles short of Portadown we decided to turn tail. Needless to say, the tailwind on the return trip was welcome relief from the buffeting wind. Arrived back home for a quick clean up and then walked into town for a well-deserved meal and bevvie.
