Troon to Larne to Ballycastle

Monday October 4, 2010
It was an unusually early start this morning, woke up at 7:45 am and it was a struggle I must say. I ate breakfast and rode to the port. Actually I was camped right next to the port so it only took a minute. I bought a ferry ticket to Ireland and waited. They actually let me get on first, before all the cars, that was pretty cool.

My bike, Florey, secured to the railing in the ferry for the trip from Troon (Scotland) to Larne (Ireland).

I haven't caught a ferry since the Spirit of Tasmania a few years ago when Shane, Oliver and I did a 3 week bike tour around Tasmania in the middle of Winter, the only other real bike tour I've done actually. That one was a great experience; interestingly I haven't mentioned it yet in my blog here. But I have certainly been thinking about it during this trip, remembering how we did it then, comparing differences, etc. That trip was much more extreme than this one so far, and also drier and colder. The big difference with that trip though is that I had company, and this one I am obviously on my own. This makes a big difference to the touring experience. There are pros and cons each way as you can imagine, the obvious ones being that you have complete freedom on your own, you can go where you want, when you want and at your own pace but at the expense of company, someone to share the experience, someone to talk to, to bounce ideas off, to plan with, to help set up and pack up with each day, and as a result it can be lonely at times as I've experienced.
It would be good to run into some other tourers doing the same thing as me and tour with them for a bit, but there don't seem to be many at all here at this time of year. I'd say the wet weather at this time of year would discourage people.

I forgot to photography my campsite again, but it was somewhere in the shore in the distance in this shot taken from the ferry.

Here you can see why the ferry stops running in October after the end of the tourist season and doesn't run right through the year.

Inside the ferry, not many passengers as you can see. It was the final ferry run of the season.

There was barely anyone on there - heaps of spare seats. So I'm assuming I won't need to book for the ferry to Cherbourg, France.
The "tourist season" seems to be a big thing here, everyone talks about it. Apparently it's just finished, the weather is getting colder, the hostels have more spare rooms, all the tourist attractions are much less busy, fish and chip kiosks in the coastal towns are closed, etc.
Anyway, once I settled into the ferry, I started planning what I was going to do once I got to Ireland.
Planning. It's a big part of traveling. I decided on a rough plan to stay in Belfast that night, then spend two days riding south to Dublin and stay there the night, then another two days to ride south to Rosslare and catch the ferry to Cherbourg, France, on the Friday night. This wouldn't give me much time to look around in Ireland, really just traveling through from A to B, as opposed to exploring or getting a feel for a place by staying there a little while. I would like to do this but at the same time I'm conscious that I'm running out of time on the trip and am keen to see the rest of Europe (yes I've mentioned this a few times in my blog already).
My favourite band, Porcupine Tree, are on tour around Europe at the moment, and I had the vague plan of seeing them in Germany on October 6, because I thought I'd be around about there a month into the trip. I was only planning to be in the UK for two or three weeks you see, because I thought that's how long it would take me to do a round trip of the UK. However, I was quite mistaken. I always seem to be overly optimistic and as I've discovered, distances are further and riding is slower than I had expected, probably because I didn't do any planning or researching beforehand. I barely even looked at a map of the UK before I left.
So now that I'm here and can see how long it takes to tour on a bike, and how big the place actually is, I think I'm being slightly ambitious with all the places I want to go in Europe: clockwise through France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain and back through France to catch a ferry to England, and then the plane from Heathrow on December 23.
Knowing me I'll probably be in Spain a week before I have to catch the plane from London and will have to ride 2000 km in a week, which can't be done, unless one rides for 14 hours per day at an average speed of 20 km/h (just did some quick arithmetic in my head). So I don't know what I'll do...probably start by trying to ride long distances every day but then discover I'm progressing slower than anticipated, then end up having to cut chunks out of my planned loop of Europe and catch trains here and there.
Both before I left for the trip and since I've been here, a lot of people have asked me about my plans, and I've only been able to give a rough plan as described above. Some people are surprised when I tell them I don't know where I'll be going tomorrow, or the next day. I'll be like "hmm, good question...I've gotta look at the map and work that out". Other people are like "yeah that's the way to do it man, take it as it comes, plans are useless because they always change".
And, as I'll explain, even the rough plan I had just made for the week was about to change.
So I looked up the dates to see where else and when Porcupine Tree were playing, and discovered they were playing in Dublin on October 11 and Belfast on October 12. I thought "damn, that's too late, it's tempting but I can't hang around in the UK for that long."
Once I got to Larne, I dropped into the tourist information centre for some ideas on a good route to Belfast. The woman there was very helpful, and was a regular cyclist herself. And also being there to promote tourism in Northern Ireland, she sold me the idea of cycling up the east coast and the north coast, she showed me a heap of maps, attractions and scenic bike routes. This, combined with the prospect of staying longer in Ireland and therefore being able to see Porcupine Tree and the fact that it was a beautiful sunny day with a strong southerly wind had me sold on this new plan of heading north up the coast. So that's what I did.
I stopped at the first spot that was good to stop at on the coast for lunch.

The spot I stopped for lunch, beside the Coast Road, just north of Larne.

I tried to book my Porcupine Tree ticket too, but unsuccessfully. It was taking too long on the iPhone and I was wasting the favourable weather, so I kept going.

On the Coast Road in Northern Ireland, just north of Larne.

It was certainly enjoyable cycling, with the sun out and the tail wind pushing me along. It was a bit like the Great Ocean road, but flatter and less windy (windy as in the road had less curves in the road, not less wind, there was more wind!). A brochure or something else I read said "probably the best coastal road you'll ever cycle", or something along those lines.

The Coast Road in Northern Ireland.

The coast in Northern Ireland near Ballygalley.

A watercourse in Glenarm, Northern Ireland.

A diversion on Garron Road, north of Carnlough.

Some rocky hills on the coast on Garron Road, near Waterfoot.

Unfortunately the sun didn't stay out for long, the weather changed dramatically in just a few minutes. All of a sudden it was raining, and I had to retrieve my coat from the pannier, which I had wrongfully assumed I wouldn't be needing that day. I guess I should be checking the weather forecasts.

The weather suddenly turned nasty. On Garron Road, near Waterfoot, Northern Ireland.

I considered turning back, riding to Belfast and following my original plan, but I didn't, I pushed on. As did the wet weather.
I came to a section of the route called "Torr Road", a narrow, windy very steep coastal road which is an optional part of the route, the alternative being a more tame inland route. The map back at the Tourist Information Centre had read "this section of the route is very steep and should only be attempted if you have a high level of fitness". So of course I had to take that route, didn't even consider taking the alternative. You've gotta live!
The road turned uphill quite suddenly, and was indeed quite steep, but certainly do-able. I thought to myself "is that it? It's not as bad as it's made out to be"...however that was only the first part.

Torr Road, Northern Ireland.

Torr Road, Northern Ireland.

There turned out to be another three ascents that were steeper and longer than the first. I wasn't thinking "is that it?" after them. It was quite a challenge on the touring bike, it would have been on any bike I guess. My road bike wouldn't have had low enough gears for it. It was good cycling though, with some rolling hills in between the major climbs, no traffic and good scenery. Even the rain was kind enough to ease up.

Torr Road, Northern Ireland.

Torr Road, Northern Ireland.

Torr Road, Northern Ireland.

Torr Road, Northern Ireland.

Torr Road, Northern Ireland.

Me on Torr Road, Northern Ireland.

Torr Road, Northern Ireland.

This was the most exciting part of my day, afterwards I got to a town called Ballycastle, just before dusk. It was really windy and I didn't fancy camping in that weather. I spotted a hostel called Castle Hostel and enquired within. It was £15 pounds for the night, done.
The woman running it was a good egg: young, friendly, pleasant and hospitable (which of course is what you want when you go to a hostel). She and her husband also ran a B & B beside the hostel (same building actually). The hostel had been a B & B as well until six months ago, when they decided to make it a hostel instead, so they were new to running a hostel. The place was great though, had a distinctly good vibe and I was the only guest so I had a whole three story house to myself, including a well equipped kitchen.
I was keen to take advantage of this so I bought some groceries and cooked up a mean stir-fry.

The kitchen in the hostel, which I had all to myself.

Stir-fry for dinner.

I also used the free Wi-Fi for twitter, facebook and some blogging, drank about eight cups of tea (free tea bags were provided and I was making up for all the days I haven't had a cup of tea) and I took a much needed shower. "Ah this is the life, so much easier than camping," I thought.
Also the young bloke running the place (husband of the woman also running the place) was kind enough to give me some good advice on where I should go the next few days. He knew the area well, and it sounded like he'd cycled most of the roads too.
So I now had a plan for the next day.

Ride stats
Distance: 80.98 km
Average: 19.7 km/h
Maximum: 103.6 km/h (that's what the speedo said, I don't trust this reading of course, it's been playing up lately)
Time: 4:06:19