Kilmuckridge to Rosslare

Wednesday October 13, 2010

My campsite for the night in Kilmuckridge.

Today was my last day in Ireland, and the end of the UK phase of my trip (although the Republic of Ireland isn't in the UK).
It was a relaxed start because I knew I didn't have far to go to get to Rosslare.
I ate breakfast then gave the bike a bit of a service. I changed the rear brake pads over from the originals to the new set I bought back in Glasgow. I actually should have changed the pads earlier, because they were worn right down and as a result had worn down the rim a little. I didn't worry about it too much though. The panniers were also wearing down the racks in a few places, so I put on some duct tape in those places. And with that I was off.
Each day I typically see a number of slightly amusing or unusual things, most of which I think about for a few seconds, and then forget about.

A sign on the R742 near the town of Blackwater: Blackwater Treatment Plant.

I thought I'd better take a shot of this sign, since I'll be working in the water industry next year, and this sign is funny because Blackwater is actually the name of the town, but blackwater is also a term for sewage. Get it?
There was a man digging out potatoes in his garden with a pitch fork. What happens if he stabs them? But then this would be better than using a shovel where you could accidentally cut one right through. Maybe he should just use his hands.
There was a man using a pressure hose to clean the moss of his concrete railing fence. He must be a bit of a clean freak.
I saw a sign for a Bed & Breakfast which was claiming to have an early breakfast to promote itself. Isn't this a negative? It would discourage me from wanting to stay there anyway.
And have you ever noticed that in the Beatles song "Within You, Without You", which was actually written by George Harrison, one of the instruments sounds a bit like an angle grinder? I'm not sure what the instrument is. I was listening to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as I was riding along, and I heard this song, then I heard a bloke doing some angle grinding when I noticed the similarity.
Haha, you can see I don't have much material to write about for my blog today.
Actually today I started using a new app on my iPhone called MotionX-GPS. I actually bought it for $3.99 before I left, but never got around to using it until now, when I thought I'd check it out, see what it's all about. And it's actually a really cool app. It tells you your instantaneous speed using GPS, as well as your average speed, distance traveled and maximum speed. It gives you a column graph of your speed in approximately five-minute blocks (but depending on the total time of the recorded ride), a graph of your altitude with time, and it tells you your elevation, current gradient, total ascent and total descent, pretty cool huh? On top of that, you can cache or download maps for it, and record your track so that you can save it and share it with other people who will be able to see exactly where you went. And you can specify a waypoint that you want to navigate to, and it tells you the distance to this waypoint, the bearing, and estimates how long it will take you to get there. You can also use the maps to navigate, so it's a pretty versatile app. It fortifies my thinking that I didn't need to pay $120 for the TomTom app after-all.

A screen-shot of the map and recorded track on the MotionX-GPS app. Evidently it uses OpenCycleMap.

A screen shot of the recorded track of my days travel, showing elapsed time, average speed, distance and maximum speed.

For those of you who know my typical punctuality (or lack of it), you may not believe this, but I was actually several hours early for the ferry.

The ferry I was about to catch from Rosslare.

I bought my ticket for about €93, then had a bit of a look around Rosslare, found some Wi-Fi to surf the net. Then I used the Trangia to cook some cous cous for tea, and to take on the ferry since I know how expensive food on the ferry can be.
At 8 o'clock it was time to line up for the ferry. I was directed to the special lane, so I was actually the second person to get on (asides from all the freight, which had already been loaded).

My bike strapped to some bars inside the ferry.

The ferry was huge, ten levels. It's really just like a floating hotel complex.

On the top deck of the ferry at Rosslare.

The view from the top deck of the ferry as we depart from the dock.

Ferry's always remind me of Titanic, and because of Titanic, I'm always worried that the thing is going to sink. This ferry was called the Oscar Wilde, and it featured lots of information panels and quotes from Oscar Wilde written on the walls inside the ship.
I'd only booked a seating ticket, since they were about three times cheaper than the cheapest cabin. I simply brought my sleeping bag and sleeping mat on with me, and set that up in the seating room. Only about a quarter of the seats were occupied so there was plenty of space, and everyone else was just sleeping on the floor too.
I checked the speed we were traveling at too, using the Motion X GPS, and we were averaging around 36 km/h.

My route for the day, Kilmuckridge to Rosslare, Ireland.

An overview of my route from Kilmuckridge to Rosslare in Ireland.

Ride stats:
Distance: 53.77 km
Average: 20.8 km/h
Maximum: 59.9 km/h
Time: 2:34:58
Total ascent: 131 m
Total descent: 167 m