The Easiest Cycle I Ever Did

So I cycled fifty metres down the road to test if the breaks were properly set up. And that was the easiest cycle I ever did. I hope you enjoyed this blogpost, have a nice day.

Oh okay, I suppose to not make reading this post a complete waste of the precious time you have until your life ends, I will have to write something more substantial. So I think I’ll write about the easiest cycle of my multi day trips. There’s only two multi day trips I haven’t written about yet, the Cape Clear Trip and the first Knockmealdown Mountains trip. Now the Cape Clear trip is in a grey area because it involved getting a boat, so technically it was a cycle/boat trip as opposed to a cycle trip proper. (I’m not obsessed with detail, everyone else is wrong). But in any case, I’m going to argue that the Knockmealdowns Trip was slightly easier, despite less actual cycling involved, because while there were heavy rains on both trips, during the Cape Clear trip the rain came at times that irritated me more. So I’ll come back to the Cape Clear Trip at another time, but today I’ll talk about my first trip to the Knockmealdowns which I’m declaring to be the easiest cycling trip I ever did.

By the way, for anyone interested in my second trip to the Knockmealdowns, which also took me half way up the Waterford Greenway, here’s that:

The Toughest Cycle I Ever Did

I remember finding the Knockmealdown mountains on Google Maps, and thinking, if only it were possible to cycle that far. But I wasn’t thinking big enough. Sure you can’t get there in a single day, but get a hotel along the way, and it’s more than doable. My confidence in the more long distance journeys had been boosted by my trip to Cape Clear the previous year, and this Knockmealdown mountains trip was tantalizing for three reasons. Firstly, because of the Knockmealdown mountains themselves, which are simply an amazing place to be. Secondly, this would be my first trip of more than a hundred miles. And thirdly, this would be my first cycle to another county, two infact, to Waterford and to the edge of Tipperary. A very exciting trip indeed!

So the trip went like this:

Day 1: Ballyvolane to Cappaquin

Day 2: Cappaquin to the Knockmealdown Mountains and back to Cappaquin

Day 3: Cappaquin to Ballyvolane

Bigger than anything I’d done previously, but I felt it was time for something more challenging.

I took off in the morning, and got as far as the village of Rathcormac before taking a short rest. Then prepared myself mentally for the next section of cycle, which is not very nice. Leaving Rathcormac is very bumpy, followed by a few roundabouts, and cycling through Fermoy is not very nice because I don’t like cycling in cities or the bigger towns. So I stocked up on provisions in Rathcormac, got in and out of Fermoy without stopping, and then, pure countryside for the rest of the trip. Ahhhhhhh.

The trip from Fermoy on is absolutely beautiful. A nice relief from the busy, hectic, and generally unpleasant roads beforehand. And then I saw it, the sign I had been waiting to see:

I like the feeling of knowing I have gone a big distance without the use of any motorized transport. And now, I had travelled from Cork City, to County Waterford , with only the power of my muscles and if I was lucky, an assist from either the wind or gravity. And remembering only four years previously when even getting as far as Blarney was an achievement, it felt good to travel so far.

But little did I know that a terrible, terrible. No, it wasn’t that bad, so I’ll try that again. Little did I know that a mild, mild problem lay ahead of me. I had a bottle of water on my pannier which fell off. Now, later in the year I might have been goosed, but this was the tail end of March, not too hot. So I thought, conserve water as best I can, and get into Ballyduff where……

Ballyduff has no shops. Not one single solitary shop. Lesson learned for future reference, never, ever assume the smaller villages will have a shop! But it was okay. I could ration the water until I got to Lismore.

I stopped off at Ballysaggartmore towers. I’ve talked about these before, they were built by Arthur Keily-Ussher. The last time I talked about him I called him a complete prick, as in 100% prick, not even 95% prick, and I still hold to that opinion. But here are some nice pictures of the Towers and surrounding grounds:

And then it started threatening to rain. Luckily that threat wouldn’t become a promise until I was safely in my hotel for the night.

But the next day there was no rain, or much in the way of clouds. It was a beautiful day. I took off for the Knockmealdown mountains. The going was tough because it’s the thing I dread, the gentle incline that goes on for a long time. And the strap on my bag was digging into my shoulder. If I remember correctly I think it occurred to me to readjust so that was one pesky inconvenience out of the way.

As I approached the Knockmealdowns, I saw this:

First View of the Cloud Covered Knockmealdowns

My first view of the Knockmealdowns, and they couldn’t have looked more epic. This was what life was all about!

There’s something so joyful about cycling down a mountain road. My favourite mode of transport, out in the open air, surrounded by one of the most breathtaking mountain ranges I have ever seen. I kept stopping the bike to photograph the following:

And I cycled into Tipperary. The Knockmealdowns being on the border between Waterford and Tipperary. But I have no photo of that sign, too many cars in the way!

And then I began my climb up Sugarloaf Hill.

Beginning My Climb Up Sugarloaf Hill

This is Grubb’s Monument, where Samuel Grubb is also buried. I’m afraid I haven’t been able to find that much on information on Samuel Grubb, I just know he was born in 1855 and died in 1921.

Some of the most spectacular views I’ve ever seen were from Sugarloaf Hill. “Stop talking and show more of the pictures!” Alright then, here are the pictures of my ascent to the cairn:

And I Reached The Cairn, One of My Favourite Cairns:

“I wholeheartedly reject the idea that the photos can get any better than those you have already shown!” First of all, I’m still very alarmed at how you can somehow contribute to this blogpost, whoever you are, and secondly, you are wrong, from this cairn is where the views get truly spectacular!:

I Like The Contrast Of Light And Dark Caused By the Clouds

Alas I Wouldn’t Get Any Higher Than This

Unfortunately I had to stop my ascent a good 100 metres from the top. There was a big line of un-passable mud, and when I put my foot on it my foot instantly started sliding down. I made another attempt to get to the top of Sugarloaf the next year, and that also didn’t work. I didn’t realize until a few years later that when you get to the top of Sugarloaf, it’s a short walk to the top of Knockmealdown Mountain, the county highpoint of Waterford. I will have to go back some day, and get my first county highpoint!

I went for a walk through the mountains to soothe my disappointment about not getting to the top of Sugarloaf, so I went for a walk through the Knockmealdowns. And got lost. Would I ever get home? Yes because you are reading this over four years later. But during this near ill fated part of the expedition I got some more good pictures. It is like that old saying from Henry David Thoreau: “Getting lost is merely an opportunity to take more pictures.” Or this one from H.G Wells, “On the internet every quote is misattributed.” Anyway, here’s some pictures of being lost in the Knockmealdowns:

I found my way back to my bike, parked below Sugarloaf Hill, and began cycling back to the hotel. And this is a fun part of the cycle. All downhill, so you can relax, enjoying the mountains whizzing past you. And remember that gentle incline I mentioned earlier? Very little cycling on the way back!

I got back to my hotel, and after a meal started reading my book. It was Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker. I used to be a big fan of the viewpoint that Steven Pinker advocated for, that life is better now than it has ever been. But now I disagree with his point quite a lot. It’s not that I’m not glad that I was born now as opposed to any point previously, and I do think the opposite viewpoint, “Things have never been worse,” is very harmful also and can cause people to give up on fixing the world’s problems. But Pinker’s viewpoint isn’t just, “Things have never been better,” it’s, “Things have never been better, so stop thinking about all the problems with the world.” In a world where we still have poverty, bigotry of all kinds, and a climate catastrophe that can at best be mitigated but now is too late to stop, “Just relax!” is not the right message!

The next day I cycled back to Fermoy, and being really tired stopped in a restaurant for pizza. A heavy rain had started as I approached the restaurant, and it would continue for the remainder of the trip. Twenty miles of rain. I stopped for a rest on a bench next to a river, and all I could see was rain, rain was all that existed. There was no life, no future, no hope, no love, just rain.

I finally got back home, the journey over, got out of my wet clothes and treated myself to the Easter Eggs that were waiting for me. HURRAY!

This was my first completely cycled multi day journey, and it would not be the last. Knowing you traveled a great distance by only the power of your own muscles, is one of the most amazing feelings in the world. I hope to do it many more times.