11th May 2017, Carrigadrohid Castle. I think this is probably the best non-astronomy drawing I ever did.
Full discloser, I can’t actually spell Carrigadrohid. Many instances of me writing the word in this blogpost will be me copying and pasting the word. It’s possible by the end of the blogpost I will know how to spell Carrigadrohid, but we’ll see.
That drawing at the top is I think, probably the best non astronomy drawing I ever did. It’s a hobby I wish I could get back to, I used to love drawing everything, cups, that adorable owl with the lights in the back garden, trees, and in this case, a castle. But the limited number of hours in each day being what they are, slowly drawing became strictly astronomy sketching. Which is great, I love drawing the universe, but I’d love to give another go at drawing that adorable back garden owl again some day!
So, the year 2016 was a bad year for cycling. Only my 3rd year cycling, and I’d only cycled to one new location in the entire year! That was Maunbaun wood, near Watergrasshill. And although I did a fairly epic cycle to Labbacallee wedge tomb (I also can’t spell Labbacallee), because I conked out and had to be rescued on the way back, I counted this as a cycle that, well, didn’t count. I wrote about that here:
So that’s where 2016 stood. One cycle, to a new location. This, COULD, NOT, STAND! I mean, it could stand, the world would still keep turning if I let it stand. But the world keeping turning is a bad criteria for success, because if a horrific calamity killed all life on Earth, including even microbes, the world would still keep turning, so I say, the world keeping turning is a bad criteria for success! We need to aspire to higher than simply planet Earth obeying the laws of gravity!
So, wanting more out of life than simply planet Earth obeying the laws of gravity, I made a plan to do better than the cyclorial farce that was 2016. The plan was, to cycle to at least 4 new locations, for at least the next 4 years. I actually succeeded in getting it up to 3 years, and weirdly enough, the reason 2020 didn’t work out was not due to Covid, it was because my bike developed a mysterious ailment where as soon as I put in a new tube it would puncture within a few days.
So, I spent many hours researching interesting places to go on the bike, and I came upon a mysterious castle, that looked as if it was in a river. It wasn’t technically, but its lower section was so close to the river that that’s how it looked. I was intrigued! And on May 11h 2017, a beautiful summer’s day, I set off.
Back then I didn’t have google maps on my phone, so after Ballincollig was an absolute maze of roads. So I had it carefully written out in a text message in my phone (turn left, turn right, turn left, etc) and after many hours of hard pedaling I made it to the awesome castle!
The castle is just a bit to the left, but first have a look at all of the wildlife there is to see in the village of Carrigadrohid.
A sign above showed the wonderful wildlife that lives in the village of Carrigadrohid, and a part of me just wanted to move to Carrigadrohid, it seemed like such a nice place to live. But a voice in my head told me, “You’re never going to be able to do that, because of your neurological difference that you’re going to be in denial about for the next 4 years.” Okay then!
The castle through the trees. Such an amazing sight!
A wonderful blue sky.
Dark Shadows on the Castle
Peacefulness!!
Through the trees again.
River View
Blue and Green!
I think this next photo captures what drew me to Carrigadrohid Castle so much. It looks as if the castle is inside the river. Not strictly true, the castle is situated on a really low piece of land, so it’s almost, but not quite in the river, but it makes for an absolutely amazing sight. I feel blessed that such amazing things to see are only a bike ride away from where I live.
River Dwelling Castle
View into the basement. I can’t for the life of me remember how I got this shot, given that the castle is locked. I think there must have been gaps in the gate so that I was able to hold my camera at a very precise angle. Old buildings like this tend to be full of nettles. BOOO!!! NETTLES HURT!!!!
I think this camera angle helps show the epicness of the castle!
So, back to the title of this post, what the devil is a non repeating cycle?! Well, most cycles I do involve me going to a place, and then following the exact route back. This is wasteful, incredibly wasteful! Because the journey to a place is a new, exciting adventure, while the journey back is, ehhhhhhhh I was already here boooooo! I’ve only gone on two cycles ever that come close to non repeating. The first was my trip to Labacallee (this time successful) That I’d taken earlier that year.
And my later trips to the Nagle mountains involved me going via Carrignavar, but returning on routes through Glenville or not far from it:
But even these involved cycling maybe three, maybe four miles of the same route. Was it possible to do a completely non repeating cycling, where the journey to had absolutely nothing in common with the way back? I was about to realize it was!
I headed up a short distance from Carrighodrohid, just to take in some more views of that lovely river, all that blue and green was soothing my soul, and I saw a signpost for Blarney. And after quickly consulting the somewhat detail lacking, but good enough for these purposes, map of Cork County that I had in my brain, I realized I could do it, I could, today, do a cycle where no part of it ever repeated! I had arrived at Carrigodrohid via Ballincollig, but I was going to return via Blarney. Non repeating cycle!
Such Blues and Greens, Very Soothing Colours!
Beautiful River
I think it was on this trip, that I finally realized how beautiful the River Lee is. You see, I’ve lived in Cork City all my life, and the River Lee runs through it. While various attempts have been made to clean it up, the section that runs through the city has often been quite neglected and dirty. It’s now more common to see people swimming in the section that runs through Fitzgerald’s park (one of the most famous parks in Cork City), but I have still, rightly or wrongly, deeply internalized the idea that the River Lee is, eh, yucky! But the route home via Blarney took me parallel to the River Lee via most of it, and, when it’s flowing through more rural areas, as opposed to the city, I found it to be quite a wonderful sight. The blue of the river, and the green of the surrounding grass land, it was so wonderful to see.
The Blue of the Lee
A bit of sparkly sunlight on the river.
Such a wonderful journey home
Dripsey.
I passed through Dripsey, and over all of my cycling trips over the years, I’ve really developed an appreciation for how many towns and villages will put up a sign, like this one above, detailing their history. When you stop off in a village or town for a bit of a rest, soon you are getting detailed knowledge of the place you are in, and before you know it, the place you stopped off in just because the legs were tired becomes a place that fascinates you!
Tower
I stopped off in the village of Tower for some delicious and much needed ice cream. And I know some cycling expert is going to tell me, “Actually the best thing to keep your cycling energy up is,….” I don’t care, I was in the mood for delicious ice cream and that’s what I had!
So I kept cycling, into Blarney. I can’t for the life of me remember if I stopped off in Blarney or pushed straight through into Blackpool. I’d imagine I’d have to have been tired enough to stop in Blarney, but I can’t remember. But after Blarney, I cycled into Blackpool, and even though I had only about 2 miles on the trip left from this point, I spent a lot of time vegetating in a cafe. When I regained some energy, I cycled home.
And that was the end of a really memorable trip. A beautiful day of seeing an amazing castle, a wonderful route that took my alongside the River Lee, and the completion of my only cycle ever where no part of the route was repeated. I hope there will be many cycles like this in future. But now any time soon. It’s too cold, way too cold!
Ponderings Of An Autist 