Brecon Beacons Ultra

It is not my favorite to run loops on a race. It is mentally tough and also I do like to see different scenery. Brecon Beacon is an exception! Fellow runners were amazing (funny is that we always met again and again the same guys :)
The about 46mi course is within a beautiful landscape including a "killer" of a mountain (For de Foel) in between - also the way up to "The Gap" was not a cake walk.
Anyway, I had a fantastic day out there in a race which was amazingly well organised  and taken care of by the Likeys.

http://www.beaconsultra.com


Info:
Nutrition wise:
Morning, before the race - double ham sandwich and black, sweet tea and ... a banana before the start.

The mix of water was a bit to "heavy" - 330ml of Red Bull in 1.5l water is to much caffein again. In addition 1 nuun salt pill.

Every 15k I had about a quarter of a triple sliced, salted, ham sandwich and a handful salted peanuts mixed with crashed potato crisps. Maybe every 10k would have been better - but beside that it was the perfect mix. I also had on each water station about a 5 min break, to sit down and eat calmly.
In between those stops I had from time to time on the uphills a bite on (overall) 4 cliff bars.
The last 12k I had a power gel which was great - since the food over the whole day was not to sweet - I really liked that gel in the end.

Water turned over time to be better ( I had a lot) when the concentration of Red Bull was watered down.

"It hurts up to a point and then it doesn't get any worse." - Ann Trason

Leo's tour of Ireland (In 8 – 12days)

… with some amendments from P, K and Mike - around EASTER 2012

Map 1:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=211684795928522156032.0004bc75153a62b614163&msa=0

Day 1.

Arrived in Dublin (nice overnight ferry ride in a comfortable cabin from Liverpool) and left it right away for the Boyne Valley.

Visit Bru na Boinne Visitor Centre for Newgrange Neolithic Passage tomb built 5000BC, and the site of the Battle of the Boyne 1690. We were unable to get in as we had not reserved a tour in advance.

Continue north to Monasterboice Monastic Settlement, location of some of the finest examples of Celtic High Crosses in the country and a ruined round tower. 7^th Century.

Continue north to Carlingford and Carlingford Lough in Co. Louth –we did not find it worth a stop.

We spent the first night in Belfast. Not a lot to see in town, except the Titanic Quarter museum; however that is only just opened and so may very well be booked out. Call to see if you can get it, but chances are you won’t be able.

Stay in International Youth Hostel – price okay, clean in international athmosphere.

Day 2

Continue through Larne, and drive the picturesque “Glens of Antrim” through Cushendun and Cushendall, up to Ballycastle on the North Antrim Coast.

Visit Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge (well worth it)

Visit The Giants Causeway, basalt formation. (Must Do)

Visit the Bushmills distillery (IMHO Ireland’s finest whiskey)

Continue to Londonderry/ Derry. Overnight in Independence Hostel (great atmosphere!!! Recommend the spare apartment next door).

Day 3

Cross the border into Donegal, and travel through Letterkenny to the Glenveagh National Park, hundred thousand acre of National Park with wild deer and a gothic castle built by William McIlhenny, Irish American Millionaire who invented Tabasco Sauce. Favourite holiday location of the Prince of Wales later King George V. Extraordinarily pretty location. Many walks available through this park.

We did a one way walk to the castle, which is something you should not miss in nice weather.

Continue past Errigal Mountain, beautiful drive though Donegal bogland and coastline to Gweedore, then Dungloe through Glenties and into Donegal Town.

We instead stayed overnight in Glencolmcille – Franks Nolenbeck House. Nothing there to do, but a spectacular amazing view onto the ocean (…and Frank is cool :).

Day 4.

Travel from Donegal down the west coast to Drumcliffe in Sligo, WB Yeats Grave is in a small churchyard here on the left hand side, underneath Ben Bulben Mountains, large table mountain.

If you are interested in surfing Strandhill is a great place to catch a few waves all year round (which we unfortunately didn’t).

Continue through Mayo to Westport, great place for walks and outdoors activities on the north end of Connemara.

We spent the night in a fantastic hostel, lead by a amazingly agile Lady in Leenane – Sleepzone Connemara

Day 5,

Travel alongside Killary Harbour, Ireland's only fjord, approximately 1km deep at its deepest point (where they filmed The Field) to Clifden (a number of good fish restaurants and art galleries are in Clifden) on the far west coast of Connemara. We did a boat trip for about an hour from Killary Harbour, absolutely worth its money – we just missed the legendary dolphin.

Map 2:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=211684795928522156032.0004bc7629edce24a4c62&msa=0

(NB There are TWO pages to this map, make sure that you print them both!)

Then follow the coast road to Ballyconnelly, magical little golden beach made from coral and on to Roundstone. A number of good pubs and restaurants in this town too. Famous for being the most expensive rural retreat for Dublin’s rich in Ireland. Very very pretty. Big house at the end of the harbor used to be owned by Sting, now owned by the guy who wrote Riverdance.

Travel on through Connemara , past the locations for the Quiet Man movie, though Oughterard into Galway. Overnight here in Kinlay House.

Day 6.

If you spend the morning in Galway city, a GREAT place to stop for lunch is Moran’s of the Weir, a thatched pub beside the river in Clarinbridge. Fantastic oysters and seafood, all washed down with a pint of Guinness. My idea of heaven.

Continue through Kinvara, fantastic Norman castle at the water’s edge here, makes for a great photo opportunity, although not much to see inside.

Continue through Ballyvaughan and then take the R480 to drive into the Burren, world heritage site, and fantastic karst limestone plateau. After a couple of miles keep your eyes out for Poulnabrone Dolmen on the right hand side, a short walk across the limestone pavements to the dolmen. When you are on the pavements look down into the cracks, this is where you see all of the wild flowers that this area is renowned for.

Continue through Lisdoonvarna, famous site of an annual matchmaking festival, and on to the Cliffs of Moher visitor center. Try to park away from the visitor centor since the site itself is for free (at least in 2012). We have seen amazing cliffs near Malinbeg (Donegal) before, so…

Overnight in either Lahinch (Lahinch B&B - that’s were we stayed. Talk to the owner about his travelling around the world and you will hear some good stories), or a little further down the coast in a town called Kilkee (detour from map), great bar with trad music most nights in both places, Kilkee is much smaller than Lahinch.

Day 7

Take the Killimer – Tarbert Car Ferry across the River Shannon into County Kerry.

Travel on to Tralee and then if the weather is fine, take the Connor Pass to Dingle (Detour from map, but on a fine day a STUNNING drive across the mountains) – absolutely recommended!!! Alternatively take the low road.

Arrive Dingle, great place for seafood, Irish music etc.

From here take the circular Slea head drive (my favourite place in the entire world) through Ventry, Dunquin, BallyFerriter, the Gallarus Oratory and then back into Dingle. This is a stunning coastal route of about 20 miles that will take you all afternoon because you will want to keep stopping for photos. Off the coast you will see the Blasket Islands, including the one known as the Sleeping Giant (see if you can work out why…) up to Slea head where they filmed the movie Ryan’s Daughter and then on to the 7^th Century small oratory, best preserved early church in Ireland.

Overnight in Dingle. Yes better do that! We went a little further and stayed a outside Killorglin, in a Hostel we did not really felt welcome nor comfortable and avoided even the well deserved shower.

(Day 8- not our tour

Continue to Killarney.

A couple of things to see in Killarney. The town in schlock central, keep away, it a trap designed to extract dollars from Americans, however the reason it is built there is because it is an area of OUTSTANDING natural beauty. Lough Leane, the lake behind is beautiful and offers a stunning view from a number of locations. There is a very beautiful country house that you can visit about a mile and a half out the Kenmare road called Muckross House, which is where Queen Victoria stayed when she visited Killarney, offers lovely views over the lake. Further up that road, there is an amazing view called Ladies view down over Lough Leane’s upper and lower lake. I would then return to Killarney for the night.)

Day 8 (Optional - but that’s what we did) Leave Killarney by the Killorglin road and about 3 miles out the road past the village of Fossa there is a right turn up to Aghadoe Heights where there is a very beautiful view over the lake.

Return to the main road an then continue on the “Ring of Kerry”, a very beautiful circular drive through Cahirciveen, Sneem, Kenmare Market Town (very beautiful hotel here called the Park Hotel Kenmare, one of the finest in the country if you wanted a nice Irish Coffee. We really did want to but it was Sunday and they don’t serve it before Tea time) As today is a long drive you might want to stop here, or else continue to Glengarrif for the night.

(You may want to skip the Ring if you have had enough driving, or if you are short on time. I would recommend if you are short that you skip the Ring, rather than Dingle. If you do want to skip, take the same road from Killarney to Kenmare that you took to go to Muckross house, via Molls Gap)

Glengarrif is on Bantry Bay, a beautiful bay of islands that is slap bang in the centre of where the Gulf Stream arrives in Ireland. As a result the temp of the water is on average 2-3 degrees warmer than anywhere else at this latitude in Europe. There is an island that you get to via a short boat ride called Garinish Island which was planted as an Italianate garden and is well worth a visit. On the boat ride you regularly see seals basking on rocks in the bay.

From Glengarriff travel on to Gougane Barra, a wonderful forest park beside a lake in a valley near Keimanagh. There are the remains of an 11th century monastery on an island in the lake that you can reach via a short path.

We then continued to Cork and stayed overnight the second time of that tour in a Kinlay House. “Thank God” there was Wifi.

Cork city, 2^nd (vastly inferior J) city in the country. Interesting sights… not much lol, although I suppose the English Market is interesting. Just outside the city there is Blarney, where you can kiss the blarney stone (if you MUST, it’ll cost you about a tenner!) and visit Blarney Woollen Mills, the biggest Irish type store there is.

Map 3:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=211684795928522156032.0004bc7666a7b20171b4c&msa=0

Day 9

Leave Cork and travel on the M* Through Mitchelstown and Cahir up to Cashel.

Visit St. Patrick’s Rock in Cashel, 7^th – 15^th Century Monastic Complex.

From Cashel continue to Kilkenny, the seat of Norman power in Ireland. 2 visits well worth a look here, St. Canices Cathedral, 11^th Century Cathedral, and the Castle that dominates the town, Kilkenny Castle. Fascinating visit to the castle available here.

Overnight in Kilkenny. Here we spend the night in a little backpackers hostel – very nice guys. The only downside of Kilkenny was that one of us was to young (14) to visit the Smithwicks Brewery :(

Day 10

Depart Kilkenny and travel to Carlow and on to Dunlavin to Hollywood (always worth to stop to take a picture), and across the Wicklow Way into Glendalough. Possibly the most picturesque and complete 7^th Century monastic settlement in the country. Nestled beside two lakes in a valley (the name means the glen of the two lakes) there are a number of beautiful walks here.

If you have time, you can also visit the Powerscourt Estate in Enniskerry, beautiful country house owned by the Slazenger Family, with extraordinary gardens.

Towards and in Dublin.

Things you MUST do in Dublin:

Guinness Storehouse

Trinity College, the Long Library and the Book of Kells

Christchurch and/or St. Patrick’s Cathedral

Since Dublin is VERY expansive to stay, even in low budget accommodations we decided to spoil ourselves by staying in the George Frederic Haendle Hotel instead of the Kinlay House. Same Price but including breakfast and (maybe) a little more comfort. Very nice!

Thanks Leo for that fascinating trip through your home country!

Trip around Ireland 2012

... anti clockwise, since the traffic is also on the wrong side. That was our way around the Island.
Getting there taken the ferry from Liverpool and heading straight north along the coast via Boyne Valley, Newgrange, Monasterboice to Belfast.
Here we've spend the first night after showing my daughter the still existing relicts of the irish conflict for the last decades.
With a short visit at the Bushmills distillery finishing myself and the day we spent most of the sunny day at The Giants Causeway. Always impressive!
A great hostel we recommend in Londonderry - Independence Hostel.
In the Glenveagh National Park the next day we had a nice hike - cool weather but sunny.
Going further south along the west coast we spend a couple of hours here and there like in Donegal, at the Drumcliffs in Sligo, crossing Connemara by doing a boat trip alongside Killary Harbour and ending up one night in Galway. It is a great place for going out or just sightseeing.
Our way then lead trought the Burren, via the Cliffs of Moher, Lahinch and crossing the river Shannon getting into the Kerry county. A stunning trip around Dingle was just the doorstep to heaven (just missing the pint of Guinness :-)
After that the Ring of Kerry was just not that impressive anymore and we decided to head towards Cork as soon as we could. A second night in the then in the Kinlay hostel (as before in Galway) lead to the conclusion - recommended place to stay wherever it is, very friendly and welcoming.
Loads of driving was going on and to be honest - it was to much to say in the end: I had a relaxing holiday.
Nevertheless, heading back to Dublin via Kilkenny made the whole roundtrip a successful event.

Cheerio Irleand!

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