Wild Atlantic Way – Day 15

I had a sort of enforced rest day. With only 80km (50 miles) left to cycle to Galway, I’m well ahead of schedule.

The only constant is change

Unfortunately, the person who kindly offered to host me in Galway on Saturday night fell ill and I had to somewhat change my plans.

Originally, I’d have cycled half the distance today, then the other half on Saturday.

I looked into the price of accommodation in Galway and realised it was damned expensive. That made me change my plans: have a rest day today (I have an injury to my right knee that is playing up a bit) then tomorrow ride most of the way to Galway.

I’ll wild camp somewhere near the edge of the city, and simply ride the last few miles to the train station in the morning.

A question of power

Sadly, the USB connector for my dynamo light is now very rusty, and mostly not working. Alongside that, the wires came loose on the USB connector for my solar panel. That means I lost both means of charging kit on my bike.

I’ve been managing this by charging up my powerbank from mains electricity whenever I can, but both big powerbanks still ended up pretty much drained.

I’m trying to get as much charge as possible into the 26k mAh one, which will see me through till I get on the train on Sunday morning.

Kit failures

My bike, and my camping gear took a beating on this trip and already my thoughts are turning to repairing what I can, and replacing what I can’t repair. Obviously, all that will happen once I’m back home.

The most frustrating failure is my self-inflating map leaking. Mine’s an entry-level one from Vango, and I really have no complaints about it at all. It’s served me very well over the several years I had it.

When I first started winter camping, I learned (the hard way) that a 2.5cm sleeping mat isn’t enough to give you insulation against ground cold. As a result, I supplement it with a closed-cell foam mat that reaches from my knees to my shoulders.

Combined, the two work really well, and I’m especially grateful for having the foam mat now. This is also part of my preference for having at least some redundancy in kit I’m reliant on.

Tomorrow, I’ll be riding through an area called The Burren, which has huge areas of bare exposed rock.

After that, there’s a short stretch to the edge of Galway. Sadly, besides the ride to the station on Sunday, I’ll not see anything of the city, but that can’t be helped.

Competition!

To be in with a chance of winning John Devoy’s fantastic book, Quondam, you need to answer all the questions that I post on a daily basis.

Here’s today’s question: What is the most popular spectator sport, by far, on the island of Ireland?

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