The last time I took
the ferry to Ireland last year I bought a combined ferry rail ticket
from Preston. It was cheaper but complicated to do the journey with
too many connections to go wrong. Today I’m returning to Ireland
with my bike but have bought the ferry ticket and decided to drive
to Holyhead for the convenience. The only bad part of the drive is
along the M6 to M56 but once the slow stop start traffic is out of
the way the north Wales coast road is good driving.
Leaving Holyhead on the 'slow' Swift ferry
This time I’ve booked my ferry with Irish Ferries as I didn’t like
the way Stenna Ferries treat people taking a bike on the ferry.
Irish Ferries let you ride to the boat and secure it to the interior
hull yourself. I’d already booked my journey on-line so showed my
printout at the vehicle check in and cycled to terminal 2 to wait
for the ferry. It was the Swift or Jonathan Swift to give it its
full title. It was due to leave at 11:50 but was late so we didn’t
leave till about 12:20pm. The ferry is a double hull and supposed to
be extra fast, hence the extra price. It wasn’t fast but very slow.
The announcement said we’d arrive in Dublin at 14:30 but we didn’t
get there till after 15:00, almost one and a half hours late. I’d
had to book my bike on the train to Cork via the Irish Rail website
and I was now committed to the 16:00. This meant a rushed ride
across Dublin to Heuston Rail Station with no spare time to take in
the scenery. I reached the station with 15mins to spare but as I’d
booked my ticket & bike reservation on-line I had to search out the
ticket office to get my ticket but they just pointed me to the
automatic ticket machine. The process turned out to be
straightforward and all I had to do was type in the booking
reference number and the ticket was issued.
One of the first on the ferry
I then rushed to platform 8 where the train was waiting. I was
confronted with same ludicrous bike compartment on the train as last
year. We set off on time and I sat in my reserved seat for an
uneventful 2hr30min journey to Cork. The only annoyance was the
woman opposite kept making phone calls and speaking very loud about
something of no importance whatsoever. The youth next to me was
tapping the keyboard of his laptop only to occasionally stop to
crack the joints of his fingers, several times. Why do people do
that? I reached Cork at 18:30 and wheeled my bike out onto the
road. It was partly overcast but felt fairly warm.
Rushing through Dublin
I cycled to the dock area by the River Lee and continued west. The
traffic was quite busy and not considerate to cyclists. I was
glad when I left the city area and reached the main road towards
Inishannon. It was still uncomfortable cycling at times due to the
speed of the traffic. It’s a main road with a speed limit of 100km/hr
and many vehicles passed too close. There were some steady uphill
sections but not too steep. It was easy riding and I continued to
the outskirts of Inishannon.
Arriving at Cork Railway Station
My plan was to camp somewhere nearby and as I cycled through the
town I called at a small shop on the main street where I bought a
2lt bottle of water for 1 Euro. After a short ride I reached the
main sports field area where people were out jogging around the
outskirts. Down by a lower parking area I found a grassy area by
some spoil heaps and pitched my tent. It was about 21:00 when I
started to cook my tea.
Return to
Whittle Wanderer
