Bernie and Sonia complete the
Mizen Head to Malin Head run


1-5 May 2009


Report by Bernie Monaghan

Sonia and I had a great trip. Day 1 we did about 75 miles from Mizen to Mallow where we arrived just in time to watch the rugby - we had a room beside the night club and it felt like we were trying to sleep in the middle of the dance floor, our lullabies were 'In da Cluuuub' Eminem !! etc. . The hotel had let us lock the bus and bikes out the back of the hotel - next morning the guy had left the keys at home and we had to hang around until he went home and came back with the wrong keys - this went on until someone eventually found keys and we got the bikes and van out, but a late start at nearly 10.30. It was a marathon and a half from Mallow to Athlone (125 miles) and it didn't help that we'd started late and them someone kept moving Athlone further away - one sign would say Athlone 10km, then a couple of miles up the road one would say Athlone 10km, many swear words uttered by all. We had a mammoth climb up and over the Glen of Aherlow, Sonia just pressed her turbo button and went up them hills like the Duracell bunny on speed! The rest of us just plodded on and got the job done. Brilliant descent at around 40mph after all the hard work.

First two days were good with just a light shower here and there, in fact short sleeve jerseys and legs were involved and we felt good afterwards, going for dinner and a few bevvies. Day three was mixed with lots of rain. We stayed in a B&B in the townland of Tattyreagh or Clanabogan near Omagh. The name 'Golden Hills' should have been a clue, but we were surprised after over 100 miles to find we had to climb and climb and climb to get to our accommodation in the lashing rain. Then after showers it was into Omagh on the mini bus to find the only restaurant still open at 11pm, an Indian with the hottest curry in Ireland, where we had Sonia's leaving do and a late night. Some guys tried to be brave, having the very hot curry, needless to say there were frequent disappearances into the bushes the next day on the way to Donegal.

On Tuesday morning we awoke to rain and lots of it and that continued throughout the day and was added to by the battering wind, sleet and exfoliating hail in our faces when we got into Donegal. We headed into Omagh town and off to Strabane, Derry, Muff, where we had lunch stop. Then it was onto Moville, Carndonagh etc and trough to Malin Town. The stretch from Carndonagh to Malin was the scariest bit of cycling I've ever done.  We tried to stay on the extreme left of the road, as you would, but the area was so open and exposed and the wind so strong that it was nearly impossible - at one stage I was going to just get off the bike because it was so dangerous, but I could see that we were so close to Malin we just kept pushing on - you kept getting pushed to the right, into the road, toward the traffic and you didn't know if you were going to be able to keep the bike upright - for once I was glad not to have a super lite carbon frame. The support driver said he could see Sonia and I constantly leaning and pushing our bikes over to the left which meant our bikes were nearly horizontal. We kept going and eventually got to Malin Head. The area was beautiful but the weather was something else. We didn't hang around for too long taking pictures as the water was running out of us.

All in all a great trip, great cycling - it was well do-able but not by any means easy. No major incidents or injuries, one really close shave were some eejit overtook us on a blind corner and an oncoming driver had to screech to an emergency stop with the smoke coming out of the tyres to avoid hitting either us or the car, could have been nasty.

385.5 mile accumulated. The guys with us from Almac were Paddy Hoy, David Downing, Stephen Gallagher, brothers Oliver and Kevin (keep 'er lit) Rodgers, Stuart Jones and Tony Vaughan. Our support driver was Daryl McErlean, who made sure our bottles were replenished, there were lots of refreshments etc. All the guys were great to Sonia and I and gave us great encouragement. We're both really grateful to them for their company, good crack and support. We are especially grateful to all our Dromara mates who texted us before and during the trip -thanks so much it really helped.




Malin Head



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