Ok, I have quite a few updates to add here. Yesterday, I took a ride down to Strangford Lough - specifically to Nendrum; more on this shortly. However, the big ride to write up is from last week, when I went off to the West Coast. I meant to write that trip up as soon as I returned, but work sort of took over for the week. I’m pleased with work though, I managed to submit two papers (one conference paper, and one revised journal article), so it was certainly a productive week from that point of view. I’ll write up last week’s trip soon, but without further ado, here’s a quick description of yesterday’s ride…[Read More…]

… is very badly named. For starters, it isn’t an island. It isn’t even close to an island. It is, however, a nice place to go cycling - there are some lovely beaches, and the roads are a nice combination of low traffic and suitable gradients to make cycling round interesting without being too demanding. We had a great walk along the recently-opened Gobbins, which is basically a path along the base of cliffs, so that people who don’t like getting their feet wet can still get close to the sea. Like last weekend, we had great weather, with only a very short shower; apart from that, it was sunny and warm. One of the nicest beaches we saw was the - also inappropriately named - Port Muck. Mucky it was not, unless you count the seaweed, and there wasn’t much of that. I took some photos with my digital camera, which I’ll put up tomorrow, and I also finished off a roll of film on my Pentax KX. I’m looking forward to seeing the results, although it will be a little longer before they make it onto this blog.

Photos as promised:

Two updates today - this one is from last weekend, and I’ve been meaning to write it up all week! I’m just putting up a quick note, hopefully with photos to follow tomorrow (as I’ve just realised I’ve left my camera cable at work). Last Saturday I made a trip to Strangford Lough, via Comber, and headed down the west shore of the lough. It was a great day for it: lovely cycling conditions, warm and sunny if a little breezy.

The route from Belfast to Comber is great - it’s on a quiet, disused railway path; the section nearest Belfast heads through cuttings lined with gorse, which is in flower at this time of year; it widens out becoming more open towards Comber.

From Comber onwards the route was on quiet roads, with great views through pine woods down to the sea, which does a very good impression of a lake - it’s something like 15 miles long, yet the inlet is only a quarter mile wide or thereabouts. Not so much to report I suppose from this trip - this post will be better with photos - check back tomorrow!

And the photos, as promised:

I’ve been cycling a fair bit round Northern Ireland over the past couple of months; mostly, they’ve been quite short trips, so I haven’t really felt like they’ve warranted separate write-ups for each. But i thought I’d add something about them here, in general, so I don’t forget. [Read More…]

So I took young Reuben for his first proper ride at the weekend. And, seeing as he seemed to have such a lovely time, I’ll let him tell you about it:

“I was so excited to be going out for a long ride! I’ve spent lots of time just commuting, and that’s ok, but it’s not much fun. Not compared to the promise of a Proper Ride at any rate, even if Aidan said this wasn’t going to be very long. (I have a feeling he might say that too often.) [Read More…]