PowerCycle

06/24 One of these days I’ll need to go back and try to figure out how many ferry crossings I’ve made. It’s got to be at least 20 by now. Rosslare to Fishguard was 3 1/2 hours of watching Happy Feet Two. OK, it was on but I never watched it. I was pretty impressed that they had free wifi on board for the crossing. The crossing cost a damn fortune though. $58 to get across. I’m so tired right now. Birds woke me up at 4am and I couldn’t get back to sleep and then by 5am I figured I’d better just stay up or I’ll sleep through the alarm.

No rain for the 5 mile ride to the terminal. I bitch about the rain a lot but let me tell you how bad it is. In Wales the newspaper headline from a couple days ago was something like, “June could be the wettest in 200 years.” There is major flooding right now in northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Maybe I mentioned this before but when I was in England last time the guy running a CG said he hadn’t seen a spring this wet in the 52 years he’s lived here. Every time I look at the 10 forecast for anywhere in the UK it almost always shows some chance of rain.

The Celtic Sea crossing wasn’t all that smooth but nothing a couple cups of coffee couldn’t cure. There were some freaky looking Hells Angels motorcycle gang members on board (from Wales). I haven’t seen these guys around since–I don’t even know–maybe South Dakota. There was one other bicycle touring rider but I didn’t talk to him because when I first saw him without realizing he’s riding a bike I thought, “Man, that guy is creepy looking.” I guess I would have thought he was creepy on the bike too. Actually maybe the problem is I think all guys with mustaches look creepy. He looked a lot like that guy on Breaking Bad. I hope he doesn’t read this.

Thanks to some dark clouds rolling in and figuring I’d have about as much luck wild camping in Wales as I did anywhere else in the UK, I stopped after 19 miles and lot’s of climbing at Rosebush Caravan Park. I’d been warned the guy turns away tent campers sometimes and sure enough he pointed at the grass and said it’s too wet so I couldn’t stay. I had to turn on the charm big time but he gave in and we found a perfectly fine spot. He’s actually a friendly old fellow named Gareth. The bathroom faculties aren’t going to win any awards but he went over and cleaned them up which was nice. Paid 5 GBP which wasn’t bad at all.

My plans for July have changed for the (much) better. I’m meeting a friend in Lincoln, England on July 7th and I’ll be there until the 15th. Since I still have a couple weeks to kill the plan is to keep on heading east. The big destination is Stonehenge (and Woodhenge) but on the way I’ll head through Bath and check that out. I won’t have time to ride up to Lincoln, nor do I want to after my joyous time riding in England last time, so what I’ll probably do is catch a train from London.

GPX track

It doesn’t all look quite so picturesque

First night camping in Wales

The harbor at Fishguard