Once again a very busy time of the year for us so I am a little behind with my blog. Since I last wrote we have done our Tour of Ireland and Italy & Slovenia tours.

The Tour of Ireland started off rather dramatically by what can only be described as a ‘lively’ crossing from Cairnryan to Belfast. During the crossing Allen Laing’s bike went over damaging another, but fortunately doing little damage. Having reported the damage to Stena, the group decided that despite the strong winds they wanted to go up the Antrim Coast road, which is always a pretty route.  All was well until stopping at the Carrick-a-Rede viewpoint where the gods decided that it was not to be Allen’s day and blew his bike over into another, smashing his front brake lever and reservoir. This was followed by tour leader (more of that later) John Clarkes new 1200GS being picked by the wind and flipped on its back, fortunately this time the damage being no more than a few scratches.

 The next day dawned still windy but a little brighter, Allen set off for Belfast in search of a replacement lever, whilst everyone else followed the route through the wild but beautiful Donegal countryside. Allen returned triumphantly that evening having got a replacement part from someone who the dealer knew privately. The friendliness and the lengths the Irish (both sides of the border) will go to help never ceases to amaze me and is something we have encountered several times on our regular visits to Ireland.

 The tour soon got into a regular routine, a mixture of sun and rain which got better each day as the tour headed down the West Coast through County Clare, along the Dingle Peninsular to a two night stop at the popular tourist town of Killarney. Couple more dramas along the way, with one bike developing an electrical fault and another with a puncture, but nothing stopped everyone being blown away (excuse the pun) by the stunning scenery and friendliness of the locals.

 I am in the process of sorting out the photos into some kind of chronological order, but it may take some time as everyone’s cameras have different times and dates!

 We will be returning to Ireland in 2015 (Sunday 30 Aug – Sat 5^th September) for a 4 night stay in Killarney allowing us plenty of time to tour the beautiful Dingle, Beara and Kerry Peninsulas.