OK, now I am home from my latest tour. And I am happy to report I did so much better on the mountains than I have ever done before! This route, the Ring of Kerry - Dingle Peninsula - is the same one I did in 1998. Back then I had to jump off the bike and walk up the steep bits. This time - guess what - I cycled! Some times slowly - in the granny gear as the Irish and English say - but I was thrilled! Yaay! I could not wait to tell my friends from spinning when I got home.

The biggest accomplishment for me was making it up and over Connors Pass. That is a steep 4 mile climb. I know 4 miles does not sound like much but its sort of a narrow cork screw shaped road. And we did 10 miles to get to the start of the Pass. It has no guard rails and a sheer 1500 drop on one side. It's actually scarier driving up it than cycling. (In 1998 I did not even attempt this, OK, I got a lift in the van!). Beautiful scenery all along the way which goes without saying. (In fact I will post a link to a site I found with amazing photos of Ireland, sorted by county, it really is breathtaking.)

Our crazy tour guide and some of the other people who were in the van had gone on ahead and written our names in chalk on the road. Along the way I met 3 pairs of German college kids riding with their pannier bags. Thank goodness I did not have to worry about my luggage! Two of the young German guys were stopped at a lookout point chain smoking. Well at the top my crazy guide and all the people in the group were cheering wildly as each cyclist made it to the top. Even the German kids who were not in the group. Four of them had passed me on the way... and when I finally got there everyone cheered for me too. Even tourists who had driven up and didn't know us. It was funny. ;-)

Right now I would love to be there trying it again. I returned home late on Sept 10 and now the trip seems like it was a 100 years ago.

I will post a link to the photos on a separate post. I need to make sure its still an active link....