As a child I spent a lot of summer holidays on the East Coast of Ireland. We had a caravan at Portoriel and I used to walk across Clogherhead to the harbour and fish for mackerel off the stone pier. My mother’s family came from Carndonagh, which is in north, near Malin Head, and we visited once, packed into a mini, and me, being so young, asking if the copper pipes in the kitchen were made of ‘gold’.

The West Coast was very much a different land to me from the East, both wild and mysterious. The first time I went there as and adult was to Kinsale, Dingle and Kenmare on honeymoon. I remember being enchanted by the fuchsia hedges around Dingle and the craic in the pubs. Unfortunately our car was stolen in Dublin en route home and we lost all the photographs (we did get the car back and I Hotwire it all the way home with no number plates and didn’t get stopped once!).

When I saw the chance to apply to do the TransAtlantic Way race, organised by Adrian O’Sullivan, I thought I could revisit some of the places we went to on honeymoon and really get to know this fabled part of Ireland. I put an entry in for the Setanta Route which is shorter than the Cu Culhainn at 1700km. There is a way marked route up the West Coast of Ireland, The Wild Atlantic Way, and we would find ourselves covering long sections of it.

My entry confirmed I planned my trip there and back by train and ferry.

I have become accustomed to plotting train trips with the bike using the Trainline app and had to sort out connections to Holyhead, then a ferry to Dublin and then a train to Cork where we would start. I now see plotting the transfers as all part of the adventure and especially like it if I can use trains. You get to meet people or read, snooze and relax en route. Oh, argue with guards about the useless bike spaces provided on some trains….

I did stay overnight in Dublin in a Premier Inn which meant when I got to Cork I could cycle straight to registration, get my tracker and Brevet card and find my overnight accommodation which was in the same place. The plethora of cycle lanes in Dublin and Cork made the transit much easier than I anticipated and I was delighted with the student rooms Adrian had secured a a bargain price in Cork. Really comfortable.

There was also a photographer on hand to capture the riders before the start.

Finally there was the pre race briefing. Adrian talked about the inspiration Mike Hall had given him. He described the vagaries of the route: sheep and cows in the road, gravel on the bends and the fact that, because there was a car rally in Donegal, if we didn’t make the cut off by midnight on the Tuesday we would have to divert inland and miss the most north westerly part of the coastal route. I particularly wanted to do the latter as it would take me to Malin Head and past Carndonagh but I thought I would be pushed to make the distance before the cut off. He briefed us on the 2 checkpoints. One at Mizen Head “which is quite early on but it gives me a chance to sort out any Trackers that aren’t working” and the second at his cousin Annie’s farm in the middle of nowhere. He told us how Annie had insisted he route participants there as she loved meeting and looking after them. We were to be aware that it was a proper working farm and not to expect too much.

Briefing over it was time to eat and go to bed as we were to be at the Two Working Men statue for 4:30am.