16th June, 2025

I had my breakfast of instant porridge, bread roll and banana along with instant coffee in my room.

I was off early and on a very nice bike path, the Great Western Greenway, out towards Achill Island.

I had now done over a thousand kilometres. Originally I had thought the route would take me 8 days but a plan to finish in 7 days was fomenting in my brain. It seemed feasible so long as I had a fair wind and no catastrophes.

There was another memorial to the Spanish Armada on my route. Apparently 5 ships from the Armada sank just off the coast here as they tried to make their way home.

If the wind they experienced was anything like the block headwind I had cycling out to Achill Island then I am not surprised they were wrecked! The flags by the side of the road were straining the poles they were attached to and it was a real battle to maintain momentum or, if I turned sideways onto the wind, to stay upright.

That didn’t detract from the views. The coast line was ragged with multiple inlets and so beautiful.

Eventually I got to turn North up the coast before heading East towards Ballina where I planned to stop.

I made a stop at a chemist to buy some insoles. I had been suffering achilles pain and attributed it to some new supports I had bought for my shoes shortly before the race. I had taken them out a couple of days ago and was riding with no insoles which seemed to help but I was worried I would wear through my socks as the top of the cleats were now exposed. A vey nice assistant in the chemists cut some insoles to fit and solved the problem.

I also refuelled at a petrol station.

The road to Ballina was very straight and I had a tailwind.

I had booked another guesthouse and after some wandering around, once I got to where I thought it was, I located the front door just as someone who worked there arrived, let me in, and gave me advice on where not to eat! I decided to repeat my Tesco raid and settled for more cold pasta, chocolate milk and cold rice pudding. Tomorrow would determine if I could make it to Derry in two days or not, so I collapsed into bed and fell asleep in moments.