Day 25 - Dungloe to Killybegs - 105 kms

Could easily have titled this Henley hits double bricked wall after looking at the sorry state of the wet mess that crawled into the B&B at Killybegs!

Had some fine early riding in warmish conditions along winding roads with steep pinches in this increasingly isolated part of the Donegal peninsular. You knew this as the area has road signs on Gaelic only with names of towns often bearing little resemblance to the English names you'd have on a map!

Towering Mtns soon signalled a change of scenery and some hard riding. A 5 km winding road at Glangesh pass required us to negotiate gradients of up to 17% as we climbed for spectacular views of the valley behind us.

Incredible vista at Slieve League !

A descent towards the coast and lunch was frighteningly fast with narrow and rough road conditions shaking the bejesus out of the bikes. Another steep climb and another big descent brought us through Carrick to Tellin and the turnoff to some of the most amazing scenery you'll see anywhere in the world

The cycle to Slieve League was 7kms of torture with 3 short climbs near the end of 20% requiring kgs of sweat by the pannier carrying brigade while Paul with his lightweight bike and superior climbing skills literally flew up.

A sign advising motorists to park 2kms from the viewing pt at Bunglass signalled what was ahead with the narrow road hugging a cliff face with in parts a ridiculous drop to the Atlantic ocean below which I could easily see sitting perched on my bike

We finally arrived at the small car park to be treated to stunning views of sea cliffs rising straight from the ocean for some 2000ft - these cliffs are designated as the highest in Europe KH even impressed "Awright I suppose"!

By now the rain had moved in as well as the gloom and the 24km ride to Killybegs became a war of attrition negotiating steep climbs and bullet like rain on descent

I was sooooo glad to take Pauls offer to wait on road for Kev who was at this stage nearly 30mins behind (had hit the wall) as I could get warm in our b&b

Kev eventually crawled in speechless until he'd had a warm cuppa - over food and a few pints we all admitted it had been a tough day with fantastic cycling and incredible scenery. Paul's odo had showed we'd climbed some 1600 meters over the day which wasn't too bad for us old buggers

We thanked Paul for his great effort in organizing our 3 days riding and b&bs and promised that we'd look after him if he ever made it to OZ - we figure putting lead weights on him and requiring him to ride backwards up Donna Buang on a 40c day would be an appropriate way tp show our appreciation!