Dingle to Sandy Bay

This ride started Ok, grey and overcast, sure, but not malevolent…..not yet…. a slight wind with the odd light shower. We headed back to Dingle to pick up some snacks for the journey over Connor Pass……..and that is where the weather turned nasty….very very nasty. Spectacularly nasty. We were by this stage getting  really tired of the storms – one tent destroyed…..with only the odd day here and there of sunny weather…… We had cycled through  storm after storm after storm – the tail end of three hurricanes with fog and rain and squally  wind and showers in between. Connor Pass was tough, and to make things just the other side of hateful, the bike got a slow puncture but with gale force winds and driving rain I could not face repairing the puncture in that weather. So at times we stopped while I pumped up the tire……

spectacular place……

……Then the horror……it was really a spectacular place….. the decent sublime and views too, we were just  a little frayed round the edges with having to cycle through yet another bloody fucking storm……

 

 

Following the decent we had a horrendous cross wind that repeatedly tried to blow us of the road……it was wearing very thin. The sempiternal autumn continued apace……

Towards the end though we were rewarded with a fab rainbow that stayed with us for the last hour or so of the days ride…….

 

Finally fixing the slow puncture

Camping once again by the sea…….and then it was time for some much needed hot food…

Once camp was set up we did finally see the clouds break and a little sunshine came to warm us….the rain had been bitterly cold, but it wasn’t to last……it became very interesting as, once again the wind continued to rise. We started to hear loud flapping sounds outside our tent and looking cross from us saw that the large tent thing attached to a mobile caravan was being  destroyed by the gale. It quickly became a total mess and quite dangerous as tables chairs wet-suits, flapping tent and poles were all being blown about, knocked over, and generally wrecked by the wind.

Well the owners were finally contacted but it was after dark before they arrived and we pitched in to help retrieve all their stuff and dismantle what was left of their side tent. I had tried to secure their tent as best I could but it had been badly ripped apart by the gale.

We decided to stay here for  couple of days to explore, and to let this bloody storm pass by and at the head of the strand found lot’s of fossils and some great views…..and finally some proper sunny warm weather

 

One of many fossil ammonoidea

Strange looking fossil…..