From Hook we headed north towards Waterford, the local roads were barely wide enough for two vehicles to pass, luckily there was little traffic, still I was relieved to reach the dual carriageway around Waterford and the impressive new bridge across the Suir.
Our plan for the next couple of days was to do a bit of pedalling. We like cycleways, especially those that follow dismantled railways. So whenever there's one nearby we try to include it in our itinerary. In Ireland they have a few, the longest is the Waterford Greenway. At 46km it is too long to cover in one go, a few decades ago we could have managed it, but not now, even battery assisted as we are.
We hatched a plan to cover the northern section by heading from Waterford to the village of Kilmacthomas. Reviews on Google mentioned that it was OK to stay overnight in the former station car park. This all seemed great, stay in Kilmacthomas for a night, cover the Waterford end of the trail then move on to the municipal motorhome parking on the quayside at Dungarvon and tackle the southern section from there.
The plan fell apart straightaway. Locals in Kilmacthomas had purloined almost all the spaces in the trail's car park as a free place to store vehicles if you didn't have your own drive. There was scarcely space to squeeze the van into the narrow bays, so using the area overnight was out of the question. We gave up on the idea of pedalling to Waterford and headed instead to Dungarvon.
In fact the forecast sunshine and showers proved to be more rainy than sunny, blustery too, an annoying northwesterly with a chilly edge to it. We probably would have abandoned the cycle trip anyway on the basis that there is little point in getting needlessly soaked.
The designated motorhome parking in Dungarvon was much better than the others so far, inexpensive at €10 for 24hrs, with a well designed service point; pleasantly situated too, by the water's edge with a view of the bay and the harbour. Our improved situation was further rewarded, a rainbow arched across the bay.
Dungarvon itself is pleasant, but like a lot of the places we've driven through it is quite workaday, not particularly stylish but not unpleasant either. Unlike Arklow the town centre seemed to be thriving with a good range of locally owned business.
The motorhome parking area by the sports centre has about ten spaces with a few more free spots by the quayside. The paid for bays were wider and flatter so we opted for one of those.
It is a popular spot, the half dozen free spaces available when we arrived in the early afternoon filled-up soon afterwards - a mixture of people, British, Dutch, German and French, as well as Irish.
When we woke next morning it was clear, if a little chilly. A brief shower around tennish, no more rain until early afternoon, if AccuWeather's rain radar app was to be believed. So we unloaded the bikes straight after breakfast and made an early start on the trail. As forecast ,we did get slightly damp around tennish but the sun broke through soon afterwards and we had a pleasant pedal for a couple of hours.
For the first few miles the greenway follows the coast with spectacular views of Clonea Bay and Helvick Head.
Further north the landscape is pleasantly undulating with small valleys dotted with May blossom. After an hour or so the Monavullagh Mountains appeared to the north, we decided to turn back at this point hoping we would have time for lunch at the Railway Cottage café before the rain arrived.
Both the trail and the café were unexpectedly busy given it was a Tuesday afternoon. Cycling on the trail seems to be a popular activity for older teenagers, we passed a few groups, some just friends, others on more organised school trips. We wondered if the two dozen or so occupying the outside tables at the café were on an end of sixth form trip. They looked too old for school, but a bit gawky and uncool to be university students. We managed to find a spare picnic bench in their midst.
The Railway Cottage café is positively reviewed on Google and TripAdvisor; I continued my Pan-European longitudinal study of delicious toasties, Gill had a quiche with salad. There was nothing wrong with the food, unremarkable is perhaps the best way to describe it.
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AccuWeather's rain radar feature proved astonishingly accurate. When I consulted its animated map at around 11.30am it predicted that a spot of rain would drift across Dungarvon bay at around 1.10pm. As we cycled back to the van it began to drizzle slightly. I checked the time, it was 1.13pm.
Smart phones are amazing travelling companions really, a world of information at your fingertips, it will play more or less any song you wish, if you stumble across an unfamiliar wayside flower it can identify it; Google Earth puts the topography of the whole planet in the palm of your hand. Of course you can opt to watch dodgy TikToc clips, become outraged or entranced by fake news or become embroiled in a Twitter spat. Online culture has made ignorance as much a lifestyle choice as anything else, but that is down to the user you can't really hold the phone responsible.
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