Storm Betty was not looking pretty for us. We had hoped overnight it might blow away into other directions, but it was not to be.

Our goal was to ride to Limerick Junction, then reassess. Limerick Junction is in County Tipperary, not county Limerick, go figure. Reminds me of Burnie Airport being in Wynyard Waratah Council area.

The camera did not come out much. We were on a very busy road, did have a reasonable verge for most, with a super shite headwind to contend with. It is hard work as the wind can buffer you suddenly.

However, we did stop to look at this structure, still standing…just!

It is Kilduff House, constructed in 1550 on the outskirts of New Pallasgreen.

Lots of wars and fighting in the area including ownership fighting led to it’s demise as no one looked after it. I imagine it’s life left is limited as it is now fenced off, seemingly waiting for the walls to come tumbling down.

We did like this sign in an adjacent paddock.

We had crossed into County Tipperary.

“It’s a long way to Tipperary” was a popular British military marching song and we really only deviated to this area today so I could say that – it is a long way to Tipperary, and still we were 4 km short of the town.

Tony’s great great grandfather William Atkinson was born in county Tipperary in 1844. In 1850 the family were about to emigrate to Australia when grandfather James Atkinson was murdered. Emigration was postponed until 1854.

William married Eliza, who is Tony’s great great grandmother. William had an affair with his house maid Fanny and she became pregnant and William had two children born at around the same time (Eliza’s 5th and Fanny’s 1st). Sadly Eliza died shortly after her 5th child was born with a puerperal infection.

William later remarried Amelia and together they had 11 children.

We made it to Limerick Junction which is a village and hosts the region railway station.

We knew that the bikes could be an issue on the train as generally there is room for only two. The train travels from Dublin to Cork so likely fairly full.

The lady in the station office rang the train Inspector David, and I could hear her say they needed to get the train due to the weather, and he said he would see what he could do.

So the train arrived, it was super crazy with people having emerged from the Limerick train all rushing aboard. The bike carriage was full, but at the last moment David turned up and ushered us in to here, a spot between two carriages.

Here we stood, with only one stop being Mallow.

Mallow was where we had accomodation for the night, paid for, non refundable. It was just out of town and not available until 5 pm. We would have got soaked hanging around waiting then getting there. Plus we do like to eat dinner each night.

We made the call to travel instead to Cork, a big city, and only 20 km from the ferry terminal we needed to be at the following day. That way if the weather continued to be detrimental to riding, we had options ( ie maxi taxi).

The weather warnings were clear. 130 kmh winds is indoor material. Anything above 30 kmh is tough enough, and we had 30-50 kmh in the morning ride.

The train ride was surprisingly smooth given we stood the whole way. We needed to juggle the bikes only for the lady with a food cart who came through to the last carriage then returned.

We arrived in Cork to rain. We had nowhere to stay, and I had spent much of the time on the train searching. Most accomodation was fully booked. Plus we have the issue of the bikes. I do not like to book non refundable accomodation without knowing they can store bikes ok.

Getting off the train we headed into the city area, and the rain started to pour down. We stopped at the first hotel but no go. The second hotel, yes! But they wanted 30 euro more than I could get on Hotel.com

Using my iPad I booked the same hotel for less, however it was still $390 aud! That was cheap for Cork this wet Friday, and it did not include breakfast. Normal hotel room.

However, they let us in 90 minutes early and stored our bikes in their locked conference room.

The view from reception as I booked and looked outside.

We hoped to go for a walk at some point but the weather did not let up. Updated weather warning at 6 pm.

We had dinner in the hotel, although not particularly relaxing as the couple nearby were having a ding dong argument. We felt like we were imposing and did not know where to look.

We watched some Irish tv. Guess what was on?

The rain eased as we hopped into bed…..

Thanks for reading 😊❣️