Leaving the hotel we had a quick tour round the dry docks in the cool morning air. It was ‘Titanic’ this and ‘Titanic’ that but disappointingly, the actual ‘Titanic’ was nowhere to be found. We did however find the old pirate radio ship HMS Caroline.
The funny little fella on the Comber greenway wished us “Top o’ the mornin’” as we cycled on the 10miles for breakfast.
From here it was up to Newtonards and then the rural back roads clockwise circumnavigating ‘Strangford Lough’ following Sustrans route 99. This took us out to the coast at Ballywalter then down the Mourne coastal route only stopping for Mr Whippy and milkshakes at Portavogie before making our way down to catch the little ferry at the aptly named ‘Portaferry’.
Here, the 4 o’ clock boat brought across all the kids from the Strangford grammar school and then we jumped on, payed our quid, and jumped off 5 minutes later.
At the 52 mile mark with only 2 miles to go our old bones needed oiling so it was fortunate that we came across the ‘Curran’s Inn’
Finally into Ardglass, a small fishing harbour with tiny boats and crab pots and a ‘wet’ pub that sold a locally brewed dark beer called ‘Guinness’....how quaint!
Belfast band ‘Ash’ have always been a firm favourite on my indie playlist so Iv dug this track out for you to enjoy. Tim Wheeler of the band was only 16 when he had this hit in the charts in 1995.
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