Day twenty-four

I did not want to get up this morning... Could've slept for forever. I mean, I got nine hours of sleep last night so it's not like I've been sleep starved or anything. My digestive system is still on the fritz tho'. To the point where I know I'm not absorbing all the nutrients in what I eat because it's just passin' right thru me.

Didn't burn my breakfast but still managed to fill the kitchen with smoke while cooking it. Gorram it. French folk in the dining room laughing at me. Man this is dripping in oil but I'm gonna eat it anyway.

Tap water here comes from under the bog and is coloured like tea. Hostelman says it's fine to drink it, so I guess I will. Better to turn it into actual tea first tho'.

Cycling here is much nicer in the sun than in the rain. Tons of uphills today tho'. Met a fellow cyclist along the way, him on his holidays too but based in a car. He stayed and chatted with me for a while, distracting and encouraging me enough to get up a pretty significant incline without stopping to rest. On downhills and flat stretches I kept up with him all right, but eventually lost him among the green suede hills. S'all right. I'm quite slow, carrying the weight of my gear. Didn't wanna slow him down.

Reaching the top of the Glengesh pass was brutal. At one point an elderly Irish man in a car stopped to encourage me. I ate a boiled egg and finished all my water by the end. When I reached the top, I strapped my countourROAM to my helmet and tried not to die coming down. Descent did something weird to my speedometer/cycle computer thingy but I think it's working all right again now?

Stopped for lunch in adorable town of Ardara, sitting at a picnic table in the sun by a river. Ate peanut butter and marshmallows on corn cakes. (don't judge me.) While I was sitting there, a little robin came to perch on the handlebars of my bike and keep an eye on me. (Shat on my handlebar bag tho', haha.) She kept coming back, begging for food I s'pose. I crumbled up a corn cake for her and she flew back and forth getting more. Should have a picture of her up there. I did see her stuff some food down the throat of a brown screaming fledgling on the fence.

Wonderful lunch by the river, soaking up the afternoon sun. Glutted myself on the internet I'd been lacking for a while. Finally posted the last entry and all. Lingered for over two hours because I didn't want to leave the warm lawn I sprawled out on.

Relaxing cycle for the rest of the day, past beaches and sunsoaked farmsteads. All subsequent hills were a bit tough on my already hardworked legs, but they were mostly short. I particularly enjoyed crossing the bridge over the Gweebarra delta for some reason. Sandy bay sparkled in the oblique sunlight. After that I passed miles and miles of ugly roadworks, looking for a place to camp for the night. Passed thru a lot of barren, empty peat bog, but then a forest came up on the left which seemed perfect so I pulled on in. Note word seemed.

all right hold on y'all the midges are inside my bag in my eyes ohgodi'll finish thi