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The Northern Ireland Game of Thrones Tour

March 3, 2017 by TomBoyNI

With biking season now rapidily approaching you may be thinking to yourself, ‘Where shall I go? What shall I do?’

The Northern Ireland Tourist board have an entire section of their website dedicated to GoT locations (and since I did their original tour they have updated it further):

https://www.discovernorthernireland.com/gameofthrones/

Northern Ireland - Game of Thrones Filming Locations — Northern Ireland – Game of Thrones Filming Locations

Personally I haven’t seen a single episode of Game of Thrones, crazy eh? But forgetting that each of these locations are simply stunning! The show has picked them for very obvious reasons and when you you see them for yourself you will understand why! Simply set the location into your satnav, and press the Winding Roads Button (if you are lucky enough to have one) and enjoy the ride, because you will absolutely enjoy the fnal destination!

Here is just a little taster for each location to wet your appitite, the rest I will leave up to you :

Update 28/10/2016 : VIDEO ADDED to #WAWIn1Week : Wild Atlantic Way In 1 Week : Day 1– Kinsale to Kenmare.

October 28, 2016 by TomBoyNI

It’s better late than never, and this whole video editing lark is a lot harder and more time consuming that I initially would have anticipated, however after far too long a wait here is the footage from Day 1.

I literally had to trawl through hours of footage but the fact that it is over a year old is pretty irrelevant, the route itself is still very much there, it took 10,000s of years to for the earth to make the coast, hopefully it has millions more years left for us to enjoy, so once again apologies it took so long, and apologies for the fact I am a supreme novice when it comes to video editing, however hopefully you can enjoy the scenery, (and the soundtrack) and maybe even be inspired to pop over to Ireland to experience this epic route!

The remainder of the videos are coming and will be uploaded as soon as I can piece them together, if you want to make sure you get notifications when they are available make sure to follow this blog or me on Twitter or Facebook.

Thanks…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AuZcDwwZYA]

Castles of Ireland 2016 : Tullynally Castle, County Westmeath, Republic of Ireland :

September 1, 2016 by TomBoyNI

Introduction :

My Castles of Ireland 2016 Tour is part of a larger UK & Ireland run Challenge as can be found on Adventure Bike Rider.

I will add the add the castles to this blog along with a little bit of their history to wet your appetite as to just another thing that Ireland and Northern Ireland has to capture your imagination and set your sights on. You can take in all of the castles on this island in on one trip of 676 miles, that according to Google will take you 14 hours 50 minutes. Of course that means no stops, food, leg stretches, or photo ops.

Castles in Ireland / Northern Ireland - The Route — Castles in Ireland / Northern Ireland – The Route

Castles of Ireland 2016 : Ballinafad Castle, County Sligo, Republic of Ireland :

August 17, 2016 by TomBoyNI

Introduction :

My Castles of Ireland 2016 Tour is part of a larger UK & Ireland run Challenge as can be found on Adventure Bike Rider.

Castles of Ireland 2016 : Enniskillen Castle, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland

August 10, 2016 by TomBoyNI

My Castles of Ireland 2016 Tour is part of a larger UK & Ireland run Challenger as can be found on Adventure Bike Rider.

#WAWIn1Week – Wild Atlantic Way In 1 Week – The Gear…

October 21, 2017August 10, 2015 by TomBoyNI

So having just recently completed my trip of the West Coast of Ireland in 1 Week, along the longest Coastal Route in the World – The Wild Atlantic Way, taking in over 2,600km it is now time for me to put this trip into some sort of words, and more importantly share my photographs of this stunning area with the rest of world, and hopefully inspire a few more of you to take on this route.

The route itself is no secret, it is brilliantly signposted from start to finish and is easily completed without a sat nav, map of even the slightest clue about the geography of Ireland. There are numerous towns and villages that you will pass through and the options from accommodation range from a bit of wild camping to official campsites, or gorgeous little family run B&Bs right through to Hotel Resorts and Spas. Brilliant. Initially I had planned on completing this trip with my only accommodation being at the side of the road where I stopped. Just prior to my trip I decided on changing this due to the predicted weather, and the constant rain the Met Office told me I would be facing. It turns out on this trip over the one week timescale the change to B&B style accommodation was a good one!

This first post though will cover the gear that I used on my trip, it will touch on my motorcycle, and the gear I used for the daily ride and how it held up with the weather of an Irish ‘Summer.’ Summer in this case needs the ‘ ‘ marks, as at the time of typing I think we are somewhere close to Day 60 of consecutive rain falling somewhere in the country (its a small country) and having just passed the coldest, wettest July since 2003. On saying that as you will see over the up and coming #WAWIn1Week posts I was pretty lucky with the weather. I did get a good, in fact severe soaking, twice – enough to test the gear to the absolute limits, but for most of the time I was only hitting passing showers, or trying to keep them in my mirrors! With this route hugging the West Coast of Ireland and therefore the limits of the Atlantic Ocean it is subject to some pretty extreme weather conditions and one thing to remember if you are over and on the route what looks grim ahead may take a dramatic change around the next corner. The weather is really that changeable and if you just look out over the ocean you will get a very good idea of what the jet stream is bringing across to you over the next couple of hours.

So here we go, the gear I used and how it coped with taking on the world’s longest dedicated coastal route, 2,600km and six days on the coast…

#WAWIn1Week – Wild Atlantic Way In 1 Week – Day Zero Travel Day

July 26, 2015 by TomBoyNI

photo 9DE6D4A4-570B-43CB-9154-A0AFEC94E003_zpsek72tid4.jpg Today my journey along the West Coast of Ireland begins.

I was planning on waiting for the perfect weather but so far this summer has been terrible and there is no sign of an imminent improvement! So I decided it was time to bite the bullet and go for it. I booked the time off work and today is Day Zero. I call it that as it isn’t really a day on the Wild Atlantic Way. It is just a day of travelling to get to the start of it. So after 260 miles and 1.25 tanks of fuel I finally have arrived at Kinsale, County Cork.

So far I have experienced every possible weather except snow and ice! The first 90 miles of my journey were wet, nah they were soaking wet, wet is actually drier that how wet it actually was! If you can work that out, and as a chap in a garage said to me, ‘At least it can’t get any worse.’ After that it got dry and windy, which I welcomed as it dried me out quite nicely and just as I got dry it got wet again, only this time wetter! Visibility was about 100 metres at best, it could only be described as grim, really really grim! Then I got to Cork, the rain stopped and the sun actually came out.

I arrived in Kinsale, Co. Cork which is a gorgeous little harbour town. It has loads of quality Irish bars and with it being a Sunday night every one of them was pumping out live music, the town was buzzing! It really is a crackin’ wee place, with loads of bikes zipping about and loads of tourists hopping from pub to pub. I threw my stuff into B&B and found a chippy called Dino’s and if you are ever here it is simply a must!

Then I took a walk about the town snapping a few photos before retiring for the evening to do this, update the Twitter and Instagram to set me up for a good night’s sleep before actual Day One!

Disclosure :