KERRY FAVOUR
When roads start getting lumped in with the ‘World’s Best Drives’ crowd, it spells bad news for cyclists. On highways like America’s Route 66, or indeed Scotland’s answer to it, the North Coast 500, motorists drive to witness the magnificent scenery, often while testing the limits of their engine’s horsepower. It’s just not always clear in which order.
To this list you can add southwest Ireland’s Ring of Kerry, a 105-mile route that (mostly) hugs the coast of the Iveragh peninsula, and which at times feels as though it’s home to the planet’s largest concentration of 4x4s outside a Land Rover dealership. It’s a fabulous stretch of road that shows off this region’s unique landscape, if one where cyclists have to contend with drivers testing the elastic of the 100kph speed limit. Riding on it isn’t always the best example of the art form. Luckily, there are ways to avoid the hellbent highway hordes…
It was towards the end of a bikeless two-month sabbatical travelling around India last winter when, troubled by the idea of returning home to do an honest day’s work, my better half, Hannah, and I started planning our next trip. We kept coming back to bike touring – it would be new to both of us, me because I’d never strayed far from carbon racers, Hannah because she
