Monday 22nd September 2008

So, that’s the fast ferry leaving the port is it? Not to worry, bound to be another one in a couple of hours? Not until 17:45? Right, then.
Ted Simon said that the interruptions are the journey (or something like that) so I settled back to see what Dun Laoghaire had in store for me for a whole afternoon.
And? Nothing, Zip, Nada, Zilch, etc.
And then I broke my glasses.
Seasoned traveller that I had become, I simply switched to my emergency pair of prescription sun glasses and tried to look cool and mysterious as I rode into the ferry’s murky vehicle deck.
There was no fooling the other bikers on the boat – they were mostly hardened party animals returning from the Quay Vipers weekend bash at Benone, Northern Ireland. They rightly found the vision of me starting my big trip by riding into darkest Wales in the dark wearing shades to be just hilarious.
I have to say it wasn’t all that hilarious. I hadn’t even intended to leave Holyhead but I got caught among the trucks and ended up on the main road to Bangor. After ten miles a brown tourist sign for a campsite seemed more appealing than an inglorious death on the A55. Unfortunately, like most brown tourist signs, it promised much but delivered nothing. I arrived in Rhosneigr and went gratefully to the only B&B sign. Was it my scruffy bike gear? Was it my Northern Irish accent? Did they think I was Osama bin Laden? For whatever reason, ‘vacancies’ suddenly became ‘no vacancies’ at an obviously empty B&B. Luckily, I was directed to an excellent B&B run by the lovely Cathy Marshall who even went outside with a torch to organise safe parking for my bike. That’ll be a big plug for www.angleseyaccommodation.co.uk then.