Author Topic: Wild Ireland  (Read 3517 times)

High Moors Drifter

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Wild Ireland
« on: March 24, 2017, 10:18:31 pm »
Anto.

We've just been watching 'Wild Ireland: The Edge of the World' on BBC2. Although I've been to Ireland many years ago on business and have seen many pictures of your beautiful country this programme has shown us what a stunning place it really is. From the programme it looked as though much of the coast was inaccessible other than by foot. Is most of the west coast that rugged or was that selective filming? It looks a wonderful place to tour by bike.

Id.





jags

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Re: Wild Ireland
« Reply #1 on: March 24, 2017, 11:26:18 pm »
ah the west of ireland is stunning ,
i toured it few years back, first time i was that part of the country i was sure impressed.
Doolin is   beautiful great place for music  scenery is  class  8)
 myself and  bikepacker climbed  the Healy pass tough climb on a loaded touring bike but one at the top  wow you think someone turned on the HD stunning views and the color was amazing .
heading that direction again in may  hopefully not as many big climbs my bones are not able for that anymore ;D

anto.

Pavel

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Re: Wild Ireland
« Reply #2 on: May 21, 2017, 09:49:26 pm »
While I do like the thought of that Irish Green and it's lush grass, what would really draw me to tour there would be another color.  Brown.  Ale brown. What a heat-warming color that is.

Andre Jute

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Re: Wild Ireland
« Reply #3 on: May 22, 2017, 06:38:19 am »
You don't actually have to ride out in the wind and rain in Ireland. You can sit in a country pub and niff the peat bogs in your Irish whisky while you tell tall stories of heroic journeys. That's what most Irish cyclists do.

alcyst

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Re: Wild Ireland
« Reply #4 on: May 31, 2017, 10:35:13 am »
If the whole west coast thing appeals try looking up the Wild Atlantic Way. There is an Audax based on that route. It is a hardcore event. The coast is hilly (all those scenic cliffs and ocean beachs)

http://www.wawaudax.com/route.html

There are reports out there;
http://ultradiscostu.blogspot.ie/2016/07/wild-atlantic-way-audax-ireland-ride.html

Choice quotes;
"The conditions were the toughest yet including some really strong head and side winds which slowed our progress significantly. It took us 10 hours to cover the first 100km"
"The wind on this very exposed peninsular was unbelievable. It reduced my pace to an absolute crawl"


I have not cycled the west coast, though a few people in my club have. In good weather it is a lovely. There are towns and transport links at convenient points.

alcyst

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Re: Wild Ireland
« Reply #5 on: May 31, 2017, 01:31:17 pm »
You've heard of credit card touring? If you want to try coffee table touring there is always;

"Exploring Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way"

http://threerockbooks.com/index.php/exploring-irelands-wild-atlantic-way-book/

Just saw it in Great Outdoors, looks well.

geocycle

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Re: Wild Ireland
« Reply #6 on: May 31, 2017, 01:34:46 pm »
Enjoying this thread.  I thought the 2 part series was absolutely stunning. We have come to expect high standards of wildlife progs but this one really lifted the bar.

Thanks also to the bike route info.  I feel a plan hatching
 

Pavel

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Re: Wild Ireland
« Reply #7 on: May 31, 2017, 08:08:29 pm »
Is there any way for us who are in the US to watch the series?

Andre Jute

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Re: Wild Ireland
« Reply #8 on: May 31, 2017, 10:41:44 pm »
Is there any way for us who are in the US to watch the series?

My wife and I, tipped off by the OP, made a point of watching it twice, even though we used to tour up there (by car, and I've been around twice in a sailing yacht, a somewhat tougher experience) whenever we had foreign guests. Well worth the time.

For a Stateside resident to see it, unless you can find those two programs loaded up to YouTube, I think it likely you'll have to commit copyright theft and find a torrent to download. I wouldn't worry overly much about the rights of it: the BBC in Northern Ireland paid for it with British taxpayer money, and no doubt there was some of Anto's and my tax money in there too. (Technically, the British and Irish pay a compulsory license fee each to their local State broadcaster, but it is a tax by another name.)

If you're quick you may still catch it on various repealers, the BBC's being called iPlayer (honest). It won't let you in unless you have a British address, but that's easy to arrange. I use an old Cambridge address when something is on the BBC repeater but not on Freeview (I think that's what they call the satellite service that gives us the BBC, which are about the only channels we watch, here in Ireland (1)) but from the States you just get a free virtual private network (VPN) that lets you choose your server by country. Unfortunately Opera, a browser with a really good free VPN, doesn't let you choose the UK as a virtual "home country".

(1) When we first got satellite TV, I spent literally days just getting my head around the nomenclature so that at least I could tell the electronics suppliers and installers what I wanted. For my efforts we jumped from 3 useless channels to 300 useless channels.