I’m missing my anniversary today

DAY 3 – Saturday 30th May
I’m missing my Anniversary today (Sorry Sharyn)
Stage 3: Birr to Enniskillen 170km
“Some say the devil is dead, the devil is dead and buried in Killarney.”
Bet you are all singing that now to yourselves.
Well having just come from there, he’s not dead, he’s alive and well. He’s living in Boyle and his name is Enda Madden. Yesterday’s “FLAT” stage of 186km involved a c**t of a climb early on. It was 6.5 km straight up in the air. Ryanair nearly hit me. Anyways I got over it. Every morning we receive a route breakdown each from Enda. He has every twist and turn, every climb, hill, bad corner and distance on it. It is ultra-professional. His accuracy and local knowledge on the ground are so impressive that I expect to see a direction like, “Turn left at the field where Paddy Joe’s shorthorn cow is looking over the wall at you”. It could happen yet. Now a child could follow these directions.
However, 2 lads yesterday, Brian Nerney and Seanie Brennan managed to miss a turn? I can’t fathom it.
Apparently the 2 boys were reminiscing about life back in the 1950s when they were young lads and missed the turn.
Speaking of Brian Nerney. Brian and I are roomies! The lads have christened our room, “The Media Centre”. You would want to see the setup. I have one laptop to write my blog. Brian has satellite dishes, monitors, radar screens, laptops and a feed from Al Jazeera and Sky News. It’s like an outside broadcast unit from RTE. (see pic)
I told him last night, “You better turn off them f**king things or you’ll land a plane in the room.
He also has a custom made pillow. The hotel pillows just don’t do it for him. It’s a microwave pillow.
He can get 2 hours sleep in 4 minutes. Anyway, my arse is so sore that today I’m going to tie the pillow to my saddle or stick it down the back of my shorts. He’ll get some night’s sleep tonight after I’ve let a few protein enhanced rippers into it. My arse has featured heavily on facebook comments. I thank you all for your concern. For those interested, it looks like a bag of spuds. Black and blue spuds.
The weather has been outstanding so far. I haven’t seen a drop of rain. It did rain early yesterday morning before I got up. Enda got a good heavy shower yesterday. (He deserved it)
Someone else has been outstanding and that’s Oliver Donagher. He’s at the top of every climb and drag with water and food and words of encouragement. He’s a superstar. I couldn’t thank him enough for keeping me going. In fairness all of the lads encourage me.
A very strange thing happened in Rathkeale yesterday. Half the village went to school in Croghan. Oliver obviously taught them all because they remember him fondly. Every time someone met him there, they said, “How are you Sir?” or “How are you doing Sir?” Most of them had vans like Oliver’s too. So weird.
Today we tackle Birr to Enniskillen.
Until tomorrow…..

“When my legs hurt, I say: “Shut up legs! Do what I tell you to do!” ~ Jens Voigt