Courtesy of John and Allison Williams, who wrote this on the way home aboard the Seacat!!

Lined up outside Hotel

Ahoy there Joe & Izzy,
Greetings from the HSS Explorer! We’ve just set sail en-route for home
having had a wonderful time in Ireland. It goes without saying that we
all wish you were here and wish Joe a very speedy recovery. We know it
sounds a little churlish but we have to tell you that we’ve had a fantastic
time and much, if not all of that is down to your efforts – a great big
thank you from all of us!
Ian has just informed us that despite Joe having been across to ride the
routes on a couple of occasions he never actually visited the ‘Giants
Causeway’ as he decided to wait and visit the attraction with all of us.
Well, we could tell you all about it but we fell that there is no substitute
from experiencing it in person – so our unanimous recommendation is
let’s organise another Ireland trip in the future and we’ll revisit, certainly
there is enough to warrant a return run and I’m sure there will be no
shortage of participants.

Giants Causeway

The hotel was terrific, everyone has been highly complementary of the
accommodation, the staff – who couldn’t have been more helpful and
the food – it was fantastic.
The routes on both Saturday and Sunday were great but I suppose that
depends upon your perspective! The route when we left the Giants
Causeway (through the snow and gale force conditions) was very
exciting – the ‘Sat Nav’ on the back of my bike became most animated when we began to navigate some of
the ‘twisties’ as Ian calls them on the coastal loop back to Londonderry.

 
As you know, on the Sunday we visited Mallin Head, en-route we stopped for coffee and upon hearing of our
intended destination the waitress said “oh well the best of luck” – what did she mean – we were about to find
out!!!!

Holding onto Jill to stop here being blown away

In the main the weekend went without incident other than Lord P’s snoring and Jim accusing me of the
same offence

Our new member Tony Brewin met up with the main group at Travelodge, Hollyhead on the Friday morning, he put his keys down with his jacket – returned 2 minutes later to find his keys gone! Full marks to Tony for tenacity – he had another set of keys couriered to him and he crossed over to Ireland on the 02.30 ferry to meet up with us at the Giants Causeway! Stop Press: Tony has just received a message from his secretary that his keys have been
found – apparently they were picked up by another guest in error. Not much of a help to Tony now but at least his sanity has been restored. So far, the only other incident was to me and I’ll tell you before anyone else does – going
through Dublin and the toll for the tunnel Ian discovered there was a Bike lane and it was free and so we all cut across to
navigate around the barrier when a car came up my inside, I let it go, he must have had a ‘tag’ as the barrier rose and like
a prat I followed him through just as the barrier was descending – fortunately I swerved and thought I’d
managed to miss it but it caught the right side mirror a glancing blow – Ahhhhhhhhhh!
We’re now halfway across to Wales and the sea is a little lively – we seem to have lost Alison, Celia and Jim,
the latter looking a slightly greenish sort of tinge!
Best wishes from all of us to you both, we look forward to seeing you soon and a great big thanks for your
efforts in making this a superb Elite Wings Ireland tour.
John on behalf of Alison, Richard & Christine, Ian & Denise, Rob (limp a lot) & Coleen, Roy & Celia, Jim &
Jill, Norm Irene, Lord & Lady P and Tony.

View of Mallin Head Carpark