Thurs 27 Aug: A False Start

I hit the road this morning for Omagh some fifty miles away. While I've followed the other stages of De Cuellar's journey around the north west this feels like the real beginning. Every other stage of the journey ultimately led back home. It was easy on the road, regardless of the weather, knowing I would arriving home to one of Mum's dinners and my own bed. It was a little unreal. From now on it gets real for me. The Summer is over and its quite a long road down to the middle of Spain from here. The weather takes on a whole new significance from here and this morning its not good. The nerves are back big time. I've had a cushy time at home for the past five months even though I've worked a lot on the history of the Armada and the northwest during that time. I've spent a lot longer at home than I had originally planned for one reason or another but thats okay. We've had weddings, births, birthdays, sickness, and the occasional funeral, in short, a myriad of excuses throughout the months to prolong the stay at home but its coming to a stage in the year now where I either go soon or I'm here for the Winter. Its hard to let go though.

It was tough saying goodbye to Mum and Dad. I cycled up the road lonely enough. Goodbyes are never good. Rain was forecast for the day but inexplicably I was dressed more for good weather than the reality of Autumn rains that we've been getting more or less for the past two months. Wishful thinking for good weather on my part. Ten minutes up the road the rain began and out came the rain jacket. It was a dark, grey morning. Depressingly grey, and wet. The rain fell incessantly and would do for the rest of the day. A horrible first day away. The cycling was easy though, even with a fully loaded bike. The first three miles were uphill and then it was basically downhill for the next six into the village of Garrison which lies just across the border on the shores of Lough Melvin. The lake is renowned for its trout and salmon fishing though we never caught anything down there. I stopped for a sup of water by a pier on the lake and was surprised by the number of fisherman out on the lake. There were at least ten boats visible on the water.

With the rain getting heavier I had to put on waterproof leggings and coasted through Garrison village. Eventhough Garrison lies only nine or so miles from Manor I never saw the place until I was over twenty. During the troubles the road into the village was blown up by the British army. It was one of many minor border roads in the area to be blocked. It wasn't restored until the mid-nineties. Its a much busier wee place now than it was then.

Five miles further down the road lies Belleek, another border village. It's built on the banks of the river Erne. A bridge crosses the river and connects with the busy main street. A hill on the opposite bank lies in the south and looks down on the lower end of the village next to the river bank. This was the site of a medieval castle occupied by the O'Gallagher clan for the O'Donnells of Tirconnell. It was a frontier castle, defending an important crossing point into Ulster and the lands southern Tirconnell. Its quite possible De Cuellar and four colleagues crossed into Ulster here as they attempted to reach the north Antrim coast where they hoped to find a boat to take them to Scotland. Coming from Lough Melvin it was a convenient crossing point and gave easy access to central Ulster. During the Troubles British army foot patrols on street duty occasionally came under fire from snipers lodged on the hill on the far bank of the river across the border. I crossed bridge and cycled up the main street which was almost completely blocked by delivery trucks. The are no patrols here today but we did see one on the streets during one of the rare occasions we were in the village back in the late eighties. When the patrol reached the bottom of the street they set up two of their own snipers to cover the hill across the river while the rest of the patrol sprinted for cover to the far side of the street.

There's no such drama on the streets today. A couple of delivery trucks block the middle of the street causing a traffic jam but everybodys patient and polite, no beeping horns and angry drivers here. The main street runs uphill for a couple of hundred feet, twists round a bend and runs out into the Fermanagh countryside. A couple of minutes later I'm back into the middle of the countryside. But there's not much to see today. The clouds are low and heavy. The rain fall without a break. A couple of hundred yards either side of the road the fields disappear into a grey mist and with the wind and rain blowing into my face I aint looking about. Its a case of keeping the head down and pushing along the road. Its 14 miles to the next village of Kesh.

The road runs along the shore of Upper Lough Erne, crosses Boa island and skirts around the northwest corner of the lake before running into Kesh. I was going to stop for a break and a bite to eat in Kesh but I never made it that far. After three hours of cycling in headwinds and heavy rain I had to face the fact that I wasn't dressed properly for the conditions. The jacket and waterproof leggings were fine but my footwear was inadequate. The gloves that I thought were waterproof were sodden and I didn't have any great headwear. My hands feet and head were all losing heat and this wasn't a good sign either for today or for the journey further down the road. Inside there was a cloud hanging over me as well. In two days my sister and husband's new baby was going to be christened and I felt I should really be hanging on to go to that. All day things hadn't felt right. I'd thought about turning round a lot sooner but after putting Mum and Dad through the ringer saying goodbye I didn't want to land back on their doorstep within the hour. All the way down the road it felt wrong and a couple of miles beyond Boa Island I decided I had to turn around. I phoned home and told them I was coming back. So the big journey has stalled in its tracks for the moment. When the Family commitments have been attended to, better footwear etc for travelling in the Winter have been added and a couple more hot dinners from Mum I'll try again.