On the morning of Friday 3rd March 2006, Eddie Gregory and myself headed off to ride to Westport in County Mayo. This ride is in excess of 235 miles from our home so we were hoping that the weather would be good on the run down. We had arranged to meet members of the "Blue Knights" (Ireland 1) in Westport on the evening of Sat. the 4th.
Upon joining the M1 motorway at Belfast we noticed that snow flakes were beginning to fall but we continued westward. As we pushed the miles in the snow got thicker on the ground and by the time we reached Enniskillen the ground was white.
As luck would have it the roads were still ok at that stage, due in part to the heavy volume of traffic that uses the road. Despite being advised against going any further we continued on towards Sligo town, crossing into the South of Ireland at Blacklion. Snow was now around 2 inches thick in places.
We had passed the point of no return and had to continue on in order to reach Sligo and shelter. Upon entering the Leitrim Hills the bikes were sliding about badly. Thankfully both machines had ABS fitted and it was that that kept us upright more than once. Snow was now drifting across the pass and was lying up to 4 inches in places.
Some time later we finally made Sligo town and obtained that much needed cup of tea. The temp. had been down to minus 4 degrees for most of the run but after our break we decided to continue on to Westport as the main roads near the coast were clear.
We reached Westport just after 5:00 pm and got booked into the "Adare House", a nice B&B situated on the Quay Road just about 5 minutes walk from the town centre. The landlady soon had the kettle on to warm us up. After a nice refreshing shower we headed down into the town centre for a much needed meal in the Westport Inn Hotel. Upon finishing our meal we decided enough was enough and returned to our digs for a good nights sleep.
We awoke on Sat. morning to find that the town was covered in a fine covering of snow. It have been the coldest night in Ireland in over 10 years so many of the roads were iced up. Eddie and I decided to have a lazy day shopping in the town as we were unable to travel down to Galway as planned due to the conditions.
At 8:00 pm we met up with the members of "Ireland 1" for a meal. Some 20 or so members of the club had came and represented almost every county in the South of Ireland. A great time was had by all!!!, and sadly the evening came to an end all to soon. Well about 2:00 am if the truth were told.
Thankfully Sunday morning was a bit better and several members of the club joined us down at the harbour for a few photos before we all headed off in the direction of home.
I would like to thank all of the members of "Ireland 1 " who were in Westport for the kindness and hospitality that they showed Eddie and I during our brief visit with them. I only hope the future allows us to travel down south again.
