End. Back at Shannon

This photographic essay of our trip is more or less complete. I don't think I will be adding any pages, but there may be some changes. For instance, I have experimented with video clips on page 21. Perhaps I will add some others on earlier pages. Conor has one of me and the donkey he is particularly proud of. And it may even be legal.

David McClure, 2nd July 2004.

Gareth and David's bikes awaiting the attentions of Mr O'Leary. Note that there was no charge for storing our bike boxes at the airport.

We had a fast run down to the airport, although we were in no hurry.

Since Marie and Conor had an evening flight, I had suggested a route for them to the east of Ennis, exploring the lakes there, before returning through Sixmilebridge to Shannon Airport. Strangely they preferred to accompany us to the airport for our afternoon flight, for the pleasure of seeing us dismantling our bikes and squeezing them into the boxes. Conor gave us several demonstrations of how their bikes were prepared for the flight to Heathrow - ambling over to his bike and bending down to the tyre valves. O how we laughed!

Later David and Gareth reassembled their bikes at Prestwick Airport for the short ride home, and the following day the trip finished for Gareth with a ride from Stonehaven to Auchenblae.

The four of us at Shannon Airport at the end of the tour.

The sunsets at Ayr aren't bad either: 24th June at 10.15 p.m.

As we left Michael O'Leary was in the middle of a very public row with the Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahearne. On the evening news in Ennis we saw Ahearne saying that if O'Leary was in the education sector he would be getting a 'B' for bullying. 'Well he's not going to bully me.' The next morning O'Leary had advertisements in the papers saying that if Ahearne was in the education sector he would be getting 'F' for failure.