Return leg, part two, via The Gearagh
Another day, more procrastination!Got underfoot chez VDK most of the day, but eventually braved the changing winds and sky state, and headed off towards the Gearagh. Quite the hill in the way! Definitely getting into "need a lower gear" territory. If anything even steeper on the other side, and into "need tighter brakes". Left at the "Bantry" sign (sure, if I were going there, I wouldn't be starting from here...), and soon we were at the clearly visible part of the Gearagh, and then the pathway over the old bridges. The bridges themselves are rather nice in the landscape. Not quite Donloe stuff, but pretty all the same. Over a stile, and bumpedity-bump (and squishity-squish) along the path. Again not really clear if it was bike-legal, so employing the "ah sure" doctrine. Somewhat more marginally in this case, since although this presumably used to be a paved road, it certainly doesn't seem to be one now. Couple of dog walkers, but other than that very quiet. Eventually out the other side, though not entirely sure where, as I was now off my one and only map. (Nor was this on the long-lost omnibus printout.)
There was signage for the long-distance cycle route between Cork and Gougane Barra (which latter I think I was actually quite close to, but that rather escaped me at the time), so I crossed my fingers and followed that (towards the former, though, clearly). Couple of confusing turns, but in due course, came out unexpectedly straightforwardly on the N22. Surprise Macroom Bypass! And they complain about not having one! So a familiarish slog home from there, except for that it being still distinctly light so I was actually seeing it for once! Definitely feeling a little heavy in the legs latterly, and my knees, the left one especially, especially. Then getting to the ringroad section, distinct feeling of something "going". It wasn't agonising, though, so I'm assuming it wasn't one of those million-dollar ligament injuries. No shortage of other hideous things to go wrong with knees that don't bear thinking about, though. So trying not to think about them. Lalala-lalalala. Choose your means of collagen destruction!
47.3k, 18.3kph, 34.8kph max. Shortest and slowest leg of all! (If we ignore stopping time. which certainly Dunloe would be much worse on, and very possibly the previous heave back over the Derrynasaggarts too.) Suffering from the initial upslope, the downhill too steep to freewheel down, the bumpy and squishy Gearagh path, and indeed the headwind that'd shifted around to meet me.