Drawing the curtains revealed blue sky but it was cool and cloudy when we left at 09:00 and remained so all day. We made a pleasant southerly sweep of minor road rather than the northerly loop of main road, then a lovely long straight minor road northwards. It was unmarked at the junction with the main road but a couple of later signs confirmed it was the one we wanted. We were surprised to see Glenties 5 km, being sure it was much further. Sure enough, a few kilometres further on, it was Glenties 7 km and the sign at the next junction declared Glenties 10 km, which was about right.
When we finally reached this very pleasant small town, we searched for a cafe and found a wholefoods shop. This wasn’t marked as a cafe but had tables inside and served delicious apple and almond cake and good coffee. We chatted with the very friendly young German shopkeeper and bought food for dinner. We rode past the Blue Stack mountain range along the R252 road, surprised to find it was a rough narrow road, through traffic takes the faster road to the north so it was very peaceful.
A mile or so before the town of Ballyboffey we turned off for the hostel and equestrian centre. It’s a funny place, the accommodation looks new but jerry-built, poorly finished and scruffy. We had a 4-berth room to ourselves but shared the block with a young stable lad, though we didn’t see much of him. The kitchen was very poorly equipped but there was a television so I could watch England’s disappointing World Cup opener against the USA.