Day 6 of The Ulster Way

Portrush to Belfast City Hall, via Ballycastle, The Moyle Way, The Antrim Hills Way, Ballyboley, Woodburn, Belfast.

98 miles of torture, 2,850 metres of vertical climbing, in a mere 17 hours!

Well, we finished, at 1:00am, having started the day at 8am with a photo for RNLI in Portrush. That was pretty much the last time we smiled until we finished.

Phil was our cheerful companion for 65 miles or so, into Glenarm, before heading for home, having run out of Minstrels!

In the morning, round the coast towards Ballycastle, my front cog exploded into 50 bits and I fell off as a result, which gave us a problem for an hour or so, as single speed bikes only have one cog! Flipping the bike over to change the cog also wiped our GPS data for that morning, as the reset button was held down, so that was further joy!

The generous Ivan Park, who had joined us for the morning at Dunseverick, allowed us to strip his bike for parts, and we left the poor lad with a useless bike and kept moving, stopping briefly for EXCELLENT fish and chips in Ballycastle.

The Moyle Way, from Ballycastle to Glenariff, was unspeakably unpleasant with the bike, albeit the scenery was lovely. We had to walk and drag and carry and haul our bikes for mile upon mile of soft, muddy, tussocky, heathery ground, and we hit our mental lowpoint half-way down Trostan, having thought that nothing could have been worse than coming off Slieveanorra.

By the time we reached Waterfoot, it was nearly 8pm, we were utterly depressed, and we still had an hour's pedal to Glenarm, and the entire Antrim Hills Way to do, before a 30-odd mile pedal back to Belfast. Our GPS conked out half way to Glenarm, but we took photos to document things instead.

Lynda Foy from Larne Borough Council met us in Carnlough with loads of provisions, including sweets, bananas, waterm orange juice, a torch, maps, etc etc, in anticipation of us tackling the Antrim Hills, and it was great to have the additional support.

We left the valiant Phil in Glenarm, and set off up the long 20%(!) road climb before we were to strike for the open hills. After much debate, and enormous regret, given how far we had come, we took what we think was the right decision NOT to go onto the open mountain in the dark, as we did not know those hills, the ground was rough, we had bikes to carry, there were cliffs (I could give another 20 reasons!).

So we effectively missed the open sections of the Antrim Hills Way, sticking to the high road instead, and headed for Ballyboley on the roads. This was particularly disappointing given how Lynda Foy has supported and encouraged us, but was the right move.

Tim Holmes, who started out with us last Saturday to see us off, and who has been a constant source of encouragement on text messages over the past 6 days, met us in Ballyboley to see us back to Belfast, and, given that it was 10:45 by the time we met him, we were VERY glad that he could take over some of the navigation to get us along the rest of the Ulster Way, through the likes of Woodburn (which he knows well) and back to Belfast.

Bugsy (my bro) met us outside the City Hall. The goths had all gone home, and there were just a few drunk girls to welcome us back, after our 600 mile round trip, but they were understandably stand-offish, given our condition.

Fillet steak and roast chicken, supplied by Bugsy, was ready for us in the car, and we devoured it with great gusto.

A big thanks to Tim for getting us back from Ballyboley- I honestly don't think we would have made it back without him.

We learnt loads on the trip, and will share a few conclusions and comments when we get our heads back together. Thanks for all your support over the last week.

(Terry, does that still count for a half-pint?...)

Davy & Rick
Tango & Cash

Day 5 of The Ulster Way

Gortin to Portrush. (Again, Raymond from Bella Vista B&B in Belcoo, we are so grateful to you for running our bags to Gortin for us and donating to RNLI - thank you so much)

85 miles, 2500 vertical metres of climbing, over 13 hours.

Today was FANTASTIC! The weather was brilliant all day again, and we started the day with a big climb before going along the Central Sperrins Way, which was totally new territory to us, and a real highlight of the trip. The views and the terrain were amazing, and we hope to be back some day soon.

Lunchtime took a new twist today. Bugsy and Hugh met us in Dungiven, and produced a picnic hamper. We stretched out on the camping chairs the guys had brought, and enjoyed fresh strawberries, fruit salad, chicken liver pate on fresh baguette, stuffed olives, spicy chicken, pasta salad, Red Bull, sweeties, and Pringles, all washed down with a glass of the finest chilled Chardonnay!

Richard Gillen, Countryside Recreation Officer from Limavady Borough Council, also joined the party, and produced dessert comprising extremely sticky buns and Haribo sweets.

All this was the perfect preparation for getting stuck into a 300 vertical metre climb from Dungiven up Moydamlaght. Again, the views were simply amazing all day, with the climbs, descents and views reminding us of the Alps! The picnic team drove to the top of the mountain to meet us again, just to rub it in that we had to slog up under our own steam, and Richard Gillen felt the guilt and pushed my bike for me for 300 yards.

The only trouble with today was the amount of carrying we had to do. LOTS of the route was over terrain that was impossible to cycle on, so it was over the shoulder and hike-a-bike for some long sections, which was just misery.

Shirley Park met us outside Downhill Forest and guided us home to Portrush, where the CCAR contingent of Ivan, Joan and Keith were there in full CCAR fig to welcome us in, meeting us at the RNLI station. Delighted the the folks also made a very generous donation to our RNLI Lifeboats fundraising efforts.

Phil was on our doorstep when we arrived in Portrush tonight, and we were so grateful to see him, that we sent him down into the town to buy us some chips, hehe.

Big day tomorrow, our last day, finishing at City Hall at probably 10 or 11 pm, and Phil joins us for the ride! :-o

Day 4 of the Ulster Way

Belcoo to Gortin

95 miles, just over 12 hours, 2875 vertical metres of climbing.

Glorious day that saw us get another roasting, and we amazingly finished an hour ahead of schedule. We did not start until nearly 9am, so reluctant were we to get back on the bikes an leave our hosts in Belcoo.

The views all day were simply breathtaking, but we had to work hard to get them, with the hills and the wind our enemies all day. Both of us were pretty banjaxed, both complaining of sore knees, and both REALLY looking forward to finishing.

We have concluded that single speed was madness for this trip , something we would have been better deciding before we started. Our Chips today were enjoyed in Pettigo. In an act of unblieveable generosity, the owner of our bed and breakfast in Belcoo donated to lifeboats and then offered to drive our bags to Gortin, which solved a big problem for us. More on this later.

The finish was savage, with endless climbing towards and around Gortin Glen, and we were very happy boys to finally roll to the hostel and collapse at 9pm. Tomorrow sees us hopefully reaching the North Coast!

Day 3 of the Ulster Way

Tandragee to Aughnacloy on road, Slieve Beagh Way marked way to Donagh. On to Florence Court then Belcoo.

115 miles, 3025 vertical climbing metres, 14 hours on the go.

The weather was class and we are both burnt. We were in pieces when we arrived at the bed and breakfast at 10.45pm, too late to get decent food so cereal and toast had to do!

The run across from Tandragee to Aughancloy was good fun, the weather fantastic, and we took a long break in Armagh to enjoy the sunshine and some nice coffee.

We were sorry to see the departure of Transalp hopefuls the Cooley Bulls, Mickey and Declan, at Aughnacloy, where we enjoyed a superb lunch of chips, chicken and beans. Chips have proved to be our saviours - we have devoured lots of them every day so far.

Some savage climbing on the Slieve Beagh Way slowed us badly, and it was pitch black for the last hour. There was no way we could go up through Florence Court past the swallow holes and down the cave steps with no lights, and we were already far too late for our hosts, so we did not turn off for the caves.

3 days down, 3 to go - this is HAAAAARRRRRD work!!! Cheer us up :-(

A big THANK YOU from 2 very sore chaps!

Many thanks to those of you who have been leaving us messages and sending texts.  It really is great to get your notes during what is unquestionably the most arduous 'holiday' we have ever been on, so please keep it up.

Rick & Davy

Day 2 of The Ulster Way

Across the Mournes to Rostrevor (26 miles), up the main road to Newry, round Ring of Gullion (36 miles), up the Newry Canal path to Scarva, then onto our night stop at Tandragee.

14.5 hours in the saddle, 84 miles, over 2800 metres of vertical climbing - we did not for a minute imagine that Day 2 would be as hard on us as Day 1, but so it turned out, as much of the terrain was simply woeful. We were carrying or dragging our bikes for probably half of our total time, and it was energy-sapping.

We decided to forgo our original 7am start time, and instead aimed for 8, as Day 1 had killed us. We were again joined by Mickey and Declan, who are now part of the furniture, and Joni McGlade, fresh from the hospital meat-slab.

We headed up into the Mournes in strong wind and heavy rain, and the going was slow and draining, much of it unrideable. Picked up the infamous Rowan McMahon in Tollymore, and staggered on as best we could in the terrible weather. Joni headed for home after the descent off Butter Mountain. The next section round Hen Mountain was appalling, totally unrideable and frankly depressing.

Reached Rostrevor after 5.5 hours, utterly spent, and took a break for an hour to eat the cafe out of stock. The weather then turned fantastic, and stayed so for the rest of the day, with unbroken sunshine. James Keown joined us on the road bike for a spell, but had to head back to Newry when the off-road got REALLY offroad in Ravensdale.

The run up to Newry was great, with the wind on our tails. The Ring of Gullion was much tougher than we had anticipated, with long and punishing climbs aplenty, but some fantastic descents to boot. The highlight was soup, sandwiches and coffee supplied by Davy (the other Davy) and son in Forkhill, where just previously a bull had prevented us from taking our intended route across a field - the monster was just daring us to climb that gate!

Declan and Mickey had to leave us for home at Slieve Gullion car park, so that they could prepare to meet us again tomorrow, by which time it was getting dark.

The push on to Tandragee from Newry was a slog, but we were delighted to have Dale join us just outside Newry to guide us home. Big chinese on the table when we arrived at 10:45pm - sweet!

Looking forward to Day 3, Scarva to Belcoo, County Fermanagh.

Thanks to everyone for your messages of support and humour - much appreciated!!

(T, 2 days down! Half-pints at the ready!)

Day 1 of The Ulster Way

Belfast to Newscastle. via Lisburn, Carryduff, Stormont, Holywood, round the outside of Ards Peninsula to Portaferry, over the ferry to Strangford, then the Lecale Way all the way to Newcastle.

13 hours in the saddle - it was murder. 110 miles, 60 of which was into a stiff sea breeze.

We left Belfast City Hall at 8am, a team of 8 folks, 5 of us destined for Newcastle, and were glad of the company of these and other folks we picked up in Holywood. Good to have Jonny Gallier, Tim Holmes, big John, Paul Kennedy, Rick Monro, and good to see Dusty on the beach, and Terry (start pulling the half-pints, Terry! Funny the way your house happens to be on the new route!)

Highlight was the Lecale Way, particularly the first off-road section, which reminded us of North Antrim coast.

Lowlight was the drag from Murlough Bay to Newcastle along the beach. 5 bedraggled souls completed the day - Davy, me, Mickey, Declan and Mark.

Great chinese and B&B - ready for Day 2 - over the Mournes to start!

The Ulster Way - only 600 miles to go

We start our 600 mile Ulster Way circuit tomorrow morning, Saturday 3 May, leaving from Belfast City Hall at 8am.

The plan is to head out the tow-path to Lisburn, swing round through Carryduff, Stormont to Holywood, coastal path and road to Portaferry, over on the ferry to Strangford, then the Lecale Way all the way to Newcastle. The guts of 100 miles on day 1.

If you fancy the spin, meet ready to go at 8 am at the City Hall on Saturday 3 May, or at the car park at the entrance to Slieve Donard Hotel at 7am on Sunday morning, from where we will be attacking the Mournes and the Ring of Gullion, before heading up the Newry Canal path to Tandragee, where we finish day 2. From there, we go west, young man.

We are joined on the first 3 days by two Transalp Challenge 2008 hopefuls, Mickey and Declan, plus a few extra folks for day 2, and a few others will be joining us for bits of various days, if they are as good as their word.

The plan is to keep the site up to date every night, to prove we still live, but it may not happen.

See all trip detail at our Ulster Way Blog

County Antrim Victory for New Team

"Tango & Cash Meet the Spartans" proved to be a synergistic collaboration indeed.

The newly-formed foursome (seen left, arriving in their 'ride' in full Trailbadger uniform) stormed their way to an impressive win at the Adventure Ireland race in County Antrim on Saturday 12 April.


First back to base after 6 hours of frantic racing, all checkpoints gathered, we were feeling smug.

Almost choking on our minestrone soup, we were gutted to be denied our rightful place as victors, after the sour-grapes invoking of an ancient tribal ruling from 1279, which states that, to win, you must have a girlie on your team. Ba!

Race report - we turned up, had a great day, we smoked the course, arrived back first, ate like kings, and are extremely thankful to Greg and team for a great day out!

Tango & Cash Meet the Spartans!

Agents representing Tango & Cash and rival adventure racing team "Meet the Spartans" have concluded knife-edge negotiations over the past week to confirm the most exciting collaboration since Keith Harris first buried his arm up to the elbow in the lovable Orville.

"Tango & Cash Meet the Spartans" will compete as a team of four in the Adventure Ireland County Antrim adventure race on 12 April 2008. In the words of the great man himself: "I wish I could fly,... but I can't". Inspiring stuff.

Tango & Cash Triumph at Baronscourt

There was much weeping and gnashing of teeth in the Sperrins on Saturday 29 March, as a slight departure from instructions by a couple of other teams gifted Tango & Cash with victory at the CCAR Baronscourt Adventure Race.

Baronscourt 2008 Race Results - XLS file, 33K


(A younger, fresher Tango & Cash at last year's Baronscourt race)

Warning: Race Report - danger of boredom ahead

The weather was brutal for the start, too wet even for our blazers, with lashing rain dampening everything including spirits. However, the rain was soon forgotten as the hooter sounded and 70 eejits galloped up a mucky slope in search of 2 bits of laminated paper.

Back down the slope, the car was our brief campaign headquarters. We quickly marked our checkpoints up, and were the second team to hit the trails, just behind Team Purple 2 (the Purps), who set a helluva pace.

We tried to stick with them as best we could, with NTSR right up on us too. The Purps, just ahead, were extremely gracious in telling us where the first few checkpoints were, but after they cocked one up a bit later on, we decided we couldn’t risk listening anymore, heheheee!

A long slog and a superb tarmac descent took us to the main road, and then the Ulster American Folk Park. The traditionally-clad Folk Park team were all very cheerful in their duties, if a tad bemused at all the frantic activity, and we were soon in and out and back on the bikes.

Still pretty much neck and neck with NTSR and the Purps, the superb tarmac descent was markedly less enjoyable as a climb, but we all dragged ourselves up and slogged out the climb back up into the forest.

The Purps were FAST up the long drag to the forest and we lost sight of them, but for some reason they stopped for a KitKat half-way down the descent towards the bike-drop, and we whizzed past them in full tuck.

Just as we entered the gates of the estate, Davy lost his chain, but thankfully we were freewheeling too fast to pedal anyway, and we made it down to the bike-drop first.

We picked up our map and headed down to TA3, then wondered where the other guys had gone to, as they would definitely have taken us easily on the run down - we assumed (correctly, as it turned out) that they had headed straight out to clear the map checkpoints instead of visiting TA3 first (where they would have learned to only collect 3 markers at a time), and this ultimately proved to be their downfall.

We decided to hit the boats first. The weather had by this time turned gorgeous, and in the beauty of the scene paddling up the lake, we allowed our minds to wander briefly to consider how jarred off the guys were going to be when they finally made it to TA3 with a bunch of markers already picked up! But, snapping ourselves back to life, we hardened our hearts and got back to task.

We picked up the 2 lake markers, beached the boat to pick up the one on the earth bank, and headed back to TA, staggered round another 2 loops to get the rest, and we (Davy, that is) also managed to nick an extra 3 minutes at the bean bag task.

Utterly spent, barely shuffling, and bereft of any more expletives, we pulled off our bibs and collapsed into the vat of soup at the finish at 3:20pm, after 4hrs and 5 minutes of racing; trying to hang with the guys on the bike section wasted us, and made this definitely our most tiring and painful race to date.

Nice buns again, Joan. A genuine thanks to all the folks at CCAR, who, in the face of many unseen challenges, put on a great event every time. Fantastic fun to take part in, and superb innovations to be found in every race. Well done, guys.

The Ulster Way - 600 Miles, 6 Days, 0 Gears

The new Ulster Way is a proposed 600 mile loop of Northern Ireland over roads, tracks, mountains and bogland. When completed, the new route will take in many of Northern Ireland’s portfolio of waymarked ways.

Tango & Cash are attempting to complete the entire proposed route in six consecutive days all under our own steam, on foot and by singlespeed mountain bike, beginning 3 May 2008. To the best of our knowledge, this has never been attempted before.

The Ulster Way in Six Consecutive Days Blog

Is it doable? Who knows, and we are not really fit for it, but we’ll give it a crack anyway, and see how we get on. We intend to make an early start each morning, and we will finish when we finish, most likely in a quite appalling physical and mental state, according to our calculations!

If you would like to join us for a day, or part of a day, email us or leave us a message with your email address - your company is almost certain to be a breath of fresh air, no matter how tedious you may be deemed in other social contexts.

(Note that cycling is not sanctioned on much of the route, so anyone joining the party will need to be prepared to carry their bike for some, possibly long, sections)

Worse Things Happen at Sea

Whilst this is first and foremost a personal challenge, we are going to try and raise as much money as we can for the RNLI, which anyone would recognise is an extremely worthy cause.

Our Ulster Way route will take us within touching distance of all 9 of Northern Ireland’s lifeboat stations.

Make a donation to RNLI at www.justgiving.com/ulsterway.

TrailBadger Biking Tops Steal Show in Milan Fashion Week

Well, so maybe there was a minor flurry of excitement on the outskirts of Antrim town.

Find out more about the TrailBadger tops, and get yours!

Well an' Good in Castlewellan - one-day race report

A creditable fifth was our lot on 26 February in Castlewellan. And our jackets came up a treat in the wash.

WARNING - DEFINITELY BORING IF YOU DID NOT DO THE RACE, PROBABLY BORING EVEN IF YOU DID.

It was a brilliant idea to start the race by having one member of each team enter the maze to find the marshal with the maps and instructions.

It seemed an act of lunacy for Davy to insist that yours truly, who turns any corner and is lost, was to go on the winding errand into the yew labyrinth.

And it was pure pot luck (and 3 previous weeks on Google maps) that saw yours truly 3rd last into the maze but 2nd out, just shy of the steaming heels of Jonny Gallier from Uphill Struggle.

We marked the map for the first bike section and got moving, first to hit the trail with eventual joint winners Team Purple 2, who set a devilish pace over the fields and tracks at such a lick that we saw no other teams until we were halfway up Meelmore on foot, by which point we were busted.

On the road to Tollymore they left us puffing in their wake as we spun out on the single speeds, and they cruised the tarmac to the mountain-boarding.

Mountain-boarding reminds you that you are no longer part of the youth of today. We were brutal at it, but were soon hammering towards Meelmore Lodge, gaining on the lads again as we stomped up the hill.

We marked up the running checkpoints at the bike-drop, and hot-footed about a minute behind the guys. Contouring the hill, we were always a few hundred yards behind the lads, but were right with them by the time they had flaffed around to find the checkpoint at the wee dam.

So began the breezy, wheezy slog up the mighty Meelmore. We kept tramping at our own pace, but lost ground on the lads, and were then gutted to see ultimate joint winners the McCabe brothers RUNNING past us up the valley, and they took the lead about three quarters of the way up.

We were also passed by 3rd and 4th place (for day 1) Passing Wind and NTSR, but we had all bunched up by the time we got to the abseil, given some confusion on the knoll. We decided to clock out, chill out for a few minutes, mark up the rest of our map, eat, drink, chat, and let the uber-feisty folks crack on.

After confirming with Keith (NI’s own Montgomery Wick) that we were unlikely to be killed or maimed on the abseil even if we did something daft, we chucked ourselves over the edge with gay abandon and gambolled back to the bikes.

I can’t remember anything else from there until we reached the kayaks, apart from the wooden skis thing round the souterrain, which we HATE. “OK, 1, 2, 3. Left, right, ... Try bigger steps. Wait, I am falling forward. You ready? What’s wrong? OK. Left, right, ...”

When Steve insisted we don our waterproofs for the kayaks, we laughed at the pipsqueak’s audacity, but clambered into our oil-skins and put our heads above the dam. It was not until we actually had the boat in the water that we realised it was a BRILLIANT idea to be in the waterproofs, and the slog up the lake was awful.

Rounding the point, we decided to take an innovative route, so we headed for shore, chucked our paddles up onto the road, dragged the boat up onto the tarmac, hoisted it above our heads, and started running up the road, portage!

NEVER DO THIS WITH THESE BOATS (It works great with a normal Canadian canoe). Within 200 yards, we were so miserable we were praying we had never been born, so we chucked the boat back over the edge and hopped in, and lost time overall.

The rest of the paddle was paddle, paddle, paddle, paddle, etc, etc, and we were glad to get out of the thing and back to the bikes.

Heading with the wind, on fresh tarmac, down hill, not in a kayak anymore, was a great feeling, but we were spinning out too easily on the single-speeds, but we made short work of the pedal to Greg at the ‘obstacle course’, which consisted of the old water slide from the Valley Leisure Centre, 4 NIE cable drums, 5 broken pallets and some stolen scaffolding.

36 years each without any stretching after exercise, and the ensuing inflexibility, meant we were like oak beams going round the course, but somehow we managed to chuck our bodies over and through everything to get on our way.

Greg had promised us ‘a wee bitch of a climb’ before the finish, and so it turned out. But it was great to finally hit the village again and get back to the centre as the 5th team home, at 3:48pm. Superb food as usual. Our sincere thanks to Joan for organising it all.

What a great race. Well done again, CCAR. Top notch.

Chuck an extra 10 or 20 quid at Ivan or Steve at the next race if you can spare the cash - the lads are losing a personal fortune to put these races on for our benefit!

Early Signs of Relationship Breakdown

A fleeting moment of frustration drives a brief wedge between the normally inseparable Tango & Cash. "You are ALWAYS looking at that bloody map!! There's a race on, in case you hadn't noticed!!"


Looking the part was not enough to push for victory in the 'Castlewellan' CCAR race on 23 February, but the pockets were VERY useful on the day.

(Thanks to Mickey Regan for the pics!)