Mountain Lodge Youth Hostel, otherwise known as Glengarra Mountain Lodge, is a protected building built in 1872. It is certainly an interesting place to say, and we had an OK night there despite the beds being saggy and noisy. Gavin took a video inside of our dorm with its gas light, and the round common room at the end of the building, while Michael took some photos outside.

The day started with damp weather, but we had already decided we wanted to look at some places of interest today and try out an Irish train, which would keep our cycling miles down to a manageable 24 miles.

First, we rode just under ten miles to the town of Cahir, which turned out to be quite interesting, with a castle and several good shops. The Lazy Bean café was good too! Gavin got an Irish haircut for €10, and we bought a newspaper to read about the important IRA statement released yesterday. We bought a takeaway pizza for lunch and then visited the local internet café to chat with people at home for a charge of €2.50. The outdoor shop was not worth a lot, but overall we had immersed ourselves in a typical Irish town for several hours.

The train from Cahir to Waterford turned out to be less than half the price of the bus – €9 each instead of €22 for the bus. Admittedly this was a special offer, but even at normal prices it would have been cheaper. It was a very comfortable ride, so we both had a sleep.

Waterford was busy. The Waterford Crystal glassworks site turned out to be very interesting. We had a guided tour of the factory, filmed by Michael and photographed by Gavin, then visited the café which was excellent. All in all, we felt it had been well worth the time.

After buying some food from a nearby garage, we rode the twelves miles or so through the lanes to Dunmore East, where we quickly found our bed and breakfast, Avon Lodge, on the road into the town. As usual with B&Bs it was very comfortable. After showers etc we walked down to Dunmore East Park and down to Kittiwake’s Rock, where hundreds of Kittiwakes were nesting and flying around the cliff face opposite. It was definitely an infestation!

We had planned to ride to Rosslare today and spend the night at a B&B there ready to catch the early morning ferry tomorrow and the 14:10 train from Fishguard to Newton Abbot, arriving 18:14, but when we considered things this morning we worked out we could catch the ferry this evening instead and travel back to Devon on the train overnight. So we decided to do that, as it would save wasting a day. We telephoned the Rosslare B&B to cancel. We had to pay them a cancellation charge, and we had to pay a small surcharge on the ferry, but we felt it was worth it.

We had a 40-mile cycle ride today, but we didn't take any photos or video after leaving Avon Lodge. We caught a ferry from Rosslare to Fishguard, then travelled all night on the trains through Bristol and back to Devon. A lot of rather rowdy and drunk football supporters boarded the train at Swansea, so we didn't feel it was the best time to be travelling on the train.

We got back to Devon by morning, very tired of course, but we had saved our extra day!

Jaden was pleased with his new bike - surprisingly good considering it came from a skip! On a perfect summer's morning we rode up Dean Hill to Bloody Pool, bought ice creams at Shipley Bridge and continued on to the Avon Dam at a good pace, pausing only so that Jaden could get his feet wet in the cool waters. The reservoir was a little lower than usual today but it still made a perfect backdrop for our photos.

As usual the best part of the ride was the descent from Water Oak Corner to Cross Furzes, a new experience for Jaden.