Agnew's Hill

The Ulster Way markers were the only indication that I was travelling on any sort of path. Agnew’s hill was a mire and when I rode I had to pick my way carefully, but with some riding and some pushing, I made it to the top, picking up the discarded crisp bags and malteser boxes from the path as I went.

Was pleased to see a few hares lolloping about near the top of the hill. Northern Ireland doesn’t have much in the way of indigenous wildlife so I always like to see what’s around. Actually the hares I saw were probably European rather than Irish since they were huge big things, nearly two feet tall to the tops of their ears.

Just over the top of Agnew’s hill I was about to start enjoying myself when I noticed the back tyre was soft. Rather than try and swap the tube out now I thought I’d pump it up and keep going. Good job I remembered to put the pump into the bag before I left!

Riding down Agnew’s hill was great fun; the north side wasn’t as boggy as the South, so I got riding the whole way down, with some steep and technical sections too. I lifted the bike over the stile at the bottom and rode a couple of hundred metres along the road to the next off-road section. This was much flatter, single-track riding across a couple of fields. The path was well marked by posts, and I could follow the track on the ground too, but it wasn’t eroded with bootprints like many of the paths in the Mournes are. Some great views down the valley towards Larne, and I was curious about the apparently man-made lake, surrounded by trees, sitting out over the hill. Sheep in abundance, and I picked up loads more litter from the path. Why would people drop their rubbish in a place like that? The “you’re keeping somebody in a job” excuse doesn’t work, and it’s not like it was biodegradable rubbish either. I don’t understand it.

Over the next road, I was looking forward to the Sallagh Hills, but the back tyre was soft again and there was a wall to give me shelter from the breeze, so I swapped out the tube, remembering to feel the inside of the tyre and make sure there were no spiky things lurking in there. The side wall of the tyre was in terrible shape. No wonder something got through it. I also had a feel around the old tube on the off-chance that, even though it was a slow puncture, I might find the leak. I got the shock of my life when I felt a four inch gash in the tube! Most of it only went part of the way through the tube, but obviously somewhere along that gash there was a tiny hole. I used two of my biggest patches and sealed it up. Trying to pump up the new tube, it refused to go up. I took it out again, and discovered a neat hole. Obviously it’d got punctured by something in my bag. Great. I patched that up and put it back in.

Riding on, the back tyre felt really unstable. It was in bad enough shape to start with, but taking it on and off the wheel so many times had made it even worse. Looking at the map I could see that the next section, round the Sallagh braes was going to need some skill and reliable hardware. Since I was on my own with no backup I decided to err on the side of caution, switched the phone to Nokia Maps and asked it to direct me to the nearest train station.