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It being holiday time most of our members were away. We left the Cork Travel Lodge and headed west. Our 1st stop was the famous Farnanes Hill Climb. Starting at the well known Theady Inn and winding up the hill for 2 miles. It was recognised as one of the best in Ireland and was used from 30’s until early 80’s when insurance and road closing became a major issue and the event was cancaled forever. All the famous names from car racing and motorcycle racing like Frank Keane, Alex Poole, Mel Nolan, Danny Keany and even myself competed there. I competed from late 60’s and early 70’s in a variety of machines like Mini Cooper, Dunstall Norton, Triton and Kawasake 500.

I had the honour of Fastest time of the day in 1972 on my Kawasaki 500 triple. The hill had a big reputation for huge accidents and I crashed and re mounted went on to win. On another occasion I ended up in a farmers yard on my Norton luckily the gate was open . A friend of mine went straight over a ditch with his motorcycle and all and he survived.

We then travelled on to Gougane Beara for coffee. We passed through the famous Pass of Keimanagh and on to Ballylickey, Bantry when the weather turned sour with rain and fog. We decided not to go to Mizen Head as planned because of the poor visability. We went to Skibbereen, Rosscarbery and on to Clonakilty for lunch in Meadows and Byrne.

After lunch we stopped at Ballinascarty to honour Henry Ford. A stainless steel replica of the Model T is on display to mark the spot where the famous family originated.

Big thanks to Ron Wardell and his friend Peter Rand who travelled from Dublin, Andy Lambert, our best attending member from Kilkenny, [name removed] and [name removed] from Glenbrook. Mel Nolan sent his apologies as he was on holidays.

It was a beautiful drive through fantastic driving roads scenery and we look forward to the up coming drives. See the Gallery section for more pictures.

We are meeting South East Region for our October drive. We are visiting the beautiful Kilmore Mill Wheel and gardens and the new RNLI Centre in Kinsale on 23 November.

More news on these event later.

Regards,

Denis Collins.


25/08/2013