Posted online: Jul 31st, 2010

Inishowen’s most dedicated cycling duo have returned safe and sound from a mammoth charity trip from Malin to Mizen Head and back again – and said they’d do it all again.

Carl McLaughlin from Muff and Pat McLaughlin from Buncrana embarked on their mission for the Donegal and Foyle Hospices on June 11, arriving back in Malin Head bang on their intended time of 3.30pm on Sunday, June 20 last.

They clocked over 800 miles on their journey, which was in aid of the Donegal Hospice on the way down and Foyle Hospice on the way up, in memory of the late Kevin Downey.

They were joined on the way down by Dungiven man Greg McLaughlin and on the way back home by a contingent of local cyclists, including their wives Sandra and Eileen, who completed a previously arranged Mizen to Malin Head cycle for the Foyle Hospice.

Speaking to the Inish Times, a modest Carl said the mammoth feat “all went well” despite an unfortunate incident where his fellow cyclist Pat was knocked off his bike.

He said: “It all went great and we found it was grand – we enjoyed it.

The weather was fairly bad on the way down, the winds were quite strong but it was very good on the way home again, where we had an average speed of 17 and 18 and a half.

“The only setback we had was when Pat was knocked off his bike in Killarney. A minibus had moved forward at a green light but decided for some reason to stop dead in the road. I hit the back of it and Pat went over the top of me. But, thank God, despite the fact at first we thought his shoulder might have been broken, he was fine apart from being a bit shaken and a few cuts and bruises. He got back on the bike and we went on our way again.

“The toughest part of the whole trip was probably when we were going into Ennis on the Sunday, the winds were that strong we dropped from around 20 – 25 miles an hour to ten. Then you had the Cork and Kerry mountains. It was fairly tough but you also had a lot more cyclists on the route so you had to hold back a bit.”

The duo met a number of other cyclists on the road, including another two men who were cycling from Malin to Mizen Head.

“They didn’t know we were doing it,” explained Carl.

“They were trying to do it in three days and as we were going up to them they said ‘Be easy on us boys, we’ve about 240 miles to go yet,’ to which we said ‘aye and we’ve about 640!’ They were amazed.”

Describing the trip as “good craic” Carl quipped there was “Guinness every night – we joked that’s what kept us going.”

“It really gave us another boost when we met up with the Foyle Hospice group, which included our wives who also got on great. We also met up with a well-known face Bill Doherty from the Undertones so it was all very enjoyable. We actually were going better every day and the last day was our quickest. We weren’t tired at all when we came back thank God, we even had a gathering in the Harbour that night.”

The proceeds of the expedition are still being counted but the Foyle Hospice Mizen to Malin Head Challenge raised an exceptional 35,000 euro.

Carl insists he’d “do it all again” and the two men aren’t resting on their laurels as they competed in the tough Inishowen 100 Challenge since their return.

They would like to thank Willie Doherty, who drove the van, everyone who sponsored them, Greg McLaughlin, who accompanied them on their cycle to Mizen Head and their main sponsors McLaughlin Motor Factors, Supervalu, Buncrana , Supervalu, Carndonagh and Pat the Baker.