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This is the route we took from Mizen Head (south) to Malin Head (north). Just under 430 miles all in – and about 14 hours with fuel and food stops.

View MTM 2009 Route in a larger map

My final day was spent wandering around in Cobh – a town near Cork with a name that isn’t pronounced anything like what it looks like. You’d probably try to pronounce that something like “Cob” right? Well, if so, then you’re wrong – it’s pronounced “Cove.” Why? Well, it was originally called the Cove of Cork as it’s on the Cork Harbor and, when somebody decided that it needed an Irish name it was simply spelled using what letters the Irish alphabet has. Since Irish doesn’t have a “v” the “bh” is used instead. What does “Cobh” mean in Irish? Not a damn thing! There’s your language and history lesson for the day.

Cobh is a neat little town that is well worth visiting on a sunny day. It’s also the last port of call for the Titanic, so it has a bit of history. Spend a couple of hours there and then go hit the rest of the countryside.

And that’s it! I headed home the next day.

After the rally I decided to take a day and not do much. So I went to the English Market in Cork to pick up lunch and then on down to Kinsale to sit by the harbor and eat my lunch. Nice and relaxing.

I didn’t take a lot of pictures of Kinsale this time because a) the light wasn’t good and b) I took a bunch the last time I was there. You can find the pictures from the previous trip at the links below.

• Cork
• Charles Fort
• Kinsale

In between the ferry ride across the Shannon and our arrival in Malin Head there was a hell of a lot more driving coupled with a few stops for food and petrol. I skipped the pictures because they were mostly redundant – a bunch of Minis at a petrol stop with people milling around. We did have a lot of fun on the run but we were also ready to be done by the time we arrived at Malin Head – around 9:30 pm.

We all milled around a bit, took a couple of group photos and then, because it was COLD, got the hell out of there and headed to the pub in Bandon. There are no pictures of the after party, which is probably a good thing as it ended up merged with a wedding party.

A bit of video from the final run up to Malin Head. This should give you some idea of what Irish country roads are like. Turn down your volume – I was holding my camera out the window and all you’ll hear is wind noise.

http://www.grinwithoutacat.com/video/Arrival_at_Malin_Head_2009.AVI

You can find more photos on the IMOC Forum.

Just to add interest, the rally included a ferry crossing of the Shannon River this year. Two ferries had been organized with the crossing starting at Tarbert. We JUST made it to the second ferry, having to really hustle down a few side roads to make it in time. How close were we? Well, they had to open the gate back up to let us on!

The crossing took about 10-15 minutes and normally costs €18.00, though it was only €10.00 for our crew. This seems steep, but the alternate is a several-hour-drive.