Originally uploaded by Ale Carlot

The right kind can make living in Ireland incredibly enjoyable.

The wrong kind tend to drink in Dawson St.  I took four wheels’ worth of the right kind (pictured), and my girlfriend, to Ballyhoura at the weekend, and covered 23 kms of the 90-something kilometers of bike trails they have marked out down there.

It’s been a long battle with Coillte to make them realise that mountain bikers are a) nature lovers b) willing to pay for the privilege of having good trails and c) what, willing to pay?

Finally, they’re starting to cash in on the bikers who have been trespassing on their land for years, and actually making a very decent fist of it.

It’s €5 for parking, €2 for a bike wash, €2 for showers, as installed at the trailhead at Ballyhoura, all of which are eminently reasonable. That’s maybe €11 for a day’s entertainment – surely a recession-proof tourism strategy, and with the car park full on Sunday morning and a slew of knobs and knob-jockeys heading off into the forest, there’s a strong argument for more of the same.

We had a great day at Ballyhoura, gave the knobs hell, covered a lot of ground, and our asses are paying for it today.

Knobs, asses, giving it hell. Welcome to another Google cul-de-sac for lost pervs.

For the record, we stayed at Ballinacourty House (lovely) in the beautiful Glen of Aherlow, which I mentioned along with the trails in a Sunday Business Post article at the start of the summer. And we’ll be staying there again when we go back.