Paul Clements is reliving his 1991 hitchhike along the Wild Atlantic Way - by car, bike, on foot and on horseback

In the summer of 1991 Paul Clements hitchhiked the coastline of Ireland for his first travel book. Twenty-five years on, he retraced his footsteps for a new book based on a journey along the Wild Atlantic Way – this time by car and bike, on foot and on horseback

A quarter century has passed since I stuck out my thumb and hoped for the best on a month-long hitchhike of the coast in June 1991

It turned out to be the wettest on record. After lonely hours and days spent waiting for lifts in the howling wind and rain, I questioned my sanity. Gradually people started to pick me up, telling me their stories, and their generosity pulled me through. I jotted down details of conversations, the immediate on the spot repositories — known to some travel writers as ‘nibble notes’. Two years later, Irish Shores: A Journey Round the Rim of Ireland was released on an unsuspecting reading public.