Weds 2nd Sept
Sandford - Liverpool aprox 258 mls.
Overnight on the Liverpool - Belfast Ferry in a pet friendly cabin so Millie the dog can sail in comfort. No kennels or staying in the van in the hold for our precious pet! Downside - costs a bally fortune 😬
Before embarking on the ferry a few hours were spent doing “Dad jobs” at our daughter’s house in Liverpool before the dash to Birkenhead to the ferry port which seemed the most convoluted, complicated route, but the Mersey tunnel was impressive.
Sailing 10.30pm to arrive at 6.30 am think we’ll be breakfasting on land….
Thurs 3rd Sept.
Arrived in Belfast 6.30 am - Graham managing to blag a couple of free coffees by accidentally crashing the Truckers Canteen a few minutes before, We were at the front of the queue exiting the ferry and were soon in on the road looking for some grass for Millies morning wee. On the road to Carrickfergus we spotted some green space which served Millie well and offered up a lovely sculpture of a heron at sunrise.
Not far on is Carrickfergus, which claims the oldest castle in Northern Ireland . It also had a McDonalds drive through which we yielded to (we were hungry) and soon regretted our breakfast sandwich and wishy washy coffee. It was really not very good.
On to a tour of Islandmagee - a small peninsular with fantastic views and a beach to die for if you’re a beach mad Bordoodle who’s been stuck in a car and a boat for a lifetime in dog years.
The tourist attraction of the cliff and cave walk called the Gobbins followed but it was a guided only tour and strictly dog free tour of nearly 3 hrs so we passed -but the café coffee and cake went down well! Not so impressed by being chased out of the visitor centre by a plump Derry Girls lookalike declaring dogs not allowed despite an earlier person allowing us entrance. Dangerous dog Millie was most offended ….😂
‘On to Glenarm - where we spent a good few hours exploring the glorious walled gardens and woodland walk of Glenarm Castle. We had a lovely lunch in the tea rooms. A beautiful place
On to our campsite in Cushendall. A municipal site with great views over the harbour, although the shower block didn’t look that inviting.
We have a table booked at Harry’s for dinner - a local restaurant- an easy 15 mins walk - until we discovered that the card machine was down - having just a phone with us Graham had to walk back to the campsite to retrieve a debit card to draw cash out to pay the bill. The positive was the brag 18,000 steps he had done, and also the appetite to the huge amount of fish and prawns in the linguine. Yum!
4 Sept 26
Today we are going to Glenariff Forest Park and the Dark Hedges. The Glenariff Forest Park is home to not one, but two large Waterfalls. Whatever, it was a lovely woodland walk with lots of water. Surprisingly lots of Dutch tourists who were ABSOLUTELY FASCINATED with waterfalls - maybe Holland doesn’t have waterfalls being so flat. Lovely views, lovely picnic area, lovely walk. Carol bought a lovely hat.
Then on to The Dark Hedges. Evidently a lane planted with beech trees 150 years ago by someone who wanted their (nice) property to stand out to visitors but really made famous by the Game of Thrones (no me neither - never seen it, although I did once open the lounge door and my son was watching it, a dwarf being pleasured by several naked nubile women. I said “what’s this”, my son said “it’s a fantasy”. I thought “dead right”- G)
The picture above belies the truth - there are coach loads of Americans and Asians tramping up and taking photos of this closed off road. It is the most visited and photographed place in NI. We were lucky - it was raining.
On to Portstewart where we will base ourselves for 3 nights at Juniper Hills Holiday Park which is ENORMOUS ….. we’ve never seen so many static caravans in one place in our lives!
We aim to use the local buses to access the attractions on the Causeway Coastal route. Tomorrow The Giants Causeway … we’ll see….
Sat 5th Sept
Today we braved public transport and caught the bus to the Giant’s causeway via a change of bus in Portrush. It was really pain free - there was a bus stop just outside the holiday park. Apart from a wait of approx 20 mins to catch the first bus we managed to only wait less than 5 mins for the other 3.
The bus route hugged the Coast giving us spectacular views of the sea and the rocky cliffs - passing Dunluce Castle a ruined castle dated from the 13th century with various changes of owners the last being the McDonnells who eventually abandoned the castle. ( we may go there tomorrow)
The Giant Causeway was as expected very busy with multi national visitors . The friendly bus driver advised us to avoid the £16 paid entrance through the visitor centre and just follow the footpath to the World Heritage Site. We were starving on arrival so shared a takeaway tasty fish and chips from the Causeway Hotel as they didn’t allow dogs in the building…. shameful … Millie is beginning to get a complex.
We walked down to the site which although not as large as we had imagined was still spectacular - 40,000 columns mostly hexagonal created 60 million years ago by massive volcanic activity. Legend has it that Finn MacCool, a local giant, accepted a challenge from the Scottish giant Benandonner to build the causeway to Scotland so he didn’t have to get his feet wet. When he got there he saw how big Benandonner was and retreated tearing up the middle but leaving the far end on the island of Staffa. An alternative version is Benandonner came from Scotland and Finn’s wife disguised Finn as a baby and Benandonner thought if the baby was that size the giant must be ginormous and fled tearing up the causeway.
An uphill walk back to the bus stop with just a few mins until the bus arrived and returned to Portrush.
Portrush is the major seaside town in the area with the usual amusement parks and shops….and an enormous sandy beach …. Of course we had to visit this for a run around and ball throw before catching the bus back …Millie really enjoyed it too….
It was a popular surfing beach with lifeguards evident.
Back to the van for pre dinner drinks and a Charlie Bingham fish pie - we know how to live!
And Millie had a wee rest …
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