Stranraer to Coleraine in Ireland

Fri 8^th April


On the 0930 ferry from Stanraer in Scotland to Belfast.  I have never had sea legs and am somewhat dubious about the trip over as I am very prone to motion sickness, but this ferry ride is ok.  Spock, ever thoughtful booked us into a very comfortable lounge on the ferry which gave us internet access and drinks etc.  The ferry took 3 hours to cross and it was very plane sailing despite the forecast for moderate seas. 
The Ireland leg of the trip has been my responsibility to plan and so I am feeling that I have a lot to live up to after Spock’s great effort with the UK.  The pressure is on!! 
We pick up the hire car and we are set.  Oops, not really we can't find the reverse gear in the car.  Both of us have manual drivers licenses but neither of us have driven manuals for a long time...is that our excuse? Probably.  Spock decides that we should make a head start.  We take the route of the antrium coast line and it is stunning.  The weather is positively balmy and following the wonderful coast line is a dream.  The countryside is so green and lush.  On our way we quiet a stout lad at Glenariff on the street, so we stop and ask him if he would know where the reverse is.  Well of course he did, in 2 minutes flat we were on our way feeling quiet relieved.  Driving along we cant help but be impressed by the lovely detached homes that they have along the coast here, there is not a whole lot of semidetached like in the UK.  


I have been keen to cross the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge since i saw it on Getaway.   The Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, swings high above the waves, linking the tiny island of Carrick-a-Rede along the dramatic Giant's causeway coast.  Its not for those scarred of heights, the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge hangs some 30 metres above steep cliffs and crashing waves, spanning some 20 metres to the stack cliff of Carrick-a-Rede. This name translates to "the rock in the road", the road being the sea route by which salmon migrate back to their home waters.
 
For 350 years, the locals have fished the salmon in these waters traversing this chasm with the rope bridge to get to the island,  the bridge gets replaced each year, Spock was relieved  to hear this, poor darling does not have a head for heights.It has taken many forms over the years. In the 1970s it featured only a single handrail and large gaps between the slats.  A current design, which is a wire rope and Douglas fir bridge,  offers visitors and fishermen alike a much safer passage to the island. Apparently, although no one has fallen off the bridge, there have been many instances where visitors, unable to face the walk back across the bridge, have had to be taken off the island by boat.


The a few miles up the road  we make our way to the Giants causeway. With sea cliffs of contrasting black basalt and white chalk, rocky islands, picturesque little harbours and broad sweeps of sandy beach. There is a vast expanse of regular, closely packed hexagonal stone columns dipping gently beneath the waves which looks for all the world like the handiwork of giants.  The mythology of the causeway goes something like this.  An Irish giant, Finn McCool, built the causeway so that he could cross the sea to fight the Scottish giant Benandonner.  When he got there he found his rival asleep and, seeing that the Scot was far bigger then he, fled back to Ireland.  Soon, Finn’s wife heard the angry Benandoneer come running across the Causeway, so she dressed Finn in a baby’s shawl and bonnet and put him in a crib.  When the Scottish giant came hammering at Finn’s door, Mrs. McCool warned him not to wake Finn’s baby.  Taking a glance in the cot, Benandonner decided that if this huge baby was Finn’s child, then McCool himself must be huge, and fled in turn back to Scotland, ripping up the causeway as he went.  All that remains are its ends – the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland and the island of Staffia in Scotland that has similar rock formations.  Of course there is a more scientific explanation but I like that one the best.

Lee at the rope bridge at Carrick-a-rede

We have settled in Coleraine for our first night in Ireland and we have just had a couple of pints - got a bit of a taste for Wagners Cider myself.