The Antrim Coast

---

Today was the start of a beautiful travelling relationship. Michelle and me winding through the Irish country side with Kristelle and Ryan in hot pursuit. Well that’s how it started anyway. We quickly realised that our car was a bit sluggish and KB and Ry’s had no worries keeping up. We headed out of Belfast after a quick goodbye to the old fella (thanks for the lift Al!) - destination Londonderry.

First up was a standard pit stop at a Castle on the Antrim coast at Carrickfergus. The weather was a bit rough so we decided to drive on - hoping that our next stop would be a bit drier.

Unfortunately the weather didn’t clear up and we soon arrived at the Carrack-a-rede rope bridge. This must stop of the Irish tour is where, historically, a rope bridge was built each fishing season for fishermen to carry their goods across to a sheltered cove on a small island. Now days a permanent bridge has been installed and, of cause, a tourist toll point and fenced off area. Unfortunately, due to the high wind speeds, the bridge was closed. We still got fairly close and had a look at what would have been a pretty hairy trip!

Our next stop was the Giants Causeway. The weather was still fairly dreary but at least this attraction wasn’t closed. We took the 2 pound bus for the 1km round trip down to the coast where the rock formations were most prominent. The rocks were amazing. I had expected a hundred or so rocks, but was quite impressed by the thousands of rocks towering tens of meters tall. The rocks disappeared into the ocean and climbed up the hill side. There were several interested formations, the Granny, the Wishing Chair, the Organ and the Camel to name a few.

The weather did clear up in the afternoon, just when we stopped for an indoors tour of the oldest licensed whisky Brewery in the world - Bushmans. The tour wasn’t that exciting - we had to wait for 30mins for a short film and a walk through the plant by a unenthusiastic tour guide. Unfortunately the bottling plant was closed for maintenance, much to Ryans disappointment. The tour ended with a sample of Irish whiskey. We did learn three interesting differences between Irish Whiskey and Scotch Whisky. The first is the during the drying of the bailey where the Scotch has a smoky peat flavour while the Irish use clean dry air. The second is the distilling where the Irish distil three times vs. the Scotch two times resulting in a ‘purer’ flavour. And thirdly the spelling of Irish Whiskey vs. Scotch Whisky. I hope that doesn’t spoil the tour for you!

Finally we finished of the day at Londonderry where we stayed for the night. Derry is another walled city that claims to have the best walls. The walls were in pretty good condition and were quite impressive - up to 9 meters wide in several spots! The town also claims to have the largest collection of original cannons - still mounted on the walls! We walked the walls then headed to an Italian restaurant for dinner. An eventful first day to a whirlwind tour of Ireland. Hopefully the weather will be a bit more accommodating tomorrow.

---

Photos

Carrick-A-Ree 3
You can just see the rope bridge.

Bushmills Cows
They produce the whiskey.