Day 8 Belfast (Northern Ireland) to Buncranna (Republic of Ireland)

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Tired only because today was AWESOME.

We negotiated our way out of Belfast City with 'not-total-ease' until eventually we hit the country road. First stop was the town of Carrickfergus in County Antrim and its castle which gives the town its name. It is a most imposing monument and a well preserved medieval structure. It was begun in 1177 by Anglo-Norman conqueror John DeGourcy. It was besieged by the Scots, Irish, English and French and played an important military role up to 1928. The town and its small but protected fishing harbour is beautiful. Extremely clean.

We drove the A2 (Giants Causeway coastal route) for the majority of our journey today with intermittent off shoots through narrow, winding roads walled in by stone walls or trimmed hedges even seemingly out-in-nowhere. Throughout our journey today we commented numerous times on the cleanliness of the towns, villages, hamlets, roadsides and amenities illustrating the pride the people have for their country(side). Whenever we asked for help or struck up conversation the friendliness and willingness to help was sincere and welcoming, none more so than when we had difficulty finding our B&B in Buncranna. The gentleman, Seamus Hampson, had us follow him from his house (we had pulled into his driveway to ask for directions) right to the door of the B&B. Unreal. To cap it off, he had two sisters living in WA, one in Wembley and the other in Mandurah.

The day has had us being reaffirmed in our 'fit-for-life' lifestyle as we had to walk many a kilometre up and down, to and from various sites, sometimes along uneven and narrow tracks. The weather, even though cold and interspersed with the occasional rain shower, is refreshing. We have no complaints. We've loved being rugged up. The biggest difficulty, and one not successfully achieved, has been the selecting of photos to post that depict our day. The captions associated with a few, hopefully, add to our story.

We ended our day with a bottle of wine and a hearty dinner at the "Harbour Inn", fronting the beach of Buncranna. Our B&B is "Johnnys Beach House" situated on the slope of a hill, over looking, you guessed it, the beach. Our room overlooks the scene. Ireland, we love you.

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