Day 34 Friday 24 June 2016

We woke to the news that England voted to leave the European Union. Later we heard that the Prime Minister resigned. There is a big muddle, disunity & shock. We will have to see what sort of domino effect this will cause.

Breakfast in Glasgow was average, typical of most of Scotland. As we left at 8am the traffic leaving Glasgow was reasonable & then we were on the motorway heading south. The countryside is typical small farms with the design & construction of the houses changing a little, they are now more rendered brick than stone. The fencing is now more post & wire with spiky bushes along the fence lines separating the fields. Still most of the trees we see are plantation pine, the land is mostly cleared & more rolling hills. At one stage we pass a wind generator power farm with more than 100 wind turbines clustered & the blades all still as there is no wind. We get to the coast again at Turnberry & spot the island of Ailsa Craig in the distance through the mist. This island is notable as the place where all the pucks used in the game of curling are sourced from. When we reach Girvan, the next small town south on the coast we are amazed at the sheer quantity of row upon row of semi-detached houses that all look the same. Further south again self-contained cabin accommodation is in abundance in coastal camping (these cabins are just plonked in rows without a bit of garden or shrubbery, it looks so stark) there must easily be thousands of cabins. We reach the port of Cairnryan near the head of Loch Ryan for the vehicle ferry to Ireland on the Stena Line at around 10.30am.

We wait around an hour on the coach before driving on to the ferry & disembarking. They were still unloading when we got there & had to wait for that to finish before they started to load, first the cars & motorbikes, then all the coaches, then the trucks. The space on the ferry is very tight, especially for trucks & buses. We had a good 1 ½ hours of waiting in total before the ferry pulled away from the wharf & started sailing. We did see some exotic cars load onto the ferry, there are a few wealthy people in Ireland obviously, a yellow Lamborghini, a yellow Ferrari convertible, a silver Aston Martin & a blue Rolls Royce convertible. The sea was very flat & the 2 ½ hour journey uneventful, apart from the downpour of rain as we neared the Irish coast. We had lunch on board & both of us dozed off in our chairs (lot of others were sleeping too) which was grand (as the Irish say it) it made the journey shorter.

The port of Belfast in Northern Island is away from the main part of town, so we didn’t see much of Belfast as we drove in the rain north towards the town of Ballycastle & the nearby Giant’s Causeway. The landscape is a little different in Ireland than nearby Scotland, the land appears to be greener & a little more fertile & less rocky, the farms appear to be more dairy farms. The housing has changed, there are a lot more houses & most appear to be newer & maintained well. The style of housing has changed as well, with most properties being two story brick.

The rain stopped & the sunshine is welcoming as we pull up at the Giant’s Causeway.

The Giant’s Causeway sits on the north coast of Northern Ireland & is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the result of intense volcanic activity & consists of interlocking basalt columns that have been exposed to the elements, with the sea waves creating the most impact. It does look spectacular & very scenic, there were hundreds of tourists walking all over the rocks & taking photos. We did the same after the easy 1.2km walk downhill, taking lots of photos, it really is a pretty spot, then the hard part, the long hard 1.2km uphill. Surprisingly we both warmed up & took our coats off on the uphill part. The nearly new visitor centre at the top of the hill is large, clean & well set out, we spent a bit of time wandering around it before it was time & at 5pm we set off for Derry (Londonderry).

Not far from the Giant’s Causeway we pass Dunluce Castle, teetering on the edge of the cliff, abandoned because parts of the castle have collapsed into the sea. Next we see something we have not seen in a very long time, white sand on a beach at Portrush & actually people swimming in the sea, all the beaches we have seen up to now have been covered in rocks & pebbles. We pass more green farms in rolling countryside & more windfarms before reaching the waters of Lough Foyle & reaching the city of Derry (or Londonderry depends which Ireland you are in), they have the most mixed up political situation here. Ireland is separated, the Republic of Ireland is separate from England. At present in Northern Ireland we are using the English pound but the Republic of Ireland is using the Euro. The Republic of Irelanders will even go as far as painting out the road sign London part so that it is only Derry, but peace seems to be prevailing & that is what’s important. Our hotel is out of town a little & we have dinner in a very nice restaurant, Da Vinci’s. We sit with another set of fellow travellers & enjoy a very tasty meal, again too much. Another good day.