North Coast(Northern Ireland) Photos

May 2019                                                                                                  itinerary link

 

The whole time we were in Ireland, it rained every day. Sometimes harder, sometimes ever slightly. The sun would pop out then disappear in a moment. We got used to it by the time we were driving in this area. Known as the “Causeway Coastal Drive,” this 212 Km(130 miles) route hugging the coast of Northern Ireland between Belfast and Derry is supposedly one of the most beautiful drives in the entire world. We were heading the other direction on this road toward Belfast.

Yes. Castles. There were at least several of them. The rain poured down when we arrived at this castle. We quickly looked around and ran back to the car.

Giant’s Causeway, a true natural wonder for sure. Of course the legend has it built by a giant, Finn MacCool, whose name I only had associated with an Irish bar near our house till this visit to his monumental work.

The first instinct is to take pictures of every inch of it. But, then, you realize you will never be able to capture the true essence of wonderment you feel. After a while, all the pictures would look pretty much the same any way.

When we were there in early May, we ran into more bikers than cars on the road.

Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge links the mainland with the tiny island of Carrick-a-Rede. The island is small, but, the name is long. We stopped there but did not want to wait in a long line to get on that bridge. It’s been there for over 250 years, thus, it should still be there when and if we return to this area.

Turned inland to find the Game of Thrones forest, Dark Hedges. There was no parking lot, and we were lucky to be able to squeeze our car in a tight spot by the entrance. Getting out of that spot as we tried to leave was even trickier with more cars and people pouring in.

The rain continued. We decided to give up on the rest of the Causeway Coastal drive & head directly to Belfast.