What can I say about today but wow! What an amazing day.
I've wanted to see the Giant's Causeway ever since I first read about it, and I had in the back of my mind that I wanted to walk across the Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge even though I knew with my dislike of heights and exposure I'd probably never make it. I went to both places today, and I was even lucky and had a totally dry riding day.
It rained overnight, and the ground was still very wet when I woke up. There were clouds in the sky, but there was blue up there too, at least in the morning. It was very gray by the time I returned to the B&B, but it was dry. It was quite cool, and there was quite a strong wind coming out of the west. My out and back ride meant I had a push from the wind in the morning, and a fight with the wind in the afternoon. I must admit it's much easier to ride into a headwind when I'm not hauling my trailer behind me. Definitely no complaints on the weather front - dry is good, and cool can be good too - although I really needed that hot shower this afternoon.
I had what's become my usual breakfast to start the day, and I spent some time talking with Helen. I'm so glad we didn't get our wires totally crossed yesterday and that she arrived home before I booked myself into the hostel. Helen clearly loves this area, and is very good about sharing her knowledge with her guests. She took early retirement when it was offered, and came back to Bushmills where she grew up. She runs her B&B, and she has a part-time job as a tour guide at the Old Bushmills Distillery. For those readers who are Irish whiskey fans, you'll just have to imagine that I went on the tour - I didn't. Much more typical of me, I spent the entire day outside. Helen and I talked about both the Giant's Causeway and the rope bridge before I left this morning. She told me that she thought the steep set of stairs leading down to the bridge were worse than the bridge itself.
It was a short 3-mile ride to the Giant's Causeway. There was a charge for the car park, but bicycles were free, and they even had usable (upside-down U-shaped) bicycle racks. I spent a couple of hours walking there, and probably could have spent even more if I didn't want to also get to the rope bridge today. There's a lower path along the water, and an upper path along the cliff tops. I started down the lower path Just as I got to the area known as the wishing chair, or the giant's columns, I heard a dog bark - and I knew without even seeing the dog that it had to be a dachshund. I walked just a little further, and saw the dog sitting next to her owner, barking to protect her. And of course she didn't need any protection. I just had to laugh. They can be such funny dogs!
Giant's Causeway is spectacular, magnificent, fabulous. The area that is most shown in pictures is an amazing looking basalt structure. The vertical columns of basalt, mostly 5 & 6 sided, have both the tops and the sides exposed. Legend has it that the causeway was created by a giant by the name of Finn MacCool. And it does look like it could be manmade. But the truth is that it is volcanic in nature. You could climb all over these columns, and it was almost like walking on stepping stones. The tops were flat, and if you stayed on the dry sections the footing was fine. There were warning signs all over to stay off of the black (and wet) stones. Apparently the waves often roll over these structures and can be quite dangerous.
I continued along the lower path, and I eventually followed it to its current end point. The path actually goes on a bit further, but it was closed because of rock fall. I spoke with a woman I met at the end of the path, and she told me that an acquaintance of hers said that he wasn't impressed by Giant's Causeway. She said "how can you not be impressed?", and I had to agree with her. This place is awesome. Actually the comment reminds me of one that I was told about in the Grand Canyon. I did a Backroads cycling and camping trip that went to Bryce Canyon, the Grand Canyon, and Zion National Parks, and one of our tour leaders told me that he was standing at an overlook in the Grand Canyon when he overheard someone say they thought it was too big. The "not impressive" comment about Giant's Causeway seems the same to me. They are both spectacular.
I headed back along the cliff-top path. It was possible to walk for miles along the top of the cliff, and there is a bus available that runs fairly often so you could walk a long distance one way and get a ride back. (That is, a bus is available if you visit in season. It was still running when I was there, but it was about to stop for the season in just a few more days.) I walked a little further along the cliff top, and then I turned back and headed for my bike. More riding to do today, and another place to explore... I hope some of the pictures I took do the place justice!
Back to the visitor's center, time for a bathroom and snack stop. A cup of hot chocolate warmed me up nicely. Then I rode on to the east with a nice wind pushing me. I actually considered not continuing to Carrick-a-rede because of the wind, but I decided I wasn't going to let it get the better of me. And actually, although it was quite strong it wasn't terrible riding back.
The Carrick-a-rede rope bridge is just what it sounds like - a rope bridge between the mainland and a small offshore island with a salmon fishery and hundreds of nesting birds on it. The bridge is about 20 meters long, and about 25 meters above the water. It is made of rope, but it does have wood planking down to walk on. And it swings in the wind. A lot.
It is another National Trust site where they charge for parking cars, but bikes are free, and bike racks are available. I parked my bike and took off on the 20-minute walk to the bridge. The views along the way were beautiful, and there was a funny moment too. I passed a couple who were posing with a cow. There was a black cow standing close to the fence who apparently wanted some attention. The man was petting the cow, whose head was over the fence, and the woman was taking a picture. As she said, a Kodak moment! We laughed together, and I continued on to the bridge. They caught up with me after one of my false starts across the bridge. I stepped onto it, and ventured maybe a quarter of the way across, then came back. What some of you may not know about me is that I am a bit freaked by heights. Not just any heights, but heights with the feeling of exposure. That's the reason that I've never made it up Angel's Landing at Zion National Park - even though I've hiked to the steep part twice! OK, I backed off of the bridge - and by the way, Helen was right, the steep stairs down to the bridge were very freaky too. I took a couple of pictures, thought to myself that I must be out of my mind, and tried false start number two. I was about to give up when the couple of the cow picture showed up. She headed out, and stopped halfway across to have her picture taken. He followed her across, and both of them encouraged me to come across, saying "How far did you ride your little bike to get here? You have to come across". Another couple came up behind me. The second man started across, gave me his hand, and helped me across. About halfway over I took my hand back so I could hold onto the rope "railings" on both sides, was told to "look at me" by the woman on the other side, and - I made it! Now all I had to manage was to make it across again. After all, I didn't want to be stuck on that little but tall rock of an island! And I managed to make it back across to the starting side. I might have been stuck in the middle of the bridge if I had looked down - 75 to 80 feet to some wild water. But I looked across, and I held on to the ropes as the wind pushed me around. Wow. When I talked to Helen later she said if it's really windy that the bridge is closed to the public. That was a pretty strong wind today - I wonder what really windy is like. And I found out the the bridge originally was just rope - no wood planks. No way would I have even attempted to cross it if it was only made of rope!
The "cow picture" couple passed me on the road later as I was riding back to Bushmills. As they drove by they gave me a wave and a big thumbs up.
Back at the B&B, I had tea and scones and pastries again, but this time it was a bit earlier in the afternoon - early enough to leave me with a good appetite for dinner. And the scones here are Irish-style scones, reasonably sized (small) and flakey. Yum.
I went back to the Distillers Arms for dinner. When I find a place that I like I tend to look no further... This time I ordered an entree instead of two starters. I arrived at the restaurant at 6:30, and it turned out that they had an early evening menu that was available until 6:45 in addition to the normal evening a la carte menu. The prices on the early evening menu were significantly less than the regular menu. I wasn't driven by price in my choice, but I did select something from the early menu - a trout fillet, with potato salad and dressed leaves. The trout was excellent, the potato salad was small white potatoes, roasted tomatoes, and black olives in a vinaigrette, and the dressed leaves - well I would have called that greens, or a salad. I guess dressed leaves is technically correct though. A very nice dinner. I asked for a cup of tea to finish, and as a side, my tea came with a shot glass of chocolate-covered malt balls. What fun!
My rain luck for the day didn't hold through the evening. I walked back from the restaurant in a light rain. I don't know what made me grab my rain jacket as I walked out the door - maybe those evil-looking gray clouds this afternoon - but I was glad I had it for the walk back.
Tomorrow I'm headed for Cushendall, on the east coast. The guide book I was looking at earlier today said that Cushendall is where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Irish Sea. I wondered when that was going to happen.
