Today we headed out of Dublin to Northern Ireland - which is technically part of the UK. However, since they are all EU (for now - Brexit may change that), there wasn't anything to mark the border besides an abrupt switch of the speed limit signs from KPH to MPH.
We drove through/under Belfast (another large city, with more manufacturing, enormous cranes, and general malaise) and kept going until we got to the coast. We could see Scotland! It's really not surprising that they migrated back and forth, as Scotland is just 13 miles away and clearly visible. I've walked farther than that! But I've never swam that far.... On this protected coast, there were almost no waves. We can't have that, so we continued around the coastal route (including some very small, very windy roads) further north.
Our first stop was Torr Head. In antiquity this crag was used for signal fires so the Scottish clans could communicate across the sea. More recently, this lookout post was used to track trans-Atlantic shipping, and after that was a coast guard post (Rumor has it that the customs house was burned down in the 1970s by the IRA, but apart from a failed attack in 1956 I can't find any evidence). Now, it's just an abandoned hut on top of a hill, with waves crashing all around. We even saw a seal! I love seals, so I switched to the zoom lens and laid prone waiting for him, but he never popped back up. We roamed around the island (I saw a rabbit? They're almost as cute as seals), and we took in the amazing views. But we were still hundreds of feet from the crashing waves, so we continued on.
So many choices, but (Ethan)'s pano captured the scene the best.
Adam on the crux
of a bouldering problem.
Continuing north, we found Ballintoy harbor. This begins our Game-Of-Thrones tour! The harbor and the rocky coast was used for a few different scenes.... not that we really cared - we were more interested in the landscape. We poked around the caves on the shore and then started scrambling out over the basalt stabbing into the sea and sky. Super photogenic rocks, with waves crashing! We poked our way around several outcroppings, crossing from one to the other in the still pauses between waves. Eventually we climbed down to get even more dramatic pictures and I finally got close enough to the waves! I'd watched several big waves roll in and noted that a certain part of the rock always stayed dry. So I stood there! And when I looked up, and the next wave was just a bit larger. But I was committed, and as the wave grew closer and larger so did my doubts. However, my decision was behind me and I had no choice but to ride it out (or get hit mid-stride and potentially thrown into the churn). When the chaos subsided, my boots were generously sprinkled. Totally worth it for the footage I hope Ethan got...
Ethan didn't get any... (Dad) did though!
We stopped at a rope bridge to check it out, but there were tour buses and jammed parking lots full of people - We were told an hour wait, and decided we'll rework our schedule a bit to hit it tomorrow morning. So more on this tomorrow!
Continuing on our game-of-thrones kick, we went to the Dark Hedges - a super photogenic rows of trees (that was used as The Kings Road in the Game of Thrones series). It was quite uncanny to drive miles and miles across narrow backcountry roads, alone except for the occasional farmer, to turn on to one street almost alike all the others and find it overrun with scores of people. And while the fanboying at the harbor was minor, at the Dark Hedges it lost all subtly - a few buses had disgorged a load of aficionados garbed in cloaks and armed with cheap plastic swords to roam the avenue. I'm sure the old aristocrat who had these trees planted to welcome people to his estate never imagined people would fly halfway across the world to see the trees, nor how they would be dressed when they arrived. That said, it was still quite cool to see all the birch trees, lined up, twisted grey branches reaching into a grey sky.
An empty section! Quick take a shot!
After seeing Dark Hedges we headed to our house for the night, apparently at the same time every tractor in the county decided to head home. Our airBnb is a great half duplex near Bushmills Distillery, and after almost breaking into the neighbors house (before rechecking the address) we settled in. Somewhat burned out on pub food, we ran out to the grocery store and stocked up on basic groceries. A simple spaghetti dinner was just the thing. After the dishes were done, we settled into the family room and lit up the fire for an evening of dice, cards, and trying to decide who had the "photo of the day". We all won.
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