Sunday July 13, 2014

The day started dull and overcast, it had rained overnight but there was a stiff wind blowing this morning and by the time we had got our bedding packed away the tent was dry and ready to be put away.  We packed the tent before we had breakfast just in case it rained again.

Ralf had spotted a watermill that he wanted to take photos of, so we stopped in Bushmills before heading of up the coastal route to Dunluce Castle.  As I was looking at the mill, a fella stopped and told me that both mills work.  The right hand side mill was replaced last year.  A template was made of it and then built in England, disassembled and reassembled on site.  The owner runs it every now and again.  It started to drizzle as we spoke, he smiled and said it will get better as the day goes on and it did.

Unfortunately my migraine didn’t get any better until after dinner.

These post boxes are very rare.  The current post boxes have ER – Elizabeth Regina, representing the Queen, you occasionally see \’angry\’ post boxes GR – George. This is the first VR – Victoria that I have seen.  Not in use now, but the faceplate is still in the wall.

We stopped at Dunluce Castle which is a 16^th century castle that is hanging on to the edge of a cliff.

Even the castle looks as if it is scared at being that close to the edge.

The grounds didn’t open until 10:00 and we were there at 9:15.  We wandered around the edge of the castle grounds and down to the cave, but we needed to press on.

They have done some excavations around the castle and have figured out that there was a village surrounding the castle, supporting it with food.

We then headed out on Route 93 towards Coleraine.  We chatted to a transplanted Welshman who commented on the July 12 celebrations and often it was the young ones egging the police on to get a reaction from them.  Ralf had noted the same thing at the celebrations in Bushmills, the young skinheads, drinking far too much, shouting at each other, Union flags shaved into their heads.

Coleraine is a fair sized Town with lots of shops and a very nice pedestrian downtown core.  As it was Sunday, all of the stores were closed except a few coffee shops.

We carried on Route 96 after Coleraine and headed out to find the Mountsandel Fort.  We passed the wood not realizing that you had to walk through the wood to the fort.  As it was very wet it wouldn’t have been a great walk with the bikes.

Today\’s route was rolling hills, and beautiful scenery and once again lovely people who smiled and greeted us.  If we stopped it would only take a few minutes before someone would stop and ask if we needed help.  As we came into Portglenone, we stopped to check the map and a motorist going around the roundabout stopped (in the roundabout) to ask where we were going and gave us directions.  The two cars following him in the roundabout did not even toot their horns in annoyance, they gave us a wave as well.

We are staying at a very odd ‘campsite’ tonight.  It is a Council run touring van site space for 4 camper vans and a bit of grass.  According to the website it accommodated tents.  There was a phone number we had to call.  Kathleen came down to take our money and asked if we needed a shower, she would pop back and let us into the marina building for our shower.  The camper van renters get a key, and she would have given us a key but decided she would “make it personal” and let us in and make sure we were comfortable.  A bit of grass, a great shower, clean toilets all for the princely sum of 5 pounds.  We will have to find more of these sites.