Thursday July 17, 2014

As we cycled out of Tollymore, we passed the campsite we were supposed to be staying at.  It was 10 kms out of Town and another 20 minutes away from Tollymore, up some good hills.  Must remember the Irish 10 minutes!

A short day today.  Our plan was to get to Dunleer (75ks), but with two recommendations to visit the medieval town of Carlingford we made a detour.

Our route out of Newcastle took us through the Mourne Mountains.  Absolutely beautiful, if you like walking this would be a great place to spend some time in the hills.  I kept expecting the roads to really kick-up, but they weren’t too bad, we generally got the momentum from the down hills to get us up the next hill, great way to cycle.

The first recommendation to visit Carlingford came from Sheila the lady I spoke to outside the  Tesco supermarket last night.  The second recommendation came from an ISite employee.  We had pulled into the Aldi car park to check the route out of Newry.  We thought we would have to follow the A1 (a busy dual carriageway) to cross the border.  This young man had spotted us from the Tourist Information office and came over with map in hand and informed us that there was no border crossing, open borders.  He also informed us that the A1 was a really busy road and in Ireland it turns into a motorway.  He then told us about Carlingford and I decided it would be worth the visit and it was.

We stopped on the Quay in Newry to get some lunch.  Ralf had spotted a Subway, so we took our bikes inside the shopping centre and went to the Subway.  As we were about to sit down Security came to me and asked us to take the bikes outside. We went outside and sat in the sun, yes it was sunny today.  I have been carrying a tube of sun protection cream we bought in Australia – this is the third time we have used it since Australia – how sad is that.  I am really strict about putting it on even if there is only a slight chance of the sun being hot enough to burn us.  This is the first time in almost a month that the temperature has been over 20 degrees!!!

We crossed into Ireland without incident.  In fact the only way you know you have crossed into Eire are the traffic signs are now in kilometres and not miles.

The route to Carlingford was very pretty although the cars in Ireland didn\’t give us as much room as in the North.

As you arrive in the Town the Castle stands atop of the hill \’protecting\’ the Town and overlooking the harbour.

We parked our bikes and investigated the castle, it had a great view of the harbour.

The Town was small with little streets and ancient towers, and gates.

The old Dominican Priory was my favourite, the stone work and archways were lovely and very peaceful.  I could imagine the monks walking these hallways chanting their prayers.

A lot of the buildings were incorporated into new commercial enterprises.  This tower was part of a pub.

The Town had some lovely restaurants and small shops, Ralf always spots the interesting photos.

By the time we had wandered around the Town of Carlingford, which was really worth stopping and visiting it was 3:30 and we needed to find a campsite.  The Tourist Information office called the campsite and we were informed that there was no vacancy for tonight.  Our options were limited, B&Bs at approximately 35EU to 45EU per person.  The other option was the Carlingford Adventure Centre which is a hostel as well. A dorm room is 20 EU per person or an ensuite is 30 EU Per person.  We opted for the dorm room, but the fella (David) offered us the ensuite for the same price as a dorm. We are in an ensuite room, it is a very small, basic room, clean and a nice hot shower.  Our bikes are in the safe lock-up. The Mint is part of the Centre.

There was a sign about leprechauns in this Town as well, of course we had to investigate.  Not sure why the bull was in the same garden.

We also spotted this boat – Mat it needs a bit of work, but I am sure you are up to it.

Wednesday July 16, 2014

We said our farewells to Sam at about 8:45 and set out on the river/canal route to Lisburn.  Due to the nature of a river they do not generally run in a straight line consequently our route was a meandering route.  The 22 kms took us rather a long time with a stop for a chat it was almost 2 hours, but it was very nice, paved all the way and plenty of room for cyclists and pedestrians.

We passed a huge derelict building.

A lovely couple of ladies were walking towards us so we decided to stop and ask them what the building had been used for.  It was the largest Irish Linen Mill, it employed thousands of workers in its day.  Hilden Mill owned by Barbour Threads was built in 1784 and by 1914 employed 2,000 people, it was the largest linen thread company in the world.  It closed in 2006.  The ladies told us that the Queen’s wedding gift was made there.

We met our first grumpy Irish couple.  We passed them on one stretch of the river, I rang my bell which has quite a nice ring to it not harsh ring, just a gentle – excuse me I am coming up behind you kind of ring.  They didn’t move to one side, so I rang it again and called coming up on your right.  They turned around and glared at us, I smiled and said good-morning but they were not happy.  Now the unfortunate thing happened, we got turned around and did an extra loop which meant that we passed them two more times.  Each time I rang my happy bell, and each time they glared at us.  It was a shared path, but I guess they didn’t want to share.

After we left Lisburn we had a lovely ride through Hillsborough into Newcastle.  What a surprise Newcastle was.  It was a very busy seaside tourist Town with lots of people and cars milling around.

We went to the Tourist Information Office who told us about two campsites.  The one for us was called Wheelmore Park, it took tents, the other park was for families only.  The lady at the Information office told us it was about 10 minutes away.  Ralf said we are on bicycles, yep only 10 minutes.

We cycled to the Tesco to buy dinner and while Ralf was in the store I chatted to Shelia who was a transplant from Stoke, loves Ireland, offered us her spare room if we couldn’t find a campsite.  I wasn’t that keen as she smoked rollups and had two in the short time that I spoke to her.  Her directions to the campsite were a little different from the Tourist Information Office.

We set off on our 10 minute ride to the campsite.  Twenty minutes and a couple of hills later we arrived at Tollymore Forest Park – the families only park.

We decided to chance it and cycled into the park.  Yes we could stay, by this time it was getting on to 5:00 pm and we quickly set up the tent and made dinner.

As we were finishing dinner we chatted to our neighbour, a fellow cyclist.  I had noticed a road bike and thought it might be his son’s.  He was very enthusiastic about his morning rides.  We laughed about ‘chasing’ down other riders and ‘racing’ with them.  He also told us about the Irish 10 minutes – everything is 10 minutes away or just around the corner. You have to ask how far the corner is before you decide to head out, because the corner may be 10 kms away!

Tuesday July 15, 2014

There is nothing worse for me than cycling in the rain and hearing the grit and dirt on my chain.  I look at Mrs Sweetcheeks and know that she needs to be cleaned and I wonder when and where am I going to get the opportunity to clean her? Of course if Mrs Sweetcheeks needs cleaning Ralf’s bike also needs cleaning.  Today was the day to get the bikes clean, oiled and ready to go again.  I get a great satisfaction of seeing gleaming  drive trains and gears, no road dirt and grit on the bikes.  Often people will comment on our ‘new’ bikes, then we tell them that they have over 10,000 kms on them and I am sure they don’t believe us.  But, if you want a bike to take you around the world you have to keep it clean and well maintained and that is my job and I really enjoy doing it.

After the bikes were clean we headed downtown Belfast, we picked up a few necessities – a patch for my pannier, more fuel for the camp stoves and maps for south Ireland.

Belfast has some stunning architecture.  I wouldn\’t call it a pretty city or even one I would return to.  I am not sure if this is because of the history of the troubles and I didn\’t feel comfortable or because the weekend festivities of the Orange Order and the parades were too close to the surface.  I felt that there was still a divide, an uneasiness.

We saw some of the peace wall, and noticed the ‘divide’ between protestant areas and catholic areas.  I still feel the divide in the city maybe it is because it was bought to our attention this week-end, but it is not a united city, by any means.

On saying that we did enjoy our walk around Belfast, little lane-ways and open squares, great architecture and buildings.

This was a monument to  unknown women workers, whether they work at home or away from the home and of course both.  It is very difficult to see from the picture, but there are typewriters, telephones, babies bottles and inscriptions.  The sculpture was created in 1992 and the creator was asked to depict in cartoon style working women of the street – as Amelia Street was renowned as the red light area in Belfast.  Ms. Walsh the sculptor depicted working women, but not the kind that the City Council had envisioned.

Queens University Belfast was on our way home.  A stunning red brick building, with great doors.

The final word on Belfast.

Monday July 14, 2014

Rain on the tent, what a way to wake up.  We stayed snuggled under our sleeping bags for a while until it stopped.  We were up at 7:00 and managed to get the tent down before it started to rain again.  We ate our breakfast in the foyer of the marina building and eventually set of at 10:15, very late start. We had about 60ks to go and decided it would be a head down and pedal kind of day.  It rained for the majority of the ride and only stopped as we came into Belfast.

It was an interesting day for me cycling through places that I had heard about during the troubles – Antrim.   As we came into Belfast we cycled down the Crumlin Road.  It still looks like a ‘war zone’ even though the fences are down.  It was a very uncomfortable feeling as we cycled through, we didn\’t want to stop in this area, particularly as it is only a few days after the July 12 festivities.

In Antrim, Ralf and I had a discussion about the route, we knew we had to take the A26.  The only signed route was the A26 to Ballymena, back the way we had come from.  I told him, we would be going in the wrong direction.  Eventually after 2 roundabouts we found the A26 bound for Nutts Corner and Belfast.  I am not sure why Ralf thinks it is a good idea to follow the wrong road, for example it would be like being in Toronto seeing the 401 sign directing you towards Montreal (east) when you want to go to Windsor (west) and following the 401 sign to Montreal.

As we climbed the last hill before descending down into Belfast a road cyclist joined us and chatted to us about the hill and the weight we are carrying.  He told us that at the top of the hill we would get a great view of Belfast.  Judge for yourself – it was raining.

We had lunch in Belfast and headed to our warmshowers host.  Belfast has quite a nice looking downtown which we will explore in greater detail tomorrow.

Sam is a really nice man, he works at the British Geological Society and has a phd as a glacieologist.  The Tour de France was on the tv as we arrived, so we were able to catch up as Alberto Contador, retired from the race after his fall.

We went out for a pub dinner, first pint of Guinness in Ireland, lovely.  An early night.

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.

Saturday July 12, 2014

An unscheduled rest day.  We decided to stay at this campsite for an extra day.  The forecast was for rain, which we got from about 11:00 until 5:00 and again from 6:00 onwards.  The main reason for staying here is to avoid being in Belfast on Sunday.  Our plan now is to be in Belfast on Monday and Tuesday.

Today was a day for washing, and updating the blog.  Ralf sourced bike wheels and we have contacted a company in Somerset to see if we can get them shipped to Joy’s house.  I checked out warmshowers hosts for Belfast, it would be nice to save some more money, as we are a little over budget from England.  I also checked out if we should cycle by the shop and take a different ferry to France.  We may decide to take a ferry from Poole, Dorset to Cherbourg instead of Portsmouth to Lehavre.  That is a couple of weeks away, so we won’t worry about it until we get back into England.

It always feels good when I get the blog updated.  Although while we are in the South it may not get updated, as I will need to use free wi-fi.  My data stick is only good for the UK and I don\’t want to buy another data stick until we get into France.  I apologize in advance if the Ireland posts are late being posted.

Friday Jul 11, 2014

We were up early, as usual, and were on the road by 8:30.  We had a ‘tourist’ ride today.  Again the scenery was stunning and the people very friendly.  We were following the Coastal Road Route again today.  It was quite a hilly route today with a 10% climb out of Ballycastle.  That certainly gets your heart pumping in the first hour.

Our first stop was the Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge.  For over 350 years fishermen have strung a rope bridge 30 metres above the sea to allow them to access the best places to catch the migrating salmon.

The Carrick A Rede rope bridge is now a National Trust Site and you pay 5.60 for the privilege of crossing it.  It was well worth it, a great thrill to walk over the bridge, with a reward of lovely scenery.

As we walked up the hill towards the rope bridge, we chatted to a Canadian from Vancouver who was visiting family in Ireland.  His sister lives in Barrie.

Kittiwakes and a variety of wildlife can be seen on the walk to the rope bridge and the island it connects.

Larrybane is a lovely village that you can see from the Coastal Road, whitewashed houses and a lovely little church.

Then we spot a pink pub.

The Giant Causeway was our next stop.  You cannot see this natural phenomenon from the road.  This is also managed by the National Trust. To go through the exhibition it costs 8.60, or you can walk down the road without paying.  We didn’t go into the exhibition.  At first view the Causeway is a little disappointing, it is a lot smaller than I thought it would be.

Then you walk on it and see the way the rocks have been pushed up from the earth it is quite amazing.

It was a little difficult to walk on the causeway with the cycle shoes on, a little slippy with the cleats, we had to be careful.

Of course the truth behind the causeway has nothing to do with volcanoes, land movement etc – it is really about Finn the Irish Giant who had a rival a Scottish giant called Benandonner.  Finn challenged Benandonner to a battle and built the causeway so that Benandonner could walk over the causeway which stretched from North Antrim to Staffa.  As Benandonner appeared over the horizon, Finn realized he was much bigger than he was and ran home to his wife.  Oonagh disguised Finn as a baby and when Benandonner saw the ‘baby’ took fright at the thought of the size of his father and fled back to Scotland, tearing up the causeway on his way. Ralf’s comment on this piece of history – what a bunch of wossies these giants were.

We then headed out to Bushmills, this was going to be our stop for the night.  We stopped at a lovely campsite with clean toilets, large dish washing area, with a freezer and microwave, a games room and a TV room.  It is expensive at 20.00 per night but it is very clean and close to the distillery.

We quickly set up the tent and changed out of our cycle gear and headed straight to the Old Bushmills Whiskey Distillery, about 1 km down the road.  It was 3:30 pm by the time we got there and the last tour was at 4:00pm.  We were told that it was the “silent time” at the distillery and therefore would not see any production, but to compensate we got two little bottles of bushmills.

The fella who sold us the tickets, forgot to give me my tickets and because I had to wait a few minutes, we got another two little bottles of whiskey.  At the end of the tour, we got a good measure of whiskey as well.  All in all well worth the 7.50 for the tour.

The distillery was granted its licence to distil in 1608.

We enjoyed our free tasting of 12 year old malt whiskey whilst chatting with an American couple. Very nice couple from Ann Arbor Michigan.

When we got back to the campsite we had a chat with the owner.  We told him where we were going to cycle tomorrow and told us the A26 is MMBA – miles and miles of bugger all!  We told him we were following the River Bann route, that is prettier, he said

There isn’t many campsites on the route tomorrow so we may have to wild camp.