The Last Leg Downwards

I’ve been trying to pack everything in, these last few days that I’ve got, but it’s starting to get harder to get going in the morning…and keep going all day/evening !

I was still up early today though, packed and on my way before 9 a.m. and down into Ballycastle. The radio ( BBC radio 2 at last !) was talking about great weather, lots of sunshine etc in England…guess what here ? -still overcast with better prospects for later and as I wandered around Ballycastle, the rain arrived, so I scarpered, taking the winding twisty road, up and around the coastline, so that I could pass Fair Head the North Easterly point of Ireland – which I did in a sweep of the road, and was travelling along the steep Antrim coastline, with the sea below me – now the ‘North Channel’ between Ireland and Scotland, clearly seen not many miles away .Now I was on my last ‘leg’ of the Irish coast, down along the West… I stopped at Coolranny village wandering around the graveyard, and a plaque giving the now normal history of poverty,emigration and decimation, although now it’s a very quiet coastal hamlet with an immaculately kept graveyard

I continued down into Cushenden (in the rain) and then Cushendall, a very picturesque village , by now I’d decided to splash out and have lunch somewhere – couldn’t find anywhere yet open, it was 11-30 a.m. and so had to carry on, and do myself a butty, whilst looking out over the coastline, and remains of coal/quarry  workings along Red Bay ,continuing down the West Coast, where great rocks of white limestone were being cut from the cliffs and used to line the road. Everything started getting busier as I approached Larne, where I could see big ships going across the channel towards mainland Britain

Not stopping I continued down towards Belfast, and the end of the Causeway coastal route… as I looked across Belfast Bay, and could see in the distance the big cranes of the Harland and Woolf shipyard. I wasn’t going to venture in to the City, having seen it last year…

So now, where to go next ? I decided the luxury of a campsite for a couple of days, and no more driving until Wednesday – good plan ? yes, but not that good… I had selected a campsite on the coast at a place called Kilkeel with the sea and Carlingford Loch for company and the Mourne mountains behind… when I got there after an hours drive I found a really busy seaside area, with hundreds of caravans packed in… not for me, so I turned back inland and to another campsite in a forest at Rostrevor, far nicer I thought when I got there… full ! So I headed off with some suggestions from the people at that campsite, stopped for fish and chips on the banks of Carlingford Loch, by now having driven through Newry and returned to Eire .

I eventually found a spot up in the Dooley hills, where reputedly is buried the ‘Long Woman’(back in the land of Myths and Legends!) …I’ll keep her company for the night… as I’m not going further   ..Goodnight !