Day: |
074 |
Date: |
Monday, 6 June 2016 |
Start: |
Bushmills |
Finish: |
Ballycastle |
Daily
Kilometres: |
30 |
Total
Kilometres: |
2041 |
Weather: |
Warm and sunny most of the day, with an
occasional cooling breeze |
Accommodation: |
An Caislean B&B |
Nutrition: |
Breakfast: Full Ulster Breakfast
Lunch: Muesli bars, Snickers Bar, chocolate and ice-cream
Dinner: Pizza, strawberry trifle |
Aches: |
None |
Highlight: |
The morning grassy clifftop walk along the
Causeway Coast with extensive views east and west along the
sculptured coast. |
Lowlight: |
None really |
Pictures: |
Here |
GPS Track: |
Here |
Journal: |
After a late breakfast at the B&B, I
started walking at 9:30am on a very warm and sunny morning after a
very warm night. Ulster buildings aren't designed for warm
weather. For the first hour, I followed a reasonably busy
road, with no provision for pedestrians, northwards to rejoin the
Ulster Way at the Giant's Causeway.
The big Visitor's Centre
seemed designed to get you to pay money to visit the Giant's
Causeway, but in fine print on one of the signs I read there was no
charge to visit the actual geological feature itself, which is what
I had expected. I joined a steady stream of tourists walking
down to the attraction, an area of about 40,000 interlocking and
mostly hexagonal basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic
eruption, on a small peninsula jutting out into the ocean. It
is very unusual, and in a spectacular location, but I didn't feel
the same urge to go clambering all over it as did my fellow
tourists. Perhaps that was because of my pack, and the
knowledge that I still had a long way to walk for the day.
I
walked past the Causeway and followed a track that climbed steeply
up onto the clifftop overlooking the Causeway and then joined the
Ulster Way travelling eastwards along the grassy clifftop. It
was nice walking, despite quite a few steep ups and downs, and the
views were fantastic. There were a few other walkers and one
fit-looking female ran past me at a good pace. It would make a
great training run.
After a couple of hours the path
descended steadily to a car park with a small picnic area and I had
a break. I had been warm hiking, but suddenly the sun went
behind a cloud, a cold wind sprang up, and I considered putting on a
jacket. However, once I started walking again and the sun
re-emerged, I warmed up quickly. The trail eventually
descended all the way to the rocky shore as it rounded Gid Point and
then along the long hard sand beach of White Park Bay. I bet
it was crowded yesterday, but today there were just a couple of
families and walkers enjoying it.
At the other end of the
beach, the trail passed a couple of National Trust protected small
rocky islands on a very tranquil sea, and then reached the tiny
Ballintoy Port where there was a cafe doing a good business and
plenty of tourists admiring the scene. From there I followed
the tourist road steeply back up to the clifftop and then inland to
the village of Ballintoy where I bought myself a drink and an
ice-cream. It was already nearly 4pm, and I had another 10km
to go. The clifftop walking and the steep climbs had made for
a slow pace.
The Ulster Way mostly followed the busy tourist
road all the way to Ballycastle, and I was once again dodging
vehicles. Along the way was a lookout over Carrickarade
Island, a National Trust property linked to the mainland by a rope
bridge. Apparently the first rope bridge was built by salmon
fisherman in 1755. I could have detoured and gone across the
bridge, as many tourists were obviously doing, but it was an extra
couple of kilometres as well as a lot of climbing and I decided it
wasn't a high priority.
I reached the pretty beach town of
Ballycastle around 6pm and found my B&B without difficulty after a
long and tiring day. Tomorrow, I leave the north coast and
begin heading south in the direction of Dublin, where I hope to be
in two weeks time. |
|
ADVENTURE LIST
Round Ireland
(2016)
Hume & Hovell Walking Track
(2013)
Via Alpina
(2012)
Australian Alps Walking
Track (2011)
Land's End to John O'Groats
(2010)
Round Oz Bike Record Attempt
(2009)
Round Oz Bike Record Attempt
(2008)
Round Oz Bike Record Attempt
(2007)
Australia Tip to Top MTB
(2006)
Adelaide to Darwin MTB
(2005)
Sydney to Melbourne MTB
(2004)
Three Peaks Race
(2004)
Appalachian Trail
(1986)
Alpine Track
(1983)
|