It was poured rain all of last night and was pouring rain
when we got up. However it had nearly
stopped by time breakfast was served in the B&B and we were ready to
roll. I had done a lot of work plotting
the route out of Londonderry and it really paid off. There was about four turns, up a hill, quick
left through a tunnel and within a few minutes we were out in the country.
The road had a lot of water on it from all the rain which
had come down in the last day, so it was a game of dodge the puddles and try
and time the puddles which oncoming cars would hit throwing huge waves of water
up. The rain itself had dwindled down to
a light sprinkle but the clouds hung ominously low.
About 15 kms out we had to ride up the A2 for a few kms
and although there was a bike lane it was full of pot holes, gravel and
rubbish. It wasn’t a very fun few
kms. I was glad to turn north onto the
Giant’s Causeway Highway. There was
hardly any traffic and no trucks. In
addition we were now out of the hills and following the coast so it was dead
flat.
As Ken and I cruised along it was getting brighter and
brighter. In fact the heavy clouds were
breaking up and a spot of blue sky appeared.
Then low and behold at the 40 km mark I looked down and was startled to
see my shadow,so off came the rain gear.
The Garmin was registering a blistering 17 C.
Just before we got into Coleraine we climbed a big hill
and the town was laid out before us in the sun.
It was so pretty. We felt just great having the sun on our backs. In town we foraged some sandwiched out of a
Spar convenience store and were delighted to find 1 liter bottles of Chocolate
milk on sale for 1Pound.
We had another 23 kms up to the Giant’s Causeway so we
pressed on past a bunch of beautiful cliffs and beaches. We got to the Giant’s Causeway and as it was
now 2:30 Pm, Ken and I decided we would only do the walk down to the stones
rather than go through the interpretive center and do the cliff walk.
The Giant’s Causeway is a series of octagonal basalt
columns which run from the cliffs down into the ocean. This lava flow is said to look like a causeway
of paving stones, and as they are quite large they most have been for a giant’s
causeway. It is actually quite a small
area where these occur so it is unique. In comparison to the huge basalt cliffs of the
Columbia River Basalt Plateau of Washington, Oregon and southern Idaho this is
not much. Having said that it was fun
walking down the 1.5 kms from the cliff top to see the rocks and climb on them.
After all these are famous and nobody
knows about those other rocks.
Ken and I still had 20 kms to get into Ballycastle and a
bunch of big hills to go. The road would climb up over a cliff and then dive
down to the ocean. Some of the views
from the cliffs were absolutely stunning.
We were done by time we rolled into Ballycastle it had been 105.6 kms
and 1093 m of accent.
Jos and Patrick took the train from Londonderry up to
Coleraine as it was raining in the morning.
They did go in and see the Bushmills distillery in Bushmills and cycled
in the afternoon. They missed a great
ride, and gave up their EFI. In addition
Jos was in contention for the coveted “White Jersey” being one of the youngest
riders. However I believe that this pretty much takes him out of contention.
Tomorrow we ride into Belfast for a two day rest period.
Terry
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