Portrush & Giant's Causeway

Monday, 2 August 2019

We took the opportunity to sleep in this morning.  The bed was comfortable and it seemed rainy outside so we weren't in a hurry to get out there.  We cooked breakfast and left the house around 11 AM.  

Today we are going to hike 6 miles of the Causeway Coast Way.  We drove to Dunseverick Castle (just some ruins) and parked our car.  The plan is to hike one way to Giant's Causeway and take a bus back to the car. When we arrived at the parking lot there were only couple of other cars and it pouring.  Not really a great day to hike, but this is our only day here so we have to.

Only a couple of cars in the parking lot

We waiting in the car for about 10 minutes when the rain finally stopped.  As soon as we got on the trail it was amazing...a bit dreary, but amazing.

As we hiked, the scenery just got better and better.

WE then started seeing the what makes this area famous.  The interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption.

After seeing this first wall, we came to the sign that declare we were entering Giant's Causeway.  Of course there was beautiful scenery.

After 5 miles we made it to the main area and all the people.  We took the trail down to where they all were.

This is the area with the high concentration of the hex shaped columns that were so cool to see.

How amazing is this?

There is actually a place in California called Devils Postpile National Monument that Tim and I had been to during my Pacific Crest Trail backpacking trip.  I just had to post that photo here:

We arrived at the bus station and the bus arrived 5 minutes later.  10 minutes later we were back in to our car.  We decided to check out the Old Bushmills Distillery jus down the road.  

When we go there they said the next tour was in 1 hour.  We decided not to wait since we took the Dingle Distillery tour and we figured we would take a tour of a Scottish distillery when we are there.  Tim did take a couple of photos though.

We returned back to the AirBnB and dried up.  We were going to walk to town for a pint and dinner, but decided we had enough walking for the day so we drove to the store and bought some beer then drove to the takeout place we ate at yesterday and brought dinner home with us.

After dinner we just chilled on the couch and got a load of laundry done.  Tomorrow we drive to Belfast via a scenic coastal road.  Now if only the rain will stop.