The Giant's Causeway

Toilet stop #1

I seem to have misplaced some of my Ireland photos on the computer, we have our iMac back, yippee!  This means though that I'll be finishing off the Ireland posts slightly out of order, at least chronologically, perhaps I'm keeping with the current theme of day trips to spectacular locations. 

Anyway after Dublin we caught a train up to Belfast.  The real reason we visited Belfast was to go out to the Giant's Causeway, this is part of Ireland's only World Heritage site, so was definitely something I was looking forward to seeing.  The tour we took out there was no Day Tours Unplugged.  It was a bit of a comedy or errors getting out there, first the bus picking us up from the hotel ran out of petrol, in the middle of the city, in the middle of rush hour.  The bus sent to pick us up then went to the wrong location, I felt sorry for the people waiting for us, as we got away about an hour late.

Unfortunately this was one of those classic bus tours, a massive coach full of people.  I'm not sure if there are companies which do smaller trips, but if you can, I would recommend avoiding Allens Tours, though perhaps they are the best of what's out there.

Toilet stop #2

I have to say the tour guide was impressive once we got started.  Though more in the sense that I've never seen anyone manage to pull off an unscripted monologue for 4 hours.  He'd obviously done the tour so many times that he had memorised exactly what he had to say.  Whilst it was a feat in itself, he wasn't great in actually conveying information, but then a monotone will do that to you.

The trip along the coast was stunning, regardless of the size of the

Carrick-a-rede rope bridge

coach or the drone of the guide.  We stopped at a couple of little harbour villages along the way, the driver was very aware of the need for frequent toilet stops with a group of people that size.  And they were uniformly beautiful.

An unexpected highlight was the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge.  This bridge hangs 25m above the ocean and links the mainland with a tiny island 20m away.  The bridge was originally built by salmon fishers, but has long since become a major tourist attraction.  I think Dave and I were about the only two people on the bus who didn't partake, but I think I preferred not being swamped by the hordes.

The sea was an incredible colour

The white cliffs of Ireland

Looking back along the Causeway Coast

Another of my something-in-the-fore-ground series of photos

Random moth/butterfly/beetle feeding on a thistle

Dave atop the columns

I have to say that after the Carrick-a-rede bridge the Giant's Causeway was slightly disappointing.  I think that's my fault though as I had built it up quite a bit.  I think it would have been nicer if we could have gone for a walk along the coast there, but due to the construction of a new visitor's centre there was no way to make a loop.  Don't get me wrong, the Causeway is still a fairly spectacular sight, and on a clear day you can see across to Scotland (it wasn't that clear when we visited), just be warned there are a lot of other people there.

With a natural structure this freaky there are going to be a lot of legends around it.  It is said that the giant Fiann MacCool (awesome name) built it in order to fight with another giant in Scotland.  The version of the legend we were told is that when Fiann saw that the Scottish giant was very much larger than him he was very scared as he knew he would lose.  His wife was quick-thinking though and dressed Fiann up as a baby and invited the

The freaky causeway stones

giant in, telling him Fiann would be back soon.  The Scottish giant, upon seeing the baby fled in terror as he was convinced that if their baby was that size, Fiann must be huge.

The Causeway, like most freaky natural formations, is volcanic.  The rapid cooling of the lava caused it to shrink and form these polygonal columns.  The area around there is stunning in itself, it would have been great to spend a bit longer there and go for a nice long walk along the coastline.  Maybe next time.

The columns are impressive, probably better as a full-size shot, though perhaps the resolution is too low

Looking along the coast from the causeway

More funny structures, in this one we have the organ and chimney stacks, view it full-screen to get the best idea

Dave pondering

Aird's Snout, overlooking the causeway

Part of the Giant's gate

My final stuff-in-the-fore-ground photo, at least for this post