Monday, July 17, 2017

Walking Northern Ireland

I haven't been able to post any pics from Ireland for a lack of a decent internet connection at my hotel. I have skipped my first two days to show the pretty ones from my 10 mile walk from Portrush to the Giant's Causeway along the coast. I'll post the others later. Maybe not until Dublin, where I'll be going on Thursday.

The walk reminded me a bit of the Amalfi Coast. Well, the curvy, cliffside road did. There weren't any assholes in Ferraris trying to push everyone over the cliffs at 800 miles per hour, though, and the wind was fierce and unpleasant. I had tinnitus at the end of the day and I felt like I had been to a rock concert. The sun was out, and it didn't rain a drop, which made it pleasant enough.

The stairway across the street from my hotel that leads to the beach, where I started.

The sand dunes in the background are pretty impressive - the Royal Portrush Golf Course is on top of the dunes. They'll be holding the British Open there in 2019. I'm looking forward to watching that.

To the left across the water you can see the Skerries, an uninhabited island chain of scientific interest. They are supposed to have interesting birds and sealife.

This beach, the East Strand, is 4km long and quite stunning, but it's mostly too cold to enjoy. I had two layers on for the whole walk.

Get property in Portrush, UK right now. Climate change may make this prime real estate. Or the sea level will rise so high that the beach will disappear. More likely. Beautiful, though.

Posting pics of Portrush so you can see how far I walked. This is probably a mile away at this point.

There was some sort of kids' event in the morning. Lots of kids. Lots of dog walkers, too. Look at the dunes to the right.

These dunes were quite impressive. I found it fascinating how they are covered in grass despite being made of sand. The golf course is on top of them.

Portrush, UK. I zoomed a bit. I'll write more about Portrush later. I am not a big fan.

At this point I'm about a couple miles away.

The beginning of the cliffs. Ireland is a spectacular geological freak. Which is why the Giant's Causeway fits here.



Two and half miles from Portrush.


The Royal Portrush Golf Course, site of the 2019 British Open. It looks hard. And that wind! There are many golf courses all along the coast but they all suffer from high winds.


Half of the walk was on the road.


The Atlantic is never this clear and this blue on our side!




Curves ahead.



The ruins of 17th century Dunluce Castle.

You can see Portrush in the distance.


See? Curves.


Lucky cows.

Another golf course in dunes. Bushfoot.





Portrush is directly in the center of this photo.

Runkerry Beach.

Bushmills to Giant's Causeway Railway



Now the scenery gets really impressive.

The cliff side path to get to the Causeway.









And I'll stop there and post the Giant's Causeway pics at another time.



1 comment:

  1. Great pictures from you as always.Was Chris with you and could he complete a ten mile walk?

    ReplyDelete