Ireland Tour 2015 Diary - Day 2 - Belfast to Antrim via the North Coast Road

If you haven't read Day 1 of this tour diary click here to read that first! That post explains about our trip and our plans for it also.

Friday 7th August

After being awoken by a Geordie lady being blasted into our cabins at 5:30am, we disembarked at 6am to the start of what looked like a beautiful day in Belfast. Having had no breakfast on the ferry, we started our journey north primarily in search for somewhere that served a full English/Irish - so basically, anywhere with bacon was grand.

We headed up the North Coast Road which truly is a great road with some stunning scenery as you are literally right next to the sea. It's definitely a must for anyone wanting to ride in Northern Ireland. Not sure if you're on the right road? If you're heading North, look right - if you can't see the sea, you're on the wrong road!

Eventually, we arrived in Ballycastle at about 8 o'clock and we were definitely all ready for some breakfast. We found a small cafe right by the harbour called Bay Cafe which was manned by the loveliest people you will ever meet and didn't mind 21 hungry bikers descending upon them in the slightest. They asked us about our trip and what we were planning - they even gave us some handy tips!

After breakfast a few of us decided that, whilst at the seaside, it would be rude not to get an ice cream and handily enough, there was one just opening across the street from where we had breakfast so we had our pudding overlooking the bay before setting off again towards the Giant's Causeway.

Breakfast in the Bay

Once we arrived, we split into smaller groups with some heading to the Causeway and some heading to Bushmills on the train in search of a distillery they had heard about.

Most of the bikes all lined up neatly in the train station car park

The Giant's Causeway really is a bizarre geological site, it is definitely weird how perfectly it all seems to have formed and I actually understand most of the basic science behind it! It does, unsurprisingly, provide some gorgeous views especially when it is as warm and sunny as it was when we got there.

The Giant's Causeway

The rocks were almost perfect

A gorgeous day to sit on the rocks

Built by a giant or by natural Earth movement?

We asked one of the the National Trust guys to explain how it all formed in both the scientific "proper" way and the more entertaining giant story. he did so very cheerfully and was again very friendly and unbelievably knowledgeable, but, then again I suppose that is his job!

Story time on the Causeway

As logically implausible as the giant story is, although much more entertaining, they do say that generally in science, the simplest version is most probably the correct one! So I'll leave that one with you...

As we had most of the afternoon left and not that many miles left to do before we arrived at the hotel for the night, we decided to go back to Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge that I had spotted signposts for along the way and fancied doing. A few other people ended up coming with us after we said where we were headed.

The rope bridge was a bit off as it was basically a 1km walk with a rope bridge at the end to a little island. The original bridge was built (with way less stability) about 350 years ago by salmon fisherman to help them carry their catch back to the mainland and they could leave their boats at the island. The bridge has taken many forms over the years until the current bridge was built in 2008.

A fishermans' cottage

Through the bridge down into the sea

On the island of Carrick-a-Rede at the other end of the bridge

Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge

We then headed to Port Rush for what we hoped would be a cake and coffee stop but ended up being more of a mini meal at a packed pizza/pasta place. After filling our bellies and  quenching our thirsts built up from walking in the sunshine in bike kit, we headed to the hotel where we would be staying for the next two nights.

After sorting the rooms out as the hotel had managed to much a few up (annoying but fixable and anyone involved with the mix-ups did get a free drink out of it!), we all headed up to get showered and changed before going across the road to the local Brewers Fayre pub for our actual dinner.

Again, showing up and saying "Table for 21 please" caused a few worried faces from the staff but they got us all sorted and did a brilliant job of getting us all fed at a pretty similar time.

The gorgeous weather lasted all day and made for a cracking ride through some of Northern Ireland. Day 3 is Ulster GP Road Race day so keep an eye out for the next instalment of my Tour Diary.

Until then, ride safe
TFB