Antrim Coastal Drive, Northern Ireland

Today was a beautiful sunny day with bright blue skies, a great day for sightseeing. Our first stop travelling from Derry was to the Dark Hedges, around 94 enormous Beech trees planted over two centuries ago. The avenue of trees appears in the series Game of Thrones.

We then followed the Antrim Coastal Road to the Giant's Causeway, a massive expanse of interlocking basalt columns, a result of volcanic activity. The coastline on such a perfect day was breathtaking. The vivid blues and greens in such contrast to the grey of the basalt.

Next we traversed the Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge. A rope bridge 30 metres above the sea that allows fishermen to access their boats off a headland point to catch migrating salmon. Now the rope bridge is used mainly as a tourist attraction but there was a boat on the adjoining island that the fisherman still use. In Larrybane Bay you could also see the remains of a fort which sat on the headland around AD800.

We continued along the coastline where we saw pretty coastal villages, a patchwork quilt of fields, and desolate plateaus laced with pink heather. The sides of the hills were hedged by compact shrubs and blackberries to form "ladder farms". These run up the side of the valley and give each farming family an equal share of lowland pasture and steeper land which is used mainly for grazing sheep. After navigating blind summits, hidden dips and yield signs for sheep and cows we finally reached Belfast in the late afternoon.Baca lagi