A Giant Step…..but of the Mythical kind

Up early, brekky sorted and bike packed ready to start by 9.20, 10 mins early (!) unheard of! for us anyway. We don’t have an OS standard map so it was time to put the destination into Gavster the Garmin and give it its head to sort the route. It’s supposed to route via cycle friendly roads and tracks but, like all these devices, it can sometimes get adventurous, go through farm yards etc. we only decided to ignore Gavvy once on the way there and arrived on time only to see a number of coaches parked and arriving in the car park….a cruise ship was in apparently. Still, the Giant’s Causeway is a big place, the clue is in the name, and, whilst it wasn’t a spiritual moment with that number of people, it was an enjoyable walk from the visitor centre to the stones with the commentary from the headset.
Back to the visitor centre to get the picnic out of the pannier and just as we sat down at the picnic table, we were the only ones due to the cold, wind and now rain, so we decamped into a corner of the cafe and bought 2 teas and continued with our picnic there. Good job we’d brought the picnic as there signs everywhere apologising for restricted choice and slow service due to reduced number of staff.
We abandoned our provisional plan to go on to the Carrick Rope Bridge because we’d spent more time at the causeway and slightly influenced by the rain showers and having to cycle into wind most of the way home. So we donned waterproofs and set off.
On the way home we saw the other end of the track we’d chosen to avoid on the way there, it didn’t look too bad so we chanced it. A bit rough but ok until we came to a 10 yard section that was flooded right across! A quick inspection, one side didn’t look as deep as the other so, ignoring the fact that puddles are only flat on top, we ploughed through and didn’t even get our feet wet, well not enough to get in our shoes.
Once home it was kettle on for a “nice cup of tea” and a warm up, bike away and checking the route for tomorrow when we move on to another site on the “Wild Atlantic Way”.Read more