So Long

We arrived at our apartment this early evening and were greeted with the news that Queen Elizabeth II had just passed. We brought our bags in from the car and flipped on the TV to watch the endless, and quite somber, special news coverage by the BBC. As the anchor noted, it is a time of “profound change and profound sadness.” It did seem like she had always been the Queen and was immortal. A sad farewell to a queen that served so long.

Before the historical news, we started our morning with a drive up the Coastal Causeway to Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. The drive on the Causeway is absolutely gorgeous. Rolling green hills and dramatic cliffs run along the ocean, which gently rolls onto the shore. Small villages dotted the coastline, as we drove northeast. The Carrick-Rede rope bridge was initially erected by fishermen to check on their salmon nets. It swings about 100 feet above the sea, spanning a chasm of about 60 feet. It connects the mainland with the island Carrick-a-Rede. The fishing activity peaked in the 1800’s, when over 100 people were employed; however, the salmon no longer swim here, and the bridge is simply a tourist activity. But it was a fun one. We walked a 1km trail to the bridge, which is accessed by a steep set of stairs, and monitored for capacity issues on both sides of the bridge. Planks of wood line the roped walkway, with two large ropes used for handrails. Kim stepped onto the bridge first, bouncing and swaying across the passage. It was a little unsettling, but the distance wasn’t too long. By the time I started to feel a bit nervous, I was on the other side. The little island, Carrick-a-Rede, was small with sheer cliffs dropping down to surprisingly clear water lapping at its shores. We walked around the island, then scampered back over the bridge and walked toward the car park.

A short drive farther up the coast brought us to the Giant’s Causeway. As a result of volcanic activity, enormous vertical basalt columns jut out of the earth. The phenomenon is not unlike the cliffs we saw in Iceland at Reynisfjara (see previous blog “Waterfalls and Wonderment”), but it is easier to say. We walked above the shoreline first, viewing the Causeway from the cliff top above. Through a series of stairs and gavel paths, we walked toward the ocean. On the cliffs, there were groups of basalt columns, which had been revealed through millennia of erosion. Winding down to the bottom, we traipsed over the columns that had been stumped by the motion of endless waves. The black columns are five, six, seven sided and look like interlocking tiles. The tide was down, so we walked out quite a ways, and saw the head of a seal pop out of the water were the short columns dipped into the water. Apparently the columns run under the water, with the same columns projecting out of the shore on Scotland’s Giant’s Causeway.

Serendipitously, our good friend Terry had noticed our trip on Facebook and advised us to stop by his family’s restaurant in Portstewart. We found it on the map and headed for dinner. Native Seafood and Scran is on the shore, in Portstewart, and offers fresh seafood. We ate a delicious meal and passed along Terry’s best wishes to his cousin before jumping in the car one last time for the day. We drove south to Glarryford, where we met Margaret, our landlord for the next two days. It was then that we were told the sad news of the Queen. It will be interesting to see how the loss is experienced here these last few days of our trip in her United Kingdom.Read more