Tuesday 24th

We awoke this morning to another blustery but sunny day. Feeling positive about the rest of the trip and hoping that the bad weather had now passed we made our way to breakfast where, after 30mins, the grey clouds rolled in and we knew we were in for another day of showers at least.
We left the hotel at about 10am with an aim to visit Carrick a Rede (the rope bridge along the north coast) and the Giants Causeway. The route planned was the Antrim Coast which quite literally runs along the north eastern coast not passing much further away from the beach than a couple of hundred metres in most places.
After riding through the hills to get to the coast the rain stopped to reveal warm sunshine and as we passed along the winding, perfectly laid road taking in the amazing scenery of cliffs plunging into the ocean which, given the winds still being fairly high, was glittering blue in the sun with ripples of white from the crest of the waves being rolled forward faster then they wished.

The road was fairly quiet and reminded me much of a trip to Greece a few years ago where I had hired out a scooter to go round Rhodes. After hitting the far side of the island, all that could be seen was road and coast. As I did then, all I could do was smile as we progressed along towards our destination.

The night before, we had been watching TV and caught the highlights of the Northwest 200. A motorcycle road race that takes place along the Antrim Coast. Passing the area where the race took place, I couldn't help but lean over the tank as we passed the start/finish line and rev the engine a little imagining I was riding a sports bike! Reality soon struck back though realising that I could only legally ride at 30mph!

We approaced the rope bridge late in the afternoon and not realising we had quite a walk from the car park to the bridge itself, we kept our gear on including the rainsuits. The walk took about 20 minutes from the point of paying and on the way, was downhill which made things warm but not uncomfortable. It was obvious on the way back through we were going to struggle. The rope bridge itself crosses 20 metres onto a small separated piece of land and is 30 metres high. Given the windy conditions, I thought it would be bad but crossing the bridge was done with relative ease bouncing along as I went! Others were not quite so trusting taking them slightly longer to get across (or in Nikki's case, not attempting at all!). Going from sunshine on one side of the bridge onto the island, the heavens opened again and with the strong wind, the raindrops felt like pin pricks across my face! Fun nevertheless trying to keep upright and trying desperately not to get blown off the edge, I made my way back to the bridge to cross back.

Tired and getting hungry, but also realising that we were only halfway along the route chosen, we headed off quickly to the Giants Causeway. Upon arrival, we realised that there would again be a lot of walking so off we went taking lots of pictures too as any good tourist would do!

By the time we left, it must have been close to 6pm and given the distance left to get to our next hotel, we decided to skip out the Inishowen Peninsula and head round on the fastest roads possible arriving shortly before 9pm in Dunfanaghy.