the turquoise trail

{Sunday October 12th} I got up around 8:30a this morning to a lovely view of the river. I had a shower, and then enjoyed a cup of tea looking over the water in a stellar leather armchair.  Shortly, it was time to get ready and get packed up again. We went downstairs to load the car (without dropping any keys) and met Maeve around 10:30a.  From Chris's apartment, it was a short drive over to Pearl and Tommy's where we met for church this morning. We had a lovely meeting, and met a man who had travelled well across Canada as a country singer in his youth.  We stayed at Pearl and Tommy's for a delicious roast lamb dinner, complete with all the fixings. It was awesome to have some lamb!   We spent the afternoon with them and Maeve, and then headed out shortly before 4p to go to a gospel meeting about an hour south of Belfast, on our way to Dublin.  We got as far as the motorway (barely 1km), before I knew something was wrong. I pulled over to the sid...

{Saturday, October 11th} Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge We got up at 7:30a again this morning to get ready for the day. We had yogurt and oatmeal for breakfast at the hostel, before continuing along the Causeway Coastal Route.  Our first stop was at the Carrick-a-Rede Ripe bridge. It didn't open until 9:30a, so we waited for about 20 minutes before we were able to go in. Once we got our tickets, it was a 1km walk to the bridge. It was the first time we paid full price for tickets! We walked along the cliffs edge over to the entry of the rope bridge. It's quite high, and the rope bridge sways and jumps as you cross it, high above the sea.  Once we crossed, there was a small island we could walk around.   Carnlough From there, we continued following the coastal route around the north-east corner of Northern Ireland. We passed through several small villages, and for most of the time we were driving right on the coast.  We stopped in Carnlough for...