Learning to Drive

 We breezed out of Belfast this morning.  Sue's navigation had us out in no time.  Maybe that had a little to do with it being a Sunday morning.  It seems nobody gets up very early here.

A couple of days ago we decided to book a visit to Carrick-a-Rede.  It is a rope bridge that goes from the mainland out to a small island.  A reservation was made.  A tad of a 'screwup' took place...someone booked the wrong day for our visit...not sure who that someone was!  A phone call this morning was able to remedy the problem.  In fact it worked out even better because we had more time to get from Belfast to Carrick-a Rede.

We decided to take the Causeway Coastal Route.  It was quite the experience.  We were treated to a wide variety of Ireland's finest roads.  Some were 2 lane lined with stone fences on both sides while others were narrow (no wider than a path) one lane 2 way roads.  If you met someone, you were forced to squeeze by or more than once back up to a slightly wider spot to let the other vehicle past.  I felt like I was just learning to drive again!  Did I mention how much I dislike shifting with my left hand?  I suspect we will be facing many more of these interesting drives over the next couple of weeks.

The Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge was quite the experience.  It is a wooden suspension bridge with only two ropes to hang onto.   It hangs a little over a 100 feet above the ocean.  Local people built this bridge in order that they could get to the small island to go fishing.  Originally it was a single board with a single rope.  When they got to the island they still had to lower their boats into the ocean with a winch and pully system.  To bring the fish back across they attached baskets to their backs.  I can only imagine how difficult life must have been in this part of Northern Ireland that in order to survive you had to resort to such tactics.  It was still being used up until the 1960's.  Of course today it is just a tourist attraction.



Tunnel near Larne


Narrow 2 lane roads


Even narrower two lane roads!


Cliffs near Carrick-a-Rede


Carreck-a-Rede Rope Bridge


Baallintoy Harbour of Game of Thrones fame!

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