NORTHERN IRELAND - To The Land of Giants

Today we are venturing out of Belfast so it's time to talk transport.

Because of the politics in Northern Ireland, the buses and trains were never privatised. Today a government company - Translink - runs a fully integrated system, the most obvious feature of which is that railway and bus stations are often in the same building aiding connections.

The last time I was here, which was a while ago now, the trains were ancient "Thumper" units (Yes they made a lot of noise) sporting signs proclaiming "SAVE OUR RAILWAYS". At that time there was a proposal to close everything except the line to Dublin and a few Belfast suburban stations. Today the network has been modernised and has a fleet of modern Spanish built trains, making a trip up to the Antrim Coast very easy.

First stop today Ballintoy. This small village is home to the National Trust's Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. 

It was originally put up each year by fisherman to allow them to get to their salmon fishery on a neighbouring island, today of course it is a major tourist attraction. Now as you know I'm not too good with heights but I force myself to do things, so I went across.

From Ballintoy you can walk along the Ulster Way to the Giant's Causeway, taking in White Park Bay and spectacular cliffs with views of Rathlin Island, Scotland and Donegal.

Rathlin Island in the background

White Park Bay

The plan was to spend most of the day walking, timing my arrival at the Giant's Causeway about two hours before the last bus back to the train at Coleraine. That way I was hoping to would miss most of the crowds - the causeway is the National Trust's most visited property. Fortunately the plan worked and it was not too crowded.

This rock formation is called "The Organ"

Now there are two theories to the Giant's Causeway:

1) That it was formed a long time ago by a volcanic eruption with the lava solidifying into the hexagonal basalt columns we see today (Nature uses hexagons to fill flat surfaces - think honeycomb)

or

2) It was built by giant Finn McCool to enable him to get across to Scotland. Finn McCool also scooped up a chunk of earth to throw at a rival and missed. The earth landed in the Irish Sea and became the Isle of Man, the hole where the earth had come from, filled with water and became Lough Neagh.

The National Trust are obviously going for theory number two because they know Finn's shoe size.

Either way it is all pretty impressive stuff and definitely deserves it's World Heritage Status.

Funniest sight of the day has to go to the the group of "Game of Thrones" tourists who were with their guide at Ballintoy Harbour - they were all dressed up in costumes!!