Crossed over into Northern Ireland and headed to the Giant's Causeway. The visitors' centre and the area closest to it was crowded, although not as much as usual because no cruise ships were docked in Belfast today. That adds big time to the numbers. This Sunday they are expecting 3000 people to visit!! Glad we're not going to be there then. The visitors' centre, a new facility, was jammed nonetheless. Christopher (our guide) led us in and we all stood inside for about 5 seconds and unanimously decided to turn around and exit immediately through the revolving doors. We were anxious to hit the trail! Christopher said every group he has brought here has done the same thing - he hasn't even seen much of the visitors' centre himself yet! He didn't seem too bothered by that.
Fantastic walk today! I'll post pictures tomorrow - we actually had a downpour during the last 45 minutes or so of the walk and we're currently plying the hair dryer, taking turns drying out stuff we need to use tomorrow! So - stay tuned.
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Okay, I'm back! Here's the part of the Giant's Causeway that gets mobbed by visitors. It's a short but steep trek (or bus ride) down the hill from the aforementioned visitors' centre.
There are over 40,000 interlocking hexagonal basalt columns, 60 million years of cooling and shrinking lava flows. There's also a story involving an Irish giant, Finn McCool, that provides an additional explanation for their existence!
We climbed - a lot - to leave behind the water's edge and reach the top of the cliffs. You can still see the columns, like vertically stacked logs, forming the headland in the background.
One of our group got a sudden inspiration to photograph me among the grasses atop the cliff.
The pastoral green pasture land lies on top of such wild, rocky underpinnings - the contrast is amazing. Here's Deirdre, walking along in the last minutes of our rain-free mileage. The skies opened shortly thereafter, resulting in the heavy hair dryer use mentioned above!
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