out the UK and proper on our way

Day 2


              This was always going to be a busy day I`ve been looking forward to this day for a long time now , this will be the  proper start to the adventure today , yesterday was all about getting to here the real start of the trip , the weeks of planning were all about getting to here

               Its still our holiday and the planned early starts need to be realistic ! so when i woke at 05:30 i thought no way am i getting up this early ,and went back to sleep until 9 which was bit later than planned , it was still raining and miserable i drove to the rathlin island ferry terminal to use the toilet block there and went into ballycastle town centre for a cafe breakfast ,
          its not a long drive from ballycastle to carrick a rede bridge our first destination of the day , the weather was absolute pants howling a gale and raining , not the best conditions for walking a rope bridge ! but sheila ROPED me into paying £8 for a ticket to do the bridge and even though I'm used to walking gantries at height I've got to say it was a bit ROPEY crossing this in this weather ,but there was no way i was going to be roped into buying a certificate for £1
        I had taken my go pro i have brought both them with me but i forgot to film it and other stuff , i shall have to remember to film more and take more pictures my good digital camera is also still in a box somewhere in the van charged but unused so far ,
 

      after the rope bridge we headed up the coast to the giants causeway , i had visited this previously when i was in my early 20s and still have photos somewhere of me on the beach in my shell suit ! but at £11.50 each we really didn't think it was worth it ,also we were already way behind schedule and it would have to be rushed , the drive to port rush and beyond with all the NW200 race flags etc up brought back happy memories ,
     We never got into derry until 14:40 where i told sheila about the whole derry londonderry stuff and the ireland of old it had been nearing 30 years since i had crossed the border at london/derry , things have changed dramatically i was still expecting soldiers with guns engine off open the boot and bonnet ,but nothing its just like any other european border ( for now ) i done my own brexit around 14:55 hard to say as there was no obvious sign except a place called the frontier bar , not the border crossing i remembered or expected the last time i had to say to the soldier keep your gun out my car please ,
                because the lough foyle ferry is only on at the weekends at this time of year it cost us a few hours around the coast , and it meant we never arrived at malin head until 16;00 the good thing was the rain had stopped and the wind had died of , but it was a very late arrival , we had some fun taking photos of the most northern point of Ireland , there is some interesting stuff there to read up about and    that meant by the time i organised cycling stuff clothes / shoes /bikes/ tools /walkie talkies/ food /packs/took photos and set off it was nearly 17:00 !
   

     Ive not done anywhere near enough training and not been out on my cyclocross bike for many a month so i had a bit of re-learning to do . when to change gears timing is crucial , my seat was too low so i raised it ,my chain fell off due to a tuning error so i fixed that the steep descents were exhilarating especially at the sharp bends . theres nothing quite like being out in the country on a nice day on your cycle , i should have had the go pro set up and my selfie pole to capture the moment ! I'm not sure how sheila felt alone in the van first bit of driving it laden with all the camping /holiday stuff and the spare bike in another country , but i was loving the adventure so far along the wild atlantic way !

          i cycled to carridonagh which was only 14.5mile from the start line but it was getting beyond the time for dinner and finding a place to camp for the night we had a look around this town but that town didn’t have much for us, there was a parking site for campers to empty there waste and securely park for the night but no shower block so not worth the 12 euros we had no chemical toilet to empty ! we opted to go back to  a site where sheila had spotted on her new found phone app for camper vans ,  what a find it was right behind a couple of nice country boozers , and we had a big car park facing the river and mountains all  to ourselves ,
 

  we chose to go to lilly”s bar which was perfect coal fire and the locals round the bar wanting our craich , the only thing is we had to eat and they didn’t do food ,we went to the village cafe for fish and chips sheila had a pizza then we went back to the pub , we were in there to beyond closing time the blinds were down and the front door double barred a traditional lock in BRAW  , a good start to the cycle trip proper except the low milage cycled