This record may stand for a long time. 16,500 steps today - about 90% of which were downhill or uphill. Somehow they pretty much all felt like they were uphill. But, my feet and knees held up very well so now I'm giving them a break.
My brain is also spent so this will be brief. The photos will upload overnight (hopefully) and when I once again regain consciousness in the morning, I shall try to add them to this post.
We set out before 8:30 for the Dark Hedges. Of course we ended up coming in the back way but it was lovely and there were very few people around.
From there we headed to Glenariff Forest Park where we found the parking lot open, but the visitor centre closed. The pay-and-display machine took only coins and we didn't have enough so we just left the car in the lot and happily, it was not ticketed nor towed or even clamped. Lucky.
We did the Waterfall walk. Starting out going downhill for quite a distance was our first indication of the effort that would be required for the return trip. The waterfalls did not disappoint and we all made it back up to the car more or less in decent shape.
En route towards the north, we stopped in Ballycastle for lunch and later wandered around the ruins of a friary. The name will come to me later. The builders/owners/conquerors were the same folks who later occupied Dunluce.
From there we headed towards the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. At a cost of 8 GBP per person to cross the bridge, we just got two tickets and I walked to and from and watched the younger set struggle across and back in the howling wind.
We drove past the Giant's Causeway and visited Dunluce Castle instead. It's by far the biggest castle ruins we've explored and it was a good stop to put the finishing touches on the day's step count. Almost.
Having decided to eat out, we eventually figured out how to use my Irish phone to call a local Northern Ireland number. There are no roaming charges but simply dialing the number isn't enough. It's not an intuitive process but good old Google came to the rescue, with only a small hiccup before a taxi was summoned.
Parking is abysmal and scarce so we rode in style to Ramores in Portrush and had a nice dinner in one of their five co-located restaurants: The Wine Bar. Taxis were lined up outside so getting one to take us "home" was easy. Nothing is cheap but it was easy.
Now settled for the night, at almost 9:30, we've decided to get a late start tomorrow. I'm not sure how Storm Callum will affect us. Fortunately we are no longer on the West Coast so it could be wet and windy but not likely problematic.
Fatigue has overcome me at this point so I'll say good-night for now.
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