Holiday Diary - Day 24

Today we crossed the border into the Republic of Ireland. There was nothing really to mark the transition, no big sign, no border patrol, just a slight change in the road (it was a bit narrower) and a change in the speed limit (from 60mph to 80kph), and now we have Euros in our wallets for the next leg of the journey.

The scenery also changed a bit and we managed to take a few photos. Here are some of them.

They seem to like putting sculptures in the middle of roundabouts here.

Here's another one.

Approaching a valley near the Blue Stack Mountains

The map I'm using for reference doesn't show the name of the valley we went through so I may have to look that up later.

Mountains to the left of us

Mountains to the right of us

Going through the valley

Us at Donegal Castle

As we came into Donegal we saw the signs to the castle and figured we would give the GPS something to think about and stopped for a visit.

The Church of Ireland

As we came out of the castle the church bells were ringing a call to worship so we decided to answer the call. It was a good service about how our choices can affect how God's control works. The story was based on the story of Jacob and Esau.

A little restaurant next to the church.

This is where we had lunch.

Another roundabout sculpture

We passed a dam

More mountains to see as we approached Sligo

As we approached Cliffony we saw a castle on a hill and decided to investigate. We wound up in a little place called Mullaghmore.

The view from one side of Mullaghmore

Quite rocky on this side

Looking up towards Killybegs

The castle that drew our attention

A nearby bay

Inishmurray

After dinner Sue decided she wanted to take more photos so we found a little harbour nearby.

Those last two shots were taken at about 8:50pm and it was still quite bright out.

We're actually staying at a B&B just north of Grange which is a few miles north of Sligo. Tomorrow we will go and do a little exploring, apparently there are some spectacular sights up in the mountains to the east of us. After a little mountain trek we will head for Galway, which is our next stop on our whirlwind tour of the isles.

Richard.

Holiday Diary - Day 23

We didn't really have anything planned today, other than picking up our washing before 4pm, so we went for a nice long drive and ended up in Enniskillen. On the way we saw a sculpture that we quite interesting. The sculpture is in Strabane.

Here are some of today's photos.

The plaque describing the sculpture

The dancers

The musicians

I'm not sure if this is a lake or a river, but it is in Enniskillen

The castle by the lake

A nearby church

The castle and church as seen from the other side of the lake

I'm sure there is plenty more to see in this area of Northern Ireland but we kinda ran out of time. Tomorrow we go across the border into the republic. We will be staying in Sligo.

Richard.

Holiday Diary - Day 22

Today was a bit of a mixed bag weather-wise, started out sunny but then got windy with a few showers. Sue did a bit of whinging about the car and convinced them to give us a different one, so, after a trip to the airport to swap cars (we've been upgraded to an automatic Peugeot 207 estate), we headed for Londonderry via the Giant's Causeway.

Here are some of the photos we took today.

The new car

Not sure where the towers are as we didn't stop to look

Part of the view from the visitors centre at the Giant's Causeway

More of the view

What looks like the ruins of a house

I took several shots of the rock formations around the area, the following are a few of them.

I have seen rock formations like these in Australia, on Mt Wellington in Hobart.

The view as we drove into Londonderry

More of the view of Londonderry

Tonight we have settled in at Groart Manor and will be here for two nights. Tomorrow we go exploring this part of Northern Ireland.

Richard.

Holiday Diary - Day 21

Today we had nothing planned so we went for a little drive. We drove from Larne to Templepatrick then on to Crumlin, Glenavy, Moira, Craigavon, Lurgan, Gilford, Newry, Warrenpoint, Kilkeel, Newcastle, Dundrum, Clough, Downpatrick, Killyleagh, Comber, Bangor, Belfast and back to Larne. We took a few photos on the way around and here are some of them.

We saw some firemen running

Sue wanted everyone to see the car we're now driving

We saw an ordinary looking castle

This building has basically been built on the ruins of the old castle. The wooden door is part of the original and what's left of a stairwell can be seen under glass. We didn't have a look around so can't really tell much more about it.

I found a couple of more photogenic buildings not far away

A steeple seen from the castle carpark

A beach at Warrenpoint

While at the castle we saw a picture of some fairly spectacular scenery and got directions on how to get there but the weather wasn't good for going into the mountains and we couldn't find it. The place is called 'Silent Valley' and it is in the Mourn Mountains. We will try and get back there on our way back to Larne.

Sometimes we were lucky to see 100m in front of us.

We stopped at Annalong to check the surf

The entry to the harbour which is just the other side of the wall on the left

I saw this building with a water wheel and thought I would get a shot of it

They seem to like putting jagged edges on their fences

This seat appears to be made from one piece of solid granite

A tower that could be seen from the road near Bangor

The weather seemed to be clearing this afternoon so hopefully tomorrow. Tomorrow we head over to Londonderry via the north coast road. I here there is lots of photogenic scenery around that way.

Richard.

Holiday Diary - Day 20

Today we handed in one hire car in Glasgow, got on a ferry to travel across the Irish Sea and picked up another hire car in Belfast. We are now in Ireland, ready to start the next leg of our journey around the UK and Ireland.

Here are some of the photos we took.

The view from the cabin of the ferry

Another view from the cabin of the ferry

They seem to have the same strange white trees here as we have in Australia.

I'm not sure where these guys were rowing to

A light house on the shore of the Firth of Clyde

'

Aisla Craig, which marks the end of the Firth of Clyde and our transition into open water 

Heva and Tweety on whale watch. They didn't see any.

Our first view of Ireland

I found this church near our digs

The front of the church

Just in case we didn't realise that we were still in Britain they were flying the union flag

The view from the train as we entered Belfast to pick up the hire car

I tried to post this last night but the connection was so slow I couldn't upload the photos so tonight you get 2 posts.

Richard.