Ireland, UK 2017: 5/8 Day 6 - Wild Atlantic Way and Northern Ireland

“When I come out on the road of a morning, when I have had a night's sleep and perhaps a breakfast, and the sun lights a hill on the distance, a hill I know I shall walk across an hour or two thence, and it is green and silken to my eye, and the clouds have begun their slow, fat rolling journey across the sky, no land in the world can inspire such love in a common man.” 

~Frank Delaney, Ireland

Miles accomplished: 202

What an awesome, exhausting, and and beautiful day!  I also felt like we could have been re-enacting scenes from Star Wars, Indiana Jones movies, and Game of Thrones. 

I had considered using the Dirk Gently navigation method today--pick a car whose driver looks like he knows where he is going and just follow him. Instead, I learned that I could download Google maps for the area I would be traveling (using the hotel's wi-fi) and then use offline navigation. Worked like a charm!

I've learned the secret to driving in Ireland involves a little bit of listening to Obi Wan Kenobi's voice saying "use the Force, Luke."  As you drive on a narrow road with oncoming traffic, use all the "car sights" you've chosen to line up with the white lines on either side of the car and then trust that it's all good as you drive between the hedge-covered stone on one side and the oncoming cars on the other. This technique also works when in a town with parked cars and oncoming traffic.

I like ocean views, mountain views, and lush, green landscapes. We had all that today. It reminded me of the scenes from Game of Thrones when the dragon drops Daenerys off in Dothraki territory.

Today's departure from Killybegs took us first to Slieve League. There were a lot of steps to take us up as far as we wanted to go.

I tried to get Jeff to help me re-enact the last scene in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, when Rey tries to give the lightsaber to Luke. Jeff didn't quite get what I was working on so this is what we ended up with.

We drove a few hours and arrived at Giant's Causeway. There we marveled at the nearly perfect hexagonal columns formed from volcanic rock millions of years ago. 

 It's not all rocks at Giant's Causeway (so named because of the legend that a giant was building an embankment so he could walk across to Scotland without getting his feet wet). Scenes like this one remind me of the aforementioned Game of Thrones dragon landing.

A few miles down the road from Giant's Causeway, we caught the last entrance time to the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. The main attraction is of course, the rope bridge experience, but the scenery is just as beautiful. 

Walking across the bridge really induced a feeling of vertigo for me. I have "issues" with heights and drop-offs like that so I felt like Indiana Jones--minus the bridge falling apart beneath me. I think I hummed the theme song as I walked across.

Video of the bridge crossing

During our day's travels, we crossed the border from the Republic of Ireland (an independent country) into Northern Ireland (part of the United Kingdom). Moving between countries is pretty anti-climatic. It's like crossing between Minnesota and Wisconsin in the Duluth-Superior area. Well, it would be if Minnesota used the metric system exclusively, had a different currency, signage, and language than Wisconsin...