Carrick-A-Rede and Giant’s Causeway

In Europe, Ireland[s] and Scotland On 23/12/2018 No comments

Browsing the book Epic Drives of the World: The Planets Most Thrilling Road Trips, seeing what were the tips of road trips across Ireland and Scotland, we came across this place of breathtaking and seemingly wild landscapes. Since it was winter, with snowstorms and none of us had experience driving in the snow, we chose to take a tour to those landscapes.

We woke up early, the day was cloudy and cold in Belfast. We were at the point marked to wait for the bus that came from Dublin with more tourists. There was a slight delay due to a road accident, but soon we boarded the bus and after about an hour we arrived at our first destination, Carrick-A-Rede and Larrybane, an arid beach with many cliffs and an unusual attraction: Rope Brigde, a rope bridge linking a small hill in the sea to the cliffs. The crossing is very exciting, few don’t have the courage to do it. The bridge shakes a little because of the wind. I made the journey very slowly and a little tense, because I was carrying a Gopro and did not have the courage to look down … Our next destination was the Giant’s Causeway, a beach with geological formations and several rocks shaped like perfect geometric prisms – mostly hexagons – of basalt, embedded as if forming a huge causeway of gigantic stones. The place is also known thanks to the cover of the album Houses of the Holy by rock band Led Zeppelin. We walked over the rocks advancing over the sea, taking several photos and enjoying the scenery.

We continue the bus tour along the coast, visited some scenes where famous TV series Game of Thrones are filmed and then we went to the road where is located ‘the Dark Hedges’ which we had seen in Lonely Planet. The road is in a zural zone and is surrounded on both sides by curvaceous and robust trees that wraps all the way creating a very exotic landscape. It looked like a typical fairy tale scenario. We went down with the tour group and took lots of photos and videos. It was an interesting feeling to be able to compare the photos that are in the travel guides with our own experience on the site.

Northern Ireland is little known – at least in Brazil – but it has proved to be a very charming and interesting place to meet, with many young and polite people and a very pleasant climate.