It’s rained off and on since we arrived in Ireland, but it’s never stopped us from doing anything until today. We had planned on driving back up the Antrim coast (we considered a trip to Derry/Londonderry, but decided the drive was too long. We started out a little before noon in a light drizzle/mist, which changed into a medium- and then a heavy drizzle/mist. We were searching for the cliffs called the Gobbins, and managed to find our way to Gobbins Road, but, alas, it ran parallel to the coast, and there didn’t seem to be any access point that we could find, and about this time the rain started coming down more heavily anyway, so we abandoned the Gobbins hunt and went back to the main coastal road, the A2. We went through Larne (not a very attractive city, from what we could see of it), and stopped at a parking area next to the Carnfunnock Country Park for lunch.
We visited the park after lunch; it had a number of activities for kids, including one of our favorites, a putt-putt golf course, all of which were, unfortunately, closed. We kept driving down (up, actually) the coast, and all the while the boys were getting on our nerves more and more. They were bickering constantly, complaining about having nothing to do, wanting this, wanting that, Andrew complaining that all he wanted to do was to go to a beach and swim (recall it’s about 55 degrees and raining), so when we came to the small town of Ballygalley and saw that it had a sand beach, we turned off the road and said to them, ‘Here’s your beach, there’s your water, go and swim for as long as you like.’ Feeling shamed, I suppose, they did put on their suits and go into the water, even though it must have been freezing. Will actually got out into the deep part, and got his body all the way in; Andrew stood with his feet in the water, and when Will gave him abuse about not swimming, he flopped down in the water quickly and called it good.
Toward the end of the swim, the rain started coming down harder, and despite my desire to find at least one prehistoric stone circle (I was looking for this one), we were all fed up with being in the car with each other, so we turned around and came back home. Which turned out to be a good idea, as I think we were all ready for a break from the touring, if only for one afternoon.
Categories: Uncategorized