01.09.2006 Antrim Coast
Back to the car and along the coast. Here and there a viewpoint. After Ballintoy we take a tight side road leading to Fair Head, Murlough Bay and Torr Head. The road winds along Farms and meadows. Sheep everywhere and finally even on the road. The beasts have escaped somewhere and now they block the road. Stupid sheep is my first idea, when they react with wild running to my horn. Has anybody ever seen galloping sheep? A view for screaming. Unfortunately we passed the crossroad to Murlough Bay and the number with the sheep beings once again......

The road to Murlough Bay is as tight and no house is at the roadside. Only to the end there is obviously a cottage. The bay itself is considered the softest bay on the Antrim coast and so it seems. Pretty and smooth and the slight waves in the light of the setting sun. Even the road melts.. Before we also melt we rather drive on again to the waiting sheep......

The further road winds along endless Fuchsia hedges occasionally with breathtaking views n meadows and the sea and eventually there is even an ox on the road. Strange thing..

Finally we arrive in Cushendun and return through the Ballypatrick Forest back to Ballintoy where we have a room at the Fullerton Arms. Bally by the way means village....
The Fullerton Arms is a B&B with own pub and full license and the only one in Ballintoy. Therefore the question where to have diner is answered quickly. So we sit in and eat originally Irish for the last time. This means 7 oz Steak with potatoes. And again its Bulmers and the good Guinness One for diner..

After that its Karaoke Party in the pub and a band of youth storms the shop. Most of them are red hot to sing their songs. The boys jump in full in puberty vocal change and the girlies crying high. This requires another Carling. Some of the girls and their teacher join us at our table. With the ongoing evening (one more Carling) we get talking and we learn that they are of two theater groups, one from Spain the other from Northern Ireland (one more Guinness).

The teacher of the Spanish is a French from the Biarritz area and she does sme talking about herself. Her name is Peregrine Cant (or so) and she studied theater and education (one Carling). The singing continues and the girls at the table talk about their village (300km north of Barcelona) and their theater play, something about discrimination ( now a HARP please. The songs have moved to classics. Green Grass of home, Danny Boy, Take me home country roads are the final songs, the last one sung be the landlord himself before the closing time - final call - a Carling.

By the way what is the difference between Irish and  Northern Irish pubs? Well in the North Irish smoking is still permitted. By the way have you counted the beers? Because the stairs are uncharacteristically steep. I don´t know why? But before I can muse about I have fell to sleep..

Take me home country roads.....

km: 177
Hotel: The Fullerton Arms ***.

final stop - stone age....