Giant´s Causeway en


	01.09.2006 Giant´s Causeway Now we have the required 5 GBP for the parking lot. By foot or by bus one can make the way of the Giants. We prefer the walk by foot. Its downhill anyway. After 1 km its around a corner and there are the first square rocks. Getting close we realize that it must be thousands of them, people and rocks as well. OK to avoid tourists at all you’d have to come either an 5 am or late at night, but on both times its bad to take pictures. So we have to use the spots or go to places where no man has been before....


		Well its not so dramatic at all, but the closer we get to the breakers the less people are around. Now we can take a relaxed look at the rocks. Really amazing what nature has created here. Basalt formed by pressure. Beautiful and adding the sea fighting the rocks with its waves. Unfortunately saltwater is poison for any camera and so I rather retreat after only a couple of hundred photos. Instead I do some climbing on the cliffs.

The Giant's Causeway ("Dam of the Giant") is located on the northern coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, eastbound of the small city of Bushmills.
The UNESCO counts it to the World Cultural Heritage. It is formed by about 40.000 regularly drafted Basalt pillars aged about 60 million years. Most of the pillars are hexagons but some have 4, 5, 7 or 8 edges. The largest rocks are high up to 12 m and the layer is partially 25 m deep. The Giant's Causeway extends about 5 km along the cliffs and ends in the sea.

According to an Irish legend the dam shall have bees created by the Giant Finn MacCumhaill , who built the stones to get with dry feet to Scotland where he wanted to marry the daughter of a Scottish Giant..
Scientifically the development of the Basalt embankment is thought as a natural phenomena of cooling magma. Basalt Basalt solidifies to pillars, if the cooling is going on very slowly whereas the pillars always stand vertically to the cooling platform Out of this it is to assume that the magma stream dried out and solidified to the well known pillars.

After I have bathed in my climbing instinct, we ride back by bus. Walking uphill is too strenuous, there 1.10 are a good investment. Up a brief visit to the gift shop and afterwards we go watching the Antrim Coast. Short way to Ballintoy and from there directly to the Rope Bridge Stop at the Carrick a rede rope Bridge. This rope bridge connects a small uninhabited island with the main land. The trick is exactly that swinging bridge about 30 m long and 50 m above the surface of the sea.

Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge is a rope suspension bridge near, Ballintoy, County Antrim, Northern Ireland
The bridge links the mainland to the tiny Carrick Island. It is thought salmon fishermen have been erecting bridges to the island for over 300 years. It has taken many forms over the years. In the 1970s it featured only a single handrail and large gaps between the slats. The current bridge, tested up to 10 t, was built with the help of local climbers and abseilers in 2000. It is owned and maintained by the National Trust. The bridge spans 20 metres and is 30 metres above the rocks below.

For a fee we are entitled to cross the bridge, if you have the guts. On the way to the bridge there are also some nice views on the Island of Rathlin. And since the sun shines and the weather is pretty nice, we see further the Scottish Island of Islay and the Mull of Kintyre. Paul Mc Cartney comes to mind and Whiskey. In the ice age the isthmus was due the low sea level a land bridge. Ah bridge, if there is no wind its a piece of cake to cross, but instinctively you grab the ropes. After the visitation of the Island we walk back return to the parking lot. Very nice!


	now along the coast....