The DominoDanders Do The Causeway 2 (Now it is personal)

Yesterday, Eileen Fitzgerald myself and two of Eileens’ friends attempted to walk from Ballintoy to Portstewart … and we succeeded!

Having prevailed on the lovely SWMBO Val with promises of chocolate to get out of bed at 8:30 am on a Saturday to take the 2 intrepid domino danderers and their 2 guests to Ballintoy we left the Triangle of Coleraine Portrush and Portstewart to head eastwards into the light drizzle towards Ballintoy, where spirits not dampened by the rain we put our best feet forward and headed west out of Ballintoy harbour

The path westward out of Ballintoy only 22 miles to go

The drizzle started to ease and in places the sun made a brave attempt to poke its way thru

The headland towards White Park Bay

Just around the corner from Ballintoy we plodded along the sand of White Park Bay, given the early hour we, the sea birds and rather a lot of seaweed were the only ones there – Bliss 🙂

From White Park Bay to Dunseverick harbour, where the toilet facilities were availed of, then on to Dunseverick Castle

Dunseverick Castle

We were aiming to be at the Causeway Centre around 1pm so there was no dilly dallying we headed west and for the first time started to rise up to the cliffs of the causeway iteself. There was much upping and downing and wiggling and wobbling over the many stiles and then all at once we are on the top of Benaouran Head on the seat looking at the causeway in all its glory.

We arrived at the Causeway Centre oddly bang on time having done 11 miles, and rather than slum it with the tourists we headed on to Portballintrae where we dined on the finest fare and sipped ambrosia from gilded cups .. (Sandwiches and Coffee, Chocolate, Apricots and Nuts) .. After which we took another toilet break and then westward ho! because the next section was on the footpath we made up time and stopping to take the obligatory photos of Dunluce castle.

Obligatory Photo of Dunluce Castle

… but there was no time to stop and stare for a while as we had a more important job to do … Trying to presuade a horse to eat a dried apricot, it had a wee not very old baby .. och BLESS!

So on we plodded now over the 13 mile mark and soon we found ourselves down to the east strand @ Portrush which because the raft race was on over on the west strand was heaving with people, on ward we plodded, thankful that the rain had kept off apart from a bit of a dampening at the start, Coats were removed and it actually got warm!.

East Strand Portrush

Another stop at the Aracdia in Portrush, a check of the GPS software .. we were up at 18 miles! Feet were inspected and a couple of small but very painful (At least mine were) blisters were prodded and treated. From there it was up and over main street and down onto the West Strand Prom under Barry’s, We kept up a decent pace considering and by the time we turned onto Portstewart prom we were all starting to feel a bit.. well.. err.. tired is not the word.. Thirsty however is good. As it turned out The Anchor Bar was almost exactly 22miles after we started, avote was taken and having stopped Eileen by sitting on her we ended the walk.. 22 miles in 6hrs 55 walking time and according to “Cardio Trainer” (a fine Android App) 3175 calories burnt!

I write this on the Sunday after and apart from a slight stiffness and a throbing wee toe I am surprisingly mostly OK … We must do this again soon 🙂

** Update ** Eileen Fitzy’s Flickr Photos can be seen here