Ticket Purchases, Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge, and Ballintoy Harbour
I woke up at 6:30 in a bit of a panic. For various reasons I had delayed buying some of the essential plane tickets Ezikai and I needed for completing our trips.
Often I plan things way in advance, but hadn’t had the opportunity to do so for my trip or for Ezi’s upcoming trip.
One reason I had delayed purchasing tickets was because I wanted to talk to Vanessa about our travel plans. Vanessa and I part ways tomorrow for a little while, so it was important to speak to her today about plans and tickets.
I spent a couple of hours looking up flights before leaving my room and blurting out to Vanessa that I was frustrated and not finding any great ticket options for either of us. “Good morning”, would have been nicer.
By 13:30 I had purchased the essential plane tickets, although none of the needed train or bus tickets. Hostel reservations weren’t done either. All those would have to wait for another day.
The weather was the sunniest it had been so far, but it was cold out and a strong, cool wind blew. Several of the fields outside had been mown that morning. The birds were delighted. With the sunny weather and it being Saturday lots of folks were walking on the Ulster Way trail.
It wasn’t an ideal day for the Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge, but it was our last day to do it. Plus, Kyle and Edon were able to hang out today. We bought tickets online, ate lunch, and walked over to do the rope bridge. As we waited in line to cross clouds started to roll in.
It was so windy that crossing the rope bridge was a much different experience than I was expecting. I had my phone out and was nervous I was going to lose it. This meant I also only had one hand available for holding the rope railing. Unfortunately, several people didn’t wait for me to cross and got on the bridge right behind me. It felt like they were purposefully taking heavy steps to shake the bridge.
The bridge is only approx 60 ft long, so it wasn’t a long crossing. Vanessa didn’t like it any better than she thought she would and sat a bit on the available bench before getting up to explore the island with us.
It was a small island and it was very windy so we didn’t explore for very long. The views were beautiful though.
Crossing back Edon lucked out and got to cross with two kids his age who bounced the bridge like crazy. They all loved it. Vanessa saw what was happening and waited until they were off before she crossed. Again, I had people get on the bridge right behind me, although these seemed to shake the bridge less than the previous group.
Vanessa and I overbought groceries the second trip. Back at the cottage we did our best to eat massive amounts of food. Edon washed laundry. Kyle worked on homework. Vanessa packed.
Shortly after 19:00 Miles accompanied me to the eastern part of Ballintoy Harbour, which I hadn’t yet explored. It was cold and very windy. Huge waves crashed into the rocks surrounding the Harbour. Miles and I had a fantastic time exploring and watching the waves. Miles finds money everywhere he goes. During the first grocery trip, he found over 1 pound in change. Today he found a 10 pound note in a tide pool. It is plasticky and wasn’t damaged from the water. I got my entire back side splashed with water from a wave hitting a crevice I was near.
Tired and happy, but also sad because we have to leave, we headed back to the cottage.
I packed and ate more and did dishes before heading to bed.
