Portrush to Sligo

Good Friday dawned fine and very, very cold, the car was frozen and the grit trucks where out in force. It was a day of contrasts frost, then driving through snow (50cm deep) on narrow winding roads, sunshine and pelting rain.

The three significant highlights of the day were the snow, walking the walls of Derry and visitin the Megalithic burial grounds at Carrowmore. After driving over a relativley high pass from Portrush and experiencing the snow we arrived in the city of Derry (Londonderry) and a walked around the old walled city. The history the wall represents is just mind boggling and the fact that it survives almost intact is somewhat of a miracle. The wall affords views of the entire city and its landmarks, looking down on the Bogside district with its huge republican murals and the Unionist enclave on the opposite side of the city we were struck again by how small theses areas are. Like the Shankhill and Falls Road areas of Belfast the Bogside district of Derry really did punch above its weight in terms of world news and impact during the “Troubles”.

Part of the Wall around Derry

The Bogside (Free Derry) from the wall

After leaving Derry we made for Donegal, then on to Sligo with a side trip to the Megalithic Cemetery at Carrowmore.

The main tomb at Carrowmore

Carrowmore was amazing for just afield full of rocks and rocky mounds. It is an eerie feeling to walk in the places that our ancestors did some 5000 – 7000 years ago.

In our last post I mentioned that we had a minor issue with the car and our Navman but all is solved now. The Navman is a godsend and has reduced the stress to almost minimal although Deidre still does not trust him completely because we have had several minor problems. You just need to be aware and occasionally question his instructions. You will have noticed that I called it him! We you set the Navman up (you get a choice of a male or a female voice. The female voice (Karen) is a little annoying so we set it for the male voice (Lee), Deidre has now nicknamed him Jeeves because he has taken us all sorts of places like a good chauffeur and it sounds so much better than Lee.

I am still figuring out how to insert the pictures properly and give them titles so I apologise if it is a little hard to figure out which photo is which.