Tenth stop...Feigh Farm

Blowing a gale still but at least it’s not raining! I actually went back to sleep with Ross working out pounds per square inch air pressure and convincing me the van could not blow over! I slept until 8.30am- a miracle, but consequently missed breakfast at the old Causeway Hotel, and had to have a bite to eat at the new visitor’s centre. We both had the “soda breakfast”, but they had run out of bacon so gave us an extra egg and sausage, so what we had was sausages and eggs on soda bread- not the tastiest soda bread I’ve had, but I ate every last crumb.

We paid £9 each for the “tour” and then were charged an extra £2 each for the bus ride down and back. The hexagonal rocks were interesting but definitely not worth £22! Maybe we were disappointed because the wind was blowing so hard we could barely keep on our feet, and the waves were crashing over the causeway so we couldn’t get any closer. The thing I enjoyed the most was the movie showing in the visitor’s centre, depicting the legend of Finn McCool, the Irish giant. We sat down out of the wind and enjoyed it. There were also the stories of all of the guides to the Causeway throughout history. Ah well, can’t complain too much – we did get “free” overnight parking.

On to the Carrick-a Rede Rope Bridge, where we parked and thought about walking down to the bridge. We were flat out keeping upright on flat ground, so decided against it. They say it’s 1km down and 1km back but say it feels like 5! That was enough to dissuade us. Ross had had enough of the wind, and suggested we just finding somewhere to camp and rest for the afternoon which sounded like a grand idea, but first we needed some food so we headed to Ballycastle, found a SPAR, and stocked up with enough food to last until Saturday when we fly to London.

I managed to get maps working, and put in Feigh Road where the only campground open at this time of year was located. It was 20 minutes drive, but since the camp ground was named Feigh Farm, I thought this was reasonable. We drove the whole length of Feigh Road only to come to a farmhouse at the end where we did a U turn. We were about to knock on the door to ask for directions when a woman appeared and told us we were looking for the other Feigh Road, which my maps hadn’t located!  GRRRRR!

We had passed a sign saying “The Dark Hedges” on our way out where I remarked to Ross that I wondered what it was. We were going too fast to make the turn so on our way back, Ross asked did I want to have a look. I was just curious!  We drove down a long tree-lined avenue. The trees were enormous and as it turned out were 250 year-old beech trees. 150 trees were planted by the owner of Gracehill to impress visitors as they drove up to his Georgian mansion; 90 of which still remain. We kept driving hoping to find the mansion, but eventually turned back and drove through the avenue of trees, where we could see Gracehill up on the hill. We had been driving AWAY from it! The road turned out to be the setting for the King’s Road in Game of Thrones! WOW! The things you find when you’re not looking!

I wanted to see if Gracehill House was open to the public, so we drove in and found the Hedges Hotel, almost deserted. We found an empty Lannister’s Lounge, where Jamie Lannister in full armour was presiding, then walked upstairs to the restaurant where we found a single staff member who served us vegetable soup and a rocky road slice. Guess who had what!  We both ordered coffee to keep us going. We hooked into their wifi and found the other Feigh Road, which was only a couple of hundred metres from the Giant’s Causeway! And to think poor Ross just wanted to rest! He’d been driving all afternoon! We drove in to find the house in darkness, save for a lit Christmas tree. There was no one home, so Ross says, “Let’s get out of here. I don’t like this place!” Heavens only knows where he was going to go to.

As he started to reverse, the wheels started spinning on the soft grass and no matter how hard he tried, we couldn’t get out o’ the bog. The beautiful patch of lawn had become a mud-pit with all of the rain they’d had, and we were stuck! With no phone reception, there was nothing we could do but wait until morning. We could hook on to power as the pole was right beside us, but that was all.

A woman appeared out of the dark, and said her husband would go get the tractor. Eventually, he pulled us out. Now we had to stay! We pulled in on a concrete pad, plugged in, and headed for the new “shower block”. It was one shower, two toilets and a small laundry with a washing machine and tub. Jennifer, the owner, had given us pound coins, as we only had 50 cent pieces, and I was off to have a shower. The 3 minute hot shower was pure heaven, and I luxuriated under it for every second of that 3 minutes! Ross stayed with me as he didn’t want to leave me alone. I was glad he was there to pass me my towel as soon as the shower finished as the tiled floor was freezing cold.

Back in the van, I cooked up chicken breasts wrapped in bacon and broccoli and cauliflower gratin, both done in the oven, and ate the little cream cheese delicacies we had bought earlier. We had no wine left so drank sparkling water instead. But we did have coffee with Bailey’s with out strawberry trifle dessert! It was actually after 8pm before I crashed. What an exciting day!