Belfast and Antrim Coast, United Kingdom
Thursday 26th July 2018
Today we were having a full day with Darren from Panoramic Ireland. He arranged to meet us at 8:00 am in the lobby. Our first stop was within Belfast to the wall murals. This area is still divided in every sense of the word. The peace murals were great and expressed the viewpoint of each of the artists.
What was most shocking for us was the massive, high, long walls that existed on both sides of the street as far as the eye could see. These walls divided the Catholics and the Protestants from ever meeting. They have gates that get shut each evening as well. The children went to schools in their own faith and never had anything to do with people outside of their own religion. Darren explained that this is the way it is, unless the young people go to University, then they may interact with people from the different faiths. This is just crazy to Phil and I that in the 21st Century we still have people having to live behind hugely high walls so that rocks and other dangerous things don’t get thrown over.
After we had finished here, we headed out towards the coast. Our first stop was Carrickfergus Castle. We didn’t go in, just took photos of the outside. Darren was highlighting how having the sun on the castle really highlights the shape of it with the shadows in different areas. (Just as he finished saying this, the sun came out).
Our next stop was a waterfall that Darren knew. We used the tripod here to get the effect that we wanted. Phil may have just been converted to using a tripod.
After this, we headed towards Ballygally and took some photos of the harbour. This was such a beautiful place.
Our next stop was Carnlough Harbour. There were some kids jumping into the harbour. It was WAY too cold for this, but it is summer for them and this is as good as the weather gets. This harbour was so pretty and has been used as a Games of Thrones set.
Next stop was Garron Point. We were using the tripods here to capture the movement of the water. Phil was also experimenting with some filters and the tripod. It was super windy and the waves were quite high.
After this stop, we headed to Cushendall which is a little village. They were putting up bunting in the Main Street. We had lunch at a little pub and it was fabulous. (It was after 2:00 pm by this stage). Phil and I both had beef burgers and chips. We then went for a walk through the village and found this fabulous hurling mural. It was stunning.
After lunch we headed to the coastline to take photos in different Games of Thrones locations, which happen to be most of the stunning areas of the coast.
We headed to the Dark Hedges – also known as The King’s Road to Game of Thrones fans. This area was packed. There were so many people here. The most difficult thing was waiting for a time when there weren’t heaps of people in the shot.
After here, back to the coast.
We then headed to Ballintoy Harbour. This place is absolutely gorgeous. It is also used as the Iron Islands in Game of Thrones. This is stunning.
After this stunning area, we pulled over to get a classic photo of Northern Ireland.
We headed towards Dunlace Castle in the late afternoon sun (well actually here in Northern Ireland it’s more evening sun).
Our final stop was The Giant’s Causeway. We had hoped that the outstanding weather that we had all day would hold out for sunset. Alas, that wasn’t the case, but it didn’t rain so it was great weather.
We had a great time here experimenting with camera settings, filters and using tripods.
We had a great day out with Darren. He was kind and thoughtful at all times. He not only took us to great locations but taught us how to improve our photography. If you are interested, Darren goes to different locations around Ireland. We had a fantastic day out with him seeing the sights of Northern Ireland.
Bel and Phil's Adventures 