Circumnavigating the UK- Day 5- a journey from Belfast to the land where giants once roamed...

Our fifth day on the cruise was a visit to the Northern Irish city of Belfast.

Now, I am not that much one for cities so I wasn't so excited by this so I was rather pleased that we chose to book the excursion to the Giant's Causeway in County Antrim as a way to get out to the coast and countryside which is much more my thing

 We had a really interesting, talkative tour guide on the bus who gave us a few extra stops to look at some views. He gave us a real in depth history lesson with questions and everything to do with the time around the Stuart family being on the throne.  It was interesting on the first half of the journey.

 We stopped and saw some beautiful coastal and sea views which I really appreciated.

 Arriving at the Giant's Causeway visitor's centre which is built out of black columns to resemble the iconic basalt columns, we were rather pleased to discover we had over 2 hours to explore on our own.  Just what we needed:  a chance to stretch our legs and explore.

 On the way, we saw some pretty flora to give the route some variety. You could pay to get a shuttle bus down there but we walked before it had even left.

 The sea looked incredibly choppy and magnificent.

 As we progressed along the path, we craned our necks for the first view.

 It was incredibly crowded there which was disappointing BUT since the basalt columns are quite extensively spread, there was always somewhere to go.

 I was particularly struck by this jutting out sort of island of columns. It is so hard to believe these were formed naturally from volcanic activity.

 Mum and I relished the amble and climb over columns of varying heights.

 I did keep thinking of that old TV show, "Blockbusters" the time though!

 It was a superb sunny day for this adventure although it was particularly windy with a slight chill.

 Around the edges of a channel formed by rocks on either side, a whole collection of grey coloured foam, like a bubble bath that has been used by a family of chimney sweeps, made its way towards the rocks. It was rather grim but oddly fascinating!

 There are stewards who stand near the edges of the rocks with whistles and they will blow a whistle if they think someone is going too near the edge or running or moving in any sort of hazardous way which I was glad about as there were some rather devil-may-care teens around..

 It was particularly surreal to see these larger sized columns towering above us.

 The whole place did feel a bit like an assault-course at times,which only added to the fun.

 There was this particularly long stretch out to sea which was excellent for seeing the power of the sea up close without fear of reprisals.

 Seeing the spume and spray hit these rocks and leave them glistening was mesmerising.

 Finally we made our way towards the mighty-looking organ of rocks.

 Alas, we didn't have time to make it to the suspension bridge that people have talked of, but our 2 hours was a sufficient length of time to really enjoy the Causeway even if we didn't get to do the whole cliff walk.

 We made our way back to the Visitor's centre and had tea and cake and bought one or two items in the shop.

The coach journey back was extremely tiresome and I longed for our loquacious tour-guide to cease the history lesson- it just became grating after a while.
We were due back at 15.45 which I hoped meant I could hop on the shuttle bus into the city so I could see a bit of Belfast for an hour but our tour guide decided to drive us around Belfast giving us a history of the troubles and taking us to the Peace wall.  Before he did this, I was rather irritated because I was frankly sick of being aboard a coach (it had been 2 hours) but actually, when he explained all the history and issues, I was glad he had chosen to give us this extra dimension to the city which I didn't really know much about. What a torturous situation and how difficult to be living in Belfast with the segregation. I pray for the situation to be totally sorted.

 These were two views from the ship when we came back - a view of the Titanic centre and  some docks.

I really enjoyed my day in Northern Ireland getting to see the Causeway and although I was a bit disappointed not to get to see a bit of the city by foot, it was nonetheless, a great experience.

Have you been?

xx

The maize-maze at Millet's farm- It's a little corny!

Last week, CBC and I travelled to Oxfordshire to stay with CBC's Mum in CBC's sister's house. It's a little -complicated!   We'd been there for 4 days and on the 4th day, driving to Wallingford to see my uni friend, I noticed we were driving past Miller's farm which had a Maize-maze which I have in my 'Amazing Maze' book (yes, I have one of those-I'm planning future holidays based on it! Anyone live near Dobbie's maze world?)  Ridiculously excited, I decreed that we MUST go there in the morning and SMSd KKWTTG (Bruv in law) who immediately texted back lots of corny maze jokes!)

The next morning, we set off there and swiftly the three of us near ran to the Maze section. If you have kids and are going on holiday in Oxfordshire in the summer months, I cannot say how much I recommend you take them there (or if you just like mazes like us).  We paid £6.50 each and were given a 'Ration book' and pencil which were places to record your maze findings.  You can see some past Maize-mazes in the photo below.  They have had one every year for 17 years. This year's theme was 70 years since the end of WW2.

There's a range of activities. We were, er- expecting to be done in about an hour, but 3.5 hours later and we were still in the maze section, never mind the rest of the garden centre, picky your own, koi carp or craft section of Millet's farm.

We headed in. There are 3 main maze:

The mini, the midi and the main mazes.

You head through some maize to reach the entrances to the maze.

We started with the Midi- Maize.

I thought I'd share the moment we entered this maze with you. You can hear what an idiot I am with the daft commentary!

The thing that takes the time is, you have things to hunt for in the maze.
In the Midi, you were searching for the 8 ration stations which had multiple choice questions about food during WW2.

 Aha! CBC has found one!

 We swiftly found the first 5 without any trouble.  There was some contention over answers, so we all answered differently.

I should mention,for those of you that panicked when I wrote about the maze in my Scavenger Hunt, that you are supplied with a tall flag, should you need help!

 There was a platform to go over with the Millet's farm signs.

 The corn was quite tall and stretched for long way.

 ....

.....

 You aren't supposed to touch the maize or go off the paths but I suppose if you were really desperate to leave, you could squeeze through some gaps!

We loved the differing hair colours of the cobs!

 When we'd answered question 5, we found question 8 and ourselves at the end of the maze! Ahrgh, where were questions 7 and 6?

 Back into the maze, we became separated!!!  It took ages to find the last one!

When we checked our answers at the end, I was a Field Marshal (highest rank) and CBC and bruv were Brigadiers!

That was only the midi-Maze.

The main maze was even more fiendish with red herrings galore!! 

I should say that the ration books provide you with a picture of the mazes but for directionally-challenged moi, this was no help!

In here,we  were searching for the letters and numbers on poppies but there were extra ones! There were four colour zones of the maze to search in!

 Right-o chaps!

NOOOOOOO, a red herring!

 CBC separated and left me and WKWTTG together as he didn't have the ration book! We noticed the corn was taller in here!

The bridges were good for helping orientate yourselves but we wandered for ages without finding any correct poppies!!

Meeting up with CBC again, he found a few in the red zone but the yellow zone was proving impossible!

 We separated off again and WKWTTG and I had some luck once we found the bridge- we found several green zone clues!!!

Eventually, we found ALL the poppies and the codebreaker and I worked out the answer!

Next, we entered the woods which functioned like a simple maze for the Aces High challenge. Outside the maze, was a picture of sillhouettes of enemy, servillian and Allied planes.

Upon finding them in the woods, you had to sketch them and then name the models!

 Great fun for little-uns!

Next, we entered the Mini-maze, for little ones and the corn was suitably shorter! Plus, a slide!!

Ridiculously, as a teacher, I always tell kids to read the question carefully.

We walked around and around the maze trying to find all the pictures and wondered why the mini-maze was so hard. Doh! The book said find FOUR of these pictures,not all!

At this point, our phones rang, J, CBC's Mum wondered where we were. We sheepishly explained we were still in the maze. 

It was time to go, there was plenty more to do, but we had to drive back to Essex.

Before we went, we went to have a look at this friendly tank!

If you are ever south of Oxford, I heartily recommend Millet's farm! It is enormously fun, there's something for all ages and there was plenty more to do.

Here's the website to find out more.

If you aren't near Oxford but fancy finding a maize-maze, may I suggest this Maize-maze website, so you can search for one near you: http://www.maize-maze.com/contact.php.

Hazel, fancy going to the Southwold one?!

xx

Over to you, have you been to one!?