12th Jul;y 2018 - Northern Ireland on "The Glorious 12th"

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Kms today 240
Kms to date 1,192

We only had three hours riding to Cairnryan to catch the ferry to Belfast. It is the 12th July and for those not initiated in the customs of Northern Ireland today is the day the Protestants go marching and antagonise the Catholics. Most clear thinking people get out of town for this event except our two trusty bikers.
Margaret made us a fantastic breakfast to get us on our way.
Colin, Margaret and Ian just before we left.
Ian had given us some ideas on a route that avoided the motorways and included a bit of scenery. We had lunch in the bakery in Maybole on the way and arrived at the ferry in plenty of time.

Bikes safely strapped down on ferry to Belfast.
We arrived in Belfast on time at 5.45pm and took off for Portaferry. I don't recognise the roads in Belfast anymore but luckily Mabel does and she got us there around 7pm. On the way we were held up with a 12th march in Kircubbin a little country town near Portaferry. Our host Ronnie, an old school friend of Colin's, has a fantastic house at the "Saltpans" on the edge of Strangford Lough. He put on a great barbecue with his wife Liz.
Barbecue at Ronnie's place, left to right, Ronnie, wife Liz, brother Tim and his wife Patricia and daughter Jill.
A view of Portaferry harbour from Ronnie's back verandah.
Copious beers and glasses of wine were consumed and luckily Jill volunteered to drive us to Ronnie's cottage where we were staying in Quentin Bay a few miles away. She and her parents lived in a house next door. Quentin Bay is quite near Barr Hall where we had a family reunion in 2002.
This is Ronnie's cottage we stayed in.


 The cottage was great except it had low ceilings and I managed to crack my head a couple of times. Ronnie and Liz had stocked the fridge well so we wanted for nothing.




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