Narrowboatboy’s Big, Bad Blog...Narrowboat & Travel blog based on Lancaster Canal

Ok, that’s the end of the trip. We had gone out in the sunshine and returned back in the rain passing once again the thought-provoking plaque to little Clare and Paula before we boarded onto the morning ferry. The synopsis of our visit to Northern Ireland was very positive, the people we had met and spoken with along the way had been friendly and the drivers very courteous to us cyclists.  Some flag waving Nationalist and Republican areas still seem uneasy and are a reminder that trouble could quite easily return and the gates could be closed overnight if the peace process was upset in any way...fingers crossed that this never happens. On the whole, we had a great time so thanks to Buster and Pongo for the company and the ‘craic’...just need to get a few repairs done to the bike for the next one! Today’s final title track from Derry band D-Ream that included a young Professor Brian Cox on keyboards. https://youtu.be/V6QhAZckY8w

Today was to be a jaunt taking the riverside route and cycleway down the River Lagan from Belfast to Lisburn. Breakfast stop off at the Lock keepers Cottage by the overgrown and neglected canal At Lisburn I stopped for a chat with Eric Morcambe, the comedic inventor of the defibrillator! A few miles from Lisburn was affluent Hillsborough, with its royal residence for the Secretary of Northern Ireland and somewhere that Liz and Phil can stay when they visit the territories. When they go out for a pint they usually visit the trendy Smithfield House bar in downtown Lisburn, so we did the same. Todays track by frontman Gary Lightbody from up the road in Bangor, Northern Ireland lead the successful band ‘Snow Patrol’ that I once saw as a support band to ‘Athlete’ back in the early nineties.  https://youtu.be/GemKqzILV4w

Today, was going to be easier as it was not as far to make the return journey back to Belfast up the west side of the lake. We left an overcast Ardglass after a good breakfast. Downpatrick, Killyleagh and then a brew stop at ‘Daft Eddies’ at Whiterock. From here it was back to Comber and returning down the Greenway towards the cranes on the docks. The evening beverage was taken in certain lovely old famous Belfast pub owned by the National Trust that was opposite the most bombed hotel in the world...The Europa, bombed 32 times!! Today’s track is by the the lovely Neil Hannon and Divine Comedy born in Belfast. Some of the best lyrics that you will hear in a beautifully crafted song .

Leaving the hotel we had a quick tour round the dry docks in the cool morning air. It was ‘Titanic’ this and ‘Titanic’ that but disappointingly, the actual ‘Titanic’  was nowhere to be found. We did however find the old pirate radio ship HMS Caroline.  The funny little fella on the Comber greenway wished us “Top o’ the mornin’” as we cycled on the 10miles for breakfast.  From here it was up to Newtonards and then the rural back roads clockwise circumnavigating ‘Strangford Lough’ following Sustrans route 99. This took us out to the coast at Ballywalter then down the Mourne coastal route only stopping for Mr Whippy and milkshakes at Portavogie before making our way down to catch the little ferry at the aptly named ‘Portaferry’. Here, the 4 o’ clock boat brought across all the kids from the Strangford grammar school and then we jumped on, payed our quid, and jumped off 5 minutes later. At the 52 mile mark with only 2 miles to go our old bones needed oiling so it was fortunat...

It didn’t take long from leaving the ferry to get a hard reminder of the past, a plaque for a 4 and a half year old child, blown to pieces during the troubles on the side of an old church. Cycling down the and into the modern docklands was however very impressive and lifted the soul as it became apparent that Belfast had turned the corner, thriving again and attracting tourism and business. The city was impressive, a mix of the old and the new and felt cosmopolitan. Time to have a ride round and look at the sights. We left the docklands, with the famous cranes that lifted the fated ‘Titanic’ and headed to the outskirts of the town. When we got out to the Protestant Shankhill Road, with the Union Jacks flying, the memorial gardens and the loyalist posters on every corners it was obvious that no one here was ready to forget the past.  Through the now open segregation barriers into the neighbouring Republican side and along the Falls Road things felt a bit diffferent here compared to ...

  The weather was looking up, a good general synopsis of the sea state was a gentle south-westerly blowing good to fair off Dogger Bank according to the early morning shipping forecast. No  warnings in force so with  military precision everything was packed and carefully stowed away; egg butties wrapped in a spare pair of freshly-laundered Y-fronts were squashed into panniers along with copious supplies of bovril and baked beans, a harmonica, a packet of love-hearts and a corkscrew...nothing had been left to chance, it was time to depart. At the port of Cairnryan the Stena Estrid, bound for Limassol Cyprus via Belfast was parked up and waiting to whisk us over the North Sea... Today’s blog title track is ‘Screamager’ by Belfast band ‘Therapy?’ 

‘Twas the eve of the expedition and the meticulous planning and training for the great event was now over. It was time to meet up with the other athletes to go over the fine detail and get ‘in the zone’ for the start of the epic crusade that would commence at first light the next day. It was obvious to anyone when we met that we were at our peak  fitness and ready for the challenge but to take on a few extra carbs at this stage wouldn’t do us any harm so the venue for the team pre-brief was the small but plentiful, Sulwath Brewery only an hour  or so from the main ferry terminal and a couple of hours hike away  from our digs for the night at the comfortable residence of ‘Casa Di Pongo’. Casa Di Pongo    With the calorific balance now finely tuned it would be downhill from here, then up hill, then a flat bit for a mile or two and then....well you get the idea, it’s a bike ride, ok.... The blog title comes from the 1976 Thin Lizzy classic featuring the late bluesy...

  The Troubles’ as they have come to be called featured heavily throughout my childhood due to the fact that the horrific images were on the 6 O clock news every single night. The names of places and events got hotwired into my memory; strange sounding places that I had only ever heard of but had never actually been to or knew nothing about. The Falls Road, Milltown Cemetery, The Lower Bogside, The Maze and The Shankhill Road to name but a few. Throughout the 70’s, 80’s and the 90’s the violence escalated into the U.K. as hotels, shopping centres, politicians and innocent bystanders became targets and victims of sectarian attacks. Both sides had uncontrollable factions and were as bad as each other, both blamed each other. They weren’t just the ‘Troubles’ then, it was nightly display of carnage and violence. Car bombs, shootings, masked men, army soldiers, politicians shouting, bitter tears, marches and flags, petrol bombs and sectarian violent protests that were all very confusing...

  As the lockdown gets slowly unlocked it’s almost time to try and have another jaunt away somewhere for some much needed R&R and blog inspiration. The dilemma though is where can I go?  Parts of the U.K. like Manchester, Birmingham, Leicester and sunny Burnley are out of bounds on the grounds that the virus lurks hither and they are all crap places anyway for a holiday so I had to think further afield.  Perhaps Jamaica, Puerto Rico or Israel?  Ryan Air didn’t seem to have any cheap seats going or short break offers! Maybe visit our old European friends Italy, Spain or French France ?....but with the slumping pound and old depressing Brexit debate getting a bit tetchy these days with International treaties being ripped up and tariff terrorism rife then maybe its best to give them a miss as I may also be required to consider ‘self-mutilation’ on return depending on the exit rules or I might risk getting ‘caught by fuzz’ eager to use the very latest impressive and ...