After last week’s 52 Series image, which caused an outpouring of emotion on Eco Traveller’s Facebook page, I thought I’d keep it simple this week.
Long-time readers of the blog will know I have a slight affinity for these lovely hexagonal rocks and their surroundings. New readers may not know the Giant’s Causeway is only about an hour’s drive from where I grew up in Northern Ireland.
I remember visiting on a school trip in the summer months – it was freezing, windy and pouring with rain, just the usual summer weather – and even then I was mesmerized by the rocks and the legend.
I remember the electric blue rain jacket I wore with two white stripes down the arm that made the awful swishing sounds when the material rubbed together, forever putting me off ‘anoraks’… which is a bit of a problem if you live in one of the wettest places in the world!
I remember looking at the distance to ‘The Monkey Stacks’ and thinking “No way am I walking all the way over there!” As an adult, with a grown-up perspective of distance, I still think the same every time I visit.
And I remember the damp tomato sandwiches my mum gave me for my special school trip that were practically sodden by the time I got to eat them. Question to parents everywhere: Why would you give a child tomato sandwiches? Why would you do that?
These snippets of my quickly diminishing memory never fail to give me a cosy feeling every time I see images of the Giant’s Causeway, despite the rain, the anorak and the crappy sandwiches, which is probably why it will always be something of a legend in its own right, to me.
You may also be interested in this article from 2012, which has a lot more information about this wonderful UNESCO World Heritage Site:
New Sustainable Visitor Centre for Giant’s Causeway