… is very badly named. For starters, it isn’t an island. It isn’t even close to an island. It is, however, a nice place to go cycling - there are some lovely beaches, and the roads are a nice combination of low traffic and suitable gradients to make cycling round interesting without being too demanding. We had a great walk along the recently-opened Gobbins, which is basically a path along the base of cliffs, so that people who don’t like getting their feet wet can still get close to the sea. Like last weekend, we had great weather, with only a very short shower; apart from that, it was sunny and warm. One of the nicest beaches we saw was the - also inappropriately named - Port Muck. Mucky it was not, unless you count the seaweed, and there wasn’t much of that. I took some photos with my digital camera, which I’ll put up tomorrow, and I also finished off a roll of film on my Pentax KX. I’m looking forward to seeing the results, although it will be a little longer before they make it onto this blog.

Photos as promised:

Two updates today - this one is from last weekend, and I’ve been meaning to write it up all week! I’m just putting up a quick note, hopefully with photos to follow tomorrow (as I’ve just realised I’ve left my camera cable at work). Last Saturday I made a trip to Strangford Lough, via Comber, and headed down the west shore of the lough. It was a great day for it: lovely cycling conditions, warm and sunny if a little breezy.

The route from Belfast to Comber is great - it’s on a quiet, disused railway path; the section nearest Belfast heads through cuttings lined with gorse, which is in flower at this time of year; it widens out becoming more open towards Comber.

From Comber onwards the route was on quiet roads, with great views through pine woods down to the sea, which does a very good impression of a lake - it’s something like 15 miles long, yet the inlet is only a quarter mile wide or thereabouts. Not so much to report I suppose from this trip - this post will be better with photos - check back tomorrow!

And the photos, as promised: