The Irish Adventure: Part 1 24/04/15

So it was not even 3am, day had not even broken, and I found myself admiring what little view I have over the Peaks as we wind our way towards Glossop and Manchester Airport. Our destination? Belfast. Yep, you guessed it, we were off to the Irish Transport Heritage rally at Cultra for the second year running, and there was an air of excitement amongst myself and my travelling companions, Paul, Mark Ashton and Colin Farrow.


We had opted at the last minute to leave the car on English soil in the care of Manchester Airport and fly over instead of taking the ferry. A quick trip from the car park to departures on one of the Airport's Dennis Darts, we checked in/weighed our luggage/got frisked by security (well, your blogmaster did, must have a guilty face) most excited for the trip ahead. Our 'office' for the journey was to be FlyBe dash 8 Q400 G-JECG, and we settled in to enjoy flight BE470 and our short hop over the Irish sea to Belfast City Airport which we reached inside of an hour.

Grabbing our belongings, we checked out, and were soon aboard Citybus Solo 1881 heading into Belfast on the 600 service, and after a brief bus journey up to the hotel to drop off cases/coats etc. we headed back into Belfast for a day of buses and Irish scenery. It was at this point that Colin left us to photograph the city bus scene, while Paul, Mark and I decided to be a little more adventureous and board Ulsterbus 'Goldline' Ayats Bravo 2013 for the 2hr leap from Belfast Europa to Coleraine on the 10:45 218 service. We settled into our upstairs front seats, and over the course of the journey combined admiring the view with catching up on lost sleep from our early start. This journey was somewhat significant for us, as not only did we pass through 1321's former home at Antrim Depot/Buscentre (a place we hope to bring her back one day), but we were about to explore 2599's former stomping ground around Coleraine.

Our long journey had made us hungry, so while Mark observed the local bus scene at Coleraine Buscentre, Paul and I disappeared off to a local greasy spoon in the nearby shopping precinct for a proper Ulster Fry (highly recommended) and to talk about progress and the future. After lunch we regrouped with Mark, only for Paul to subsequently disappear mysteriously. Unable to track him down, he suddenly reappeared from the Inspector's office inside the Buscentre, where we were introduced to the senior duty inspector for Coleraine, whom was most pleased to hear of 2599's progress and duly allowed us to have a look around the depot, where the engineering staff made us most welcome, even downing tools briefly to position their Leyland Tiger towcar in the perfect spot for photographs. A fantastic bunch of gents, we shook hands, said our farewells (promising to return 2599 to her homeland sometime in the future) and made tracks towards our next chariot, Ulsterbus Solo SR 1949 on the 14:10 'Causeway Rambler' 402 service, where we took in the scenery around Bushmills as we made our way to Giant's Causeway.

Initially tempted with returning to Coleraine on an Ulsterbus Volvo B10BLE on the 172 (a route our own 2599 would have once worked), we flagged what is now some of Ulsterbus' oldest traction to admire the beauty of Giant's Causeway, and have a ride down to the stones. We were simply blown away with this stunning bit of the world, a place of such rugged beauty and charm (well worth the £8.50 admission fee). Since a young age, I'd always wanted to come to Giant's Causeway for some reason, and having actually been and seen it for myself in person I would certainly recommend it to anyone who visits Northern Ireland! The photographs here do not do this beautiful place any justice sadly...

And with an hour to go before our next 172 back to oleraine, we retired to the little pub on the end of the Causeway where a drop of Bushmills Whisky was sampled (by your blogmaster anyway) before boarding Ulsterbus Scania 2420 for the journey back to the Buscentre. With time not on our side by this point, we boarded 'Goldline' Irizar i4 1060 for the 2hr journey back to Belfast Europa on the 218, to retire (eventually) to the local PizzaExpress for some top notch grub and a few beverages and subsequently our home for the next three nights, Belfast's Gregory Guesthouse.

It was a case of deja-vu...the Irish adventure had begun again!