Day 26: Mussenden Temple

Day 26 - Sunday, April 15th 2018: Portrush to Downhill 24km / Total 567 km, 14°C, cloudy

The North Coast goes on to Port Stewart. And what's typical on the coastline? Golf and caravan campsite. It's amazing how many mobile homes I saw along the coast. I really wonder if in the Summer everybody's going on holiday there. I'll see...

Between Portrush, Port Stewart and Coleraine, apparently there's a kind of race, NW200, I don't know when, but they were preparing everything, protecting the walls in case of a crash I think. After Port Stewart, there's a river, so, like each time I face this case, I have to walk along the river, until I find a bridge to cross it. And the 1st bridge is in Coleraine, in the inland. It's a big road, but with a cycling path. The road is not really interesting, I had lunch in Coleraine before walking on the other side of the river. Just before Mussenden Temple, a woman stopped her car, and asked if I wanted a lift, cause she already saw me walking in the morning just after Portrush and thought "I hope she's not going too far away" and then found me again, hours and 20 km later! I finally get into Desmene National Park by Bishop Gate, where there's Mussenden Temple, the most famous monument of this park. There used to be a palace, built by the bishop of Londonderry two centuries before, and which remains only the walls. But he really chose well his location. There you can see Portrush peninsula, Port Stewart and its long beach, Benone Strand and Inishowen peninsula in Donegal, where I'll go. The Mussenden Temple has something dramatic, just at the edge of the cliff, where it'll fall one day. It's melancholic, and a good place for poetry, it's like this temple emerged from a poem in my opinion.

Then I get to Downhill, where there's a hostel. In the morning when I left my hostel in Portrush, the owner asked me where I was going, and told me about there is a hostel, but I said I can't make a booking, as it seems to be full. She said it was strange for a Sunday night, and advised me to go there and check. That's why I rang the doorbell. The wife of the owner came out and told me there were closed because they had a group and no time to clean it. And suddenly she realized I was on foot. But it was ok, I was prepared to sleep in my tent, and could find a place for it. She explained the bed were not made inside, and I told her, I didn't mind, as I had my own sleeping bag. Finally, she got me inside, gave me a room, and brought me cleaned linen for the bed she made. Incredible, she opened the hostel just for me. I felt so thankful! I had the hostel just for me, the kitchen to cook my usual noodles and soup, the bathroom just for me. Perfect!