April began with a football free Saturday, so I headed to Scrabo Country Park, got lucky with the weather and got lots of nice photos.
The rest of the month was all about football, the next two weekends saw me attend Linfield’s matches against Cliftonville and Glentoran.
With two Public Holidays for Easter, I decided to go for walks up Cregagh Glen and then up Cavehill.
That was then followed by Linfield’s matches against Crusaders, Larne and Coleraine.
Just hours after seeing Linfield winning the League against Coleraine, I headed to Custom House Square to see Echo and the Bunnymen, my first concert of 2022.
The moral of this story is, good things come to those who wait.
So, i’d decided that in 2022, I would visit Scrabo Country Park to see what it was like, and get some photos of Scrabo Tower while I was there as i’d never (to my knowledge) visited before.
The first opportunity I had was a free Saturday morning in February. It was dull so I didn’t get any decent photos.
I did discover that the walk to Scrabo Tower isn’t that demanding. I was expecting an hour long trek to the top like Cavehill. During that visit, I had a ramble through Killynether Wood.
Two months later, with another free Saturday morning, I decided to make a return visit.
While I was making the journey, I was wondering if i’d made the right decision as the rain started to come down as I drove through Dundonald. I’d made a decision and I was going to stick to it.
Curiously, despite the fact I was leaving Belfast, the travel time was around about the same as going to Cavehill or Blackmountain. Geography can be funny sometimes.
Thankfully, the rain stopped by the time I arrived but then it started again. Just a little bit, nothing that would have me running for cover. I’d come this far, I wasn’t going to turn back.
I walked to Scrabo Tower and had a nosey about.
However, this time, I took a different path on my way down. Instead of going to Killynether Wood, I decided to explore Strangford Quarries.
Having been dull and wet, which made me wonder what on earth I was doing, the sun came out, brightening the mood and meaning I was able to get some decent photos.
My visit to Strangford Quarries was going to be timebound so I didn’t deviate too much so that I could come back the way I came. It was one of those trails where I just walked straight ahead and see where it led me.
On my way back up, I headed back to Scrabo Tower and get some better photos now that I had some daylight to work with.
It was a really enjoyable visit. Across my two visits I covered a lot but there is still a lot for me to explore.
That just gives me another excuse to come back.
Remember, it took me quite a lot of visits to properly explore Cavehill.
I definitely plan on coming back at some point before the Summer ends.
Analogue Boy In A Digital World 