it's all over

Well after my first nights sleep in my own bed, stretching out and able to turn over without being confined and lying on my sleeping bag zip, what we did over the last 5days seems likes a dream.

Got a baking soda foot bath, sea salt foot bath, then an all over muscle relaxing bath then slept lol

We will be posting all of our photos on facebook and a flicker account within the next few day so keep your eyes open!

Thanks for all your support and thanks for reading my blog!

James

HOME

castle green, Carrickfergus

On our way home!

Can't believe today is the last day, we've came so far already (110miles) and now just a little bit further down the line and we're back in Carrickfergus.

Work up this morning in Antrim High Street Presbyterian Church all ready to go. All the boys fired up and full of energy but on the way out of the carpark it was clear I had some major issues!

Shin splints had set in bad on my left leg and my achilles tendon on my right leg was giving me major pain! I got about 2miles outside of Antrim and had to stop to get treated.

Thankfully we had Micheal the medic onsite to help and a quick pryer and the pain was gone!

We walked then down into Dunadry and through Templepatrick where we had a little unexpected visit from Michaels mum & dad. That done we hit the back roads to Mossley and the it's onto Carrickfergus!

Aiming to be walking into the Church around 7pm!

Antrim! 4 down 1 to go!!

Well we're now in Antrim! We're extremely sore from the waist down and Stuarts feet were black when he took his socks off! Robert came straight into the Church and hit the ground, we thought he had fainted for exhaustion but no.

We got setup and then looked to this evenings food, we decided on Pizza and put Ian on the phone to Domino's , he successfully negotiated us a great deal which we couldn't even finish!

We're so tired, It's 9:30 and Roberts already sleeping! Though tomorrow our energy will be on a high as we're coming home!

So it's good night from us, see ya tomorrow!

The Ground House Cafe, Toome!

Made more new friends in Toome today. We stopped off at The Elk to use the facilities and got chatting to a couple of locals who were interested in our journey tho they compared to a wee dander lol

Jonny at the Ground House Cafe made us some amazing Lunch! And I think left a comment on our Church Facebook.

Tobermore! 3 down 2 to go!

Well today was our hardest day by far, tho Stuart keeps stating its 'we buns'.

We Newtownstewart and headed to PlumBridge, got there at lunch time, so we stopped into the local Day Today ran by Pinkerton, caused enough of a scene walking in with our bags & wet gear on (it had been raining for well over a hour). The lady asked about us, then showed us to a little shelter for us to stay in to eat out of the rain, then she came back to us with 3packets of Mars Bars, Snickers & Twixes for us to have free, then she came back again and said all ur food you just bought in the store, Pinkerton is gona cover! So we eat free!

Eating free was good because we had a 24mile trek up through the Spirin Mountains, nothing but God beautiful countryside! Not even phone signal lol

Loads of great banter tho throughout the Ulster Way, amazing scenery )as told to us before) lots of photos taken, and Micheal controlling the local sheep! Good Times!

We eventually got into Tobermore just before 10pm with Gods help, lovely we stretch in the dark to!! We met up with the Rev Flaherty & his wife who made us burgers & hot dogs!! Such an unexpected surprise a well received by a bunch of hungry lads!

That's us over half way now, tomorrow Antrim then home to Carrickfergus!!

Ivan 'the incredible'

Well we left the Rev Dinsmore's house with sadness in our hearts. There was no end to his hospitably! We were received with open arms, as I said before, foot baths, ice cream, hot dogs, burgers, hot showers, washed our clothes and made us a cooked breakfast each in the morning before we left.

Whata guy, great chat from him to, really nice guy! We hope to see him again really soon and also bring him down to Carrickfergus!

We would all like to publicly thank The Rev. Ivan Dinsmore for his kindness and we pray God will bless him & his ministry 10fold.

Cheers Ivan!

Newtownstewart! 2 down 3 to go

Well today we left the Fountian Centre in Kesh in search of the Ulster Way that would take us to Newtownstewart.

We had been told that this perticular part of the Ulster Way boasted some of the greatest scenery in Northern Ireland. So over the next few days we knew we'd be adding hight to our trek!

We certainly climbed high and everyone was in great spirits, Micheal especially, tho we later found out that we was munching down Ibuprofen tablets like Smarties!!

Ian keep us all upbeat with his verson of Will.I.AM's "you can go hard or you can go home" which quickly caught on. The sun was blinding today and we all got a little sun, we were close enough to it, Stuart got some very patchy sun burn, Robert got the shoulder burn whilst Ian just went red all over!

We arrived into Newtownstewart with a few injuries, safe to say non major but blisters etc The Rev Dinsmore aka 'Ivan the incredible' met u with very open arms, foot baths, BBQ, Ice Cream, beds & an Ulster Fry for the Ulster Way!

Blisters were soothed and sorted by Mike the Medic and then it was off to bed, we were so tired from a days walk in the sun we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer!

Big up Chris & Casy! Cheers for all your help!

The Fountain Centre!

wow what a night we've had in Kesh! We wouldn't have asked for a better place to say!

We were greeted by a young girl who asked if we of we wanted some dinner which she had made! Turns out a group of YWAM'ers were saying here to and this was their last night.

We got chatting and Ian was playing around with one of their guitars and then all of a sudden a prayer meeting had started with Ian leading us all in worship! Totally unexpected totally amazing. The guys we've met have turned into great friends for the night and hopefully we will keep in contact.

Just want to thank them all for dinner and a great evening of fun filled music, pool, table tennis and friendly banter!!

Thanks guys!

Kesh! 1 down 4 to go!!

Well we arrived in Kesh with the help of the good Lord Jesus!

We're currently at the fountain centre a local youth centre ran by Church Of Ireland. We has our own room with kitchen, tv, Xbox & ps3 lol unfortunately were only here for another 11hours so were showering, Mike is the onsite medic has treated himself for two blisters already whilst we're all blister free. So Mike is our foot checker, he has loads of talc!!

Well we crossed from Ireland into Northern Ireland a little behind schedule due to new directions given to us by a local girl who told us that ours were !! So we've at least got that under our belts, now we take on 2days of the Ulster Way!

Taxi?

So far the boys are in good spirits, fairly tired and drained of energy as to be expected, so please pray we all get a good nights sleep and our feet toughen up for tomorrow!

ta ta for now...

And we're off ....

Well the bus finally came and we're off! Packed the bus with food & clothing, had some family wave us off and then we hit the road.

We have about a 3hr drive ahead with dropping supply foods in at Tobermore, Newtownstewart & Kesh.

Bus driver is driving like he's looking back for his dinner! Has us all scared -