Day 112: Ballykelly - Lough Akkibon

We set off just before noon, heading for Derry. We arrived in half an hour by car and parked in the same place as a few weeks ago, next to the Peace Bridge, that modern "S"-shaped bridge that links the two banks of the River Foyle, symbolizing peace between communities. Nice, isn't it? Well, today it was closed for works... what a disappointment.

We had to detour to the Craigavon Bridge, which is no ordinary bridge. It has two floors: the top one for cars that want to look at the horizon and the bottom one for those who are just thinking about getting there quickly. We crossed it on foot, regardless of floors or lanes, and that's how the exploration began.

We started by investigating a strange brick mural, the Fountain Street Coded Message. A piece of coded message that said something like "tgtew-dneite-onann-shrett-eedyl-erheo-tgtew-paebna-hhace-daitu-fhndca-erheo". Come on, it looked like it had been written by a cat walking on the keyboard. Neither Daddy Edu nor Uncle Javi managed to decipher it, not even with the help of the internet. Neither did I, although I admit I was distracted sniffing a lost hamburger on the sidewalk.

Then we went up to the Derry walls. The city is famous for these 17th-century walls that are still almost intact, like a stone necklace surrounding the historic center. From above I saw everything: streets, people and even a man eating an ice cream that I would have put to good use.

We visited The Derry Girls mural. After a while a nice man explained to us that it is a television series about a group of teenagers growing up in Derry during the nineties. Come on, here even the murals watch more TV than me.

We continued to the Guildhall, that neo-Gothic style building with huge stained-glass windows and a castle-like air. Uncle Javi went in to have a look, but they didn't let me in (another canine discrimination on the list). Daddy Edu didn't go in either, he had already seen it before.

Lunch time: luckily we found a snack bar where we all went in, including me. They devoured mini-pizzas with French fries and I was left with my ration of nothing, which I think is an insult considering my excellent behavior on the wall.

Afterwards we went down to Bogside, the neighborhood most famous for its political murals. There is the Bloody Sunday Monument, which commemorates the fourteen civilians murdered in 1972, and the Hunger Strike Monument, dedicated to the prisoners who died on hunger strike in the eighties. Serious and sad memories that even left me without wanting to bark.

Suddenly it started to rain. We ran under the awning of a bar on Waterloo Street, O'Loughlin's Irish House. The humans ordered drinks and I took the opportunity to shake off the raindrops... on Daddy Edu. Coincidences of life.

We closed the tour of the wall, passed by the cathedral (without going in, of course) and when we returned the Peace Bridge was already open. We crossed it in triumphant style as if we had conquered the city.

Back at the car we made a technical stop at a gas station: diesel for the camper, clean water and goodbye to the gray waters. Everything in order. Then we continued to a spectacular corner next to Lough Akkibon. Nature, silence, postcard landscape. Here you sleep like a king... or like a happy dog.