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With Mum away in Malta and Sandra in Italy, we settled for a weekend at the caravan in Portrush! It was not just any old weekend in Portrush though. This is the weekend when Ireland's biggest road race takes place - the North West 200. For nearly a week Portrush becomes a hive of biking activity.

The NW200 is an international event, but it has to be said that a good majority of the competitors did appear to be Irish/British. Tragedy struck on Thursday during practice when one of the biggest names in road racing lost another family member (brother Joey being an earlier casualty of this dangerous sport) after a fatal accident which left a dark cloud over proceedings. Despite the demise of Robert Dunlop, his wife Louise gave her blessing not only to the event taking place, but even saw her two sons continue to compete. I think Robert must have still been very close in spirit on Saturday when son, Michael, stormed home for his first ever victory in the NW200, winning the 250cc first race of the day. It was a very emotional moment, as you can imagine. I managed to get a shot of him hitting the lead on the last lap...

Andy in his wisdom packed enough t-shirts and trousers to last a fortnight but forgot to include an fleece, sweatshirt or jacket! The perfect excuse to buy a momento of the weekend! ...

Mind you, I admit I also bought a rather nice hoodie!
Seems the NW200 wasn't the only event taking place in Portrush that weekend... walking into town we noticed there were rather a lot of Elvis look-a-likes!

We took hundreds of photos (as you tend to at these type events) and it was very difficult choosing just a handful to post up but these are some of the shots I liked...




I will add to this post later with names of riders when I get the chance.
This next photo is a part of where the race is run...

On Sunday morning the clouds had cleared and I had a brilliant sunny morning for my walk, as you can see from these pics...




The other news for the week? Well I finally managed to find an NHS Dentist who was willing to put me on the books, but as they couldn't see me till 10th June I ended up at City Hospital emergency dentist for a filling and a course of anti-biotics to clear up a very painful infection. It was bliss to be able to eat pain-free again for the first time in weeks, although last night it started to feel a bit sore again. I hope the infection's not coming back.
Kxx