Kite festival at Downhill, Northern Ireland

August brings the second Downhill kite festival. This is at a National Trust site on the Northern coast of Ireland, very close to where the border between North and South meets the sea. So close that my phone thinks I'm roaming...

It is a bit of an effort to fly here. Easyjet flight from Gatwick to Belfast and car rental. To keep costs to a bare minimum, we flew up on Saturday evening, so didn't have any time to explore Ireland, maybe an economy too far.

Flying was tricky. The wind was off the sea, which is usually good, but we were at the top of a cliff, so the wind was full of lumps and holes, till we moved a little further inland to escape the worst of the turbulence.

Right at the edge of the cliff is an excellent temple, where a harpist was playing:

We put on a good display, having crammed a Manta Ray, Bear, Cat, Dog, Space Racer and tiger cub into the Easyjet baggage allowance.

But we wern't the only show. Team Fusion were there with their Rev display. They left a kite pegged out and were rather surprised when I picked it up and joined them flying formation infinities. The Longbottoms were there with an octopus, a penguin and their turtle:

And Dazzz and Karen brought their octopus and gecko:

But best of all, it didn't rain like last year. Low cloud rolled in for the last few minutes and made some stuff damp, and we are very grateful to Karl and Sarah for relieving us of a bag of heavy stuff to avoid tipping the scales at Easyjet on the way home.