American cruise passengers complete their Belfast to Derry walk while docked in Northern Ireland

Cruise passengers who have been docked in Belfast for three months have completed the ‘Camino de Irlanda del Norte’ as they arrived in Derry.

Kit Cassingham and Dr Richard Namikas took on the 70-mile trek to pass the time, which they began on Friday morning, completing it six days later on September 19.

The two friends from the US met on the Villa Vie Residences' Odyssey, a round-the-world cruise ship which has been docked in Belfast since May. The ocean liner has been unable to leave the cruise terminal due to repair work required to the rudders and gearbox.

Kit is no stranger to long-distance walking, having previously walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain and the Portuguese Camino, totaling 750 miles. 

She said: “I trained for the Spanish walk, and so this walk here is like a walk in my training.

I’m not too tired. In the Camino, in the pyrenees, it is rough. It is uphill for days and at elevation.

“One of my childhood friends was going to walk the Camino. It was a dream of her husband, and he didn’t live to do it, and she said, ‘I’m going to do it’. She didn’t end up doing it, but I was trained up for it, but I did it.

“I believed doing one would be enough, but after a year I did the Portuguese Camino, from Porto up to Santiago.”

A year on from her walk from Rome to Assisi, she decided to tackle the ‘Camino de Irlanda del Norte’, a walk from Belfast to Derry.

As Kit and Richard completed their walk on the Waterside of the city, she said she felt accomplished.

The pair were astounded by the hospitality and support they had from the people they met across Northern Ireland.

Dr. Namikas said: “It is a beautiful, beautiful country and not just the countryside, the people.

“John and Mary-Anne, a couple in Toome, wished us luck as we sat for a tea or coffee in a park. We invited them to talk, and he found that he was Irish and his wife was from Michigan in America, and they had read about our walk. 

“We got talking and found that he had at the age of 75 walked the length of Ireland from the bottom of the island right to the tip. 

“They were a kindred spirit in understanding our walk, and it turns out they had friends in the next town that we were stopping at, and they owned a Bed and Breakfast. They suggested staying there as they were enamoured with it, but it demonstrated the serendipity that happened along the way.

“They then helped us massively, as we had planned to walk somewhere but it was too far, so they said, ‘Walk as far as you can, we will pick you up, and then the next morning we will leave you back in the spot we collected you so you can continue your journey’.”

Kit is optimistic her time in Ireland will be over and her cruise ship is back up and running as early as next week, but she will miss the country and its people.

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Kit’s husband Randy was pleased to welcome her to Derry at the Peace Bridge and was confident in her reaching the Peace Bridge.

A group of their cruise mates met them at Ebrington Square, and they will spend the night in Derry and experience the Walled City and all its charms.

The ‘Ship People’ cannot wait for their journey to continue after their stint in Ireland.

Dr. Namikas said: “We picked the Peace Bridge as a symbolic finish point.

“It wasn’t about getting here; it was about the journey, and once we get here, being done isn’t done; there is always something across the bridge.

“Our across the bridge is on the ship; our ship is the next bridge for the next three and a half years for me, until we get to Florida, but that is not the end. The end is when we are done. 

“Enjoy the journey; look at where we are; there is history here; there is beauty here; the people here. Be here, be now.”

Kit and Richard's trek to Derry has been chronicled online. You can view their journey by clicking here.