Skye to Northern England

It’s now Saturday the 18^th of june, many days have passed and very little, well, no actually, blogging has taken place.

Last time I wrote we were sitting in the truck on Uig, on Skye, at about 9 am, the rain was bucketing down, it was freezing cold and we were contemplating a day of nothing in the truck, with nothing really possible due to geographic isolation and appalling weather. We had been going to catch the ferry from Uig across to Uist and Harris in the Outer Hebrides, but it wasn’t the day for that. The ferry, or that trip only goes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday so we would have to wait until Wednesday at the earliest any way and even then the weather couldn’t be guaranteed to be any better. We decided we would walk into Uig from the camp ground (only a couple of hundred metres) and have a coffee and make plans. There was a café/pottery where you could drink coffee and also paint a bare piece of pottery which would be glazed for you as a memento/souvenir of your trip. Hilary was very keen. We put the radio on to listen to the news while we got ready to go out. BBC 4 is the only station worth listening to really, a bit like our national programme with news, current affairs and interesting documentaries. The 10 o’clock news came on and said there had been big earthquakes in Christchurch again. Di and I were both very shattered and rattled (pardon the pun) by the news. My immediate reaction (peculiar really) was that I wanted to go back as soon as I could, I wanted to be there. Not that I actually thought about flying back, but on a visceral level I wanted to be present and had a desperate need for more information about how people and places were. Of course we couldn’t get any information, there was no internet coverage, no wireless places, nothing on television (most of the caravans and campervans have tv) and the radio gave us no more news than that. Di and I had a cry and a cuddle, Hilary joined in, and gave us both a sniff of Lambie (her cuddly blanket she has had since before birth, and which she uses at night and in times of stress. It was really touching.

We went and had coffee, it was disgusting!!! A bit like dishwater with a touch of caffeine and milk. Not good. We did have a shared helping of crotty dumpling though, which is like a steamed cinnamon pudding with raisins and lashings of runny cream. See in times of crisis one still eats.

Our need was to get to information about Christchurch, the lady at the coffee/tea rooms said there was wireless available in Portree, so we decided to leave Uig and make our way towards civilisation, and hopefully better weather. We drove to Portree only to find they no longer have their wireless connection, and so kept going south. We knew there was a McDonald’s in Fort William, and we wanted to run, and hope to find better weather. We drove through Skye, off Skye by the Bridge and headed south, the weather was foul everywhere. I’m not sure how far it was to Fort William but we arrived mid-afternoon and managed to get some info about the quakes. We felt a little better but still helpless.

We were going to drive further, but it was getting on towards 5 and I was a bit tired so we stopped at Glencoe at the same camp-ground by the Loch we had stayed at a week or so earlier. The next morning we drove through the moors across past Edinburgh to northeast England. It was sunny and warm. We stopped at a “family friendly” campground a mile and a half from Bamburgh Castle. There was hardly anyone here. Lots of empty caravans parked up, and some of those permanent caravans that are a bit like baches. Some with gardens all beautifully kept out the front.

After dinner we walked down to the beach at Bamburgh, next to the castle. It is about 6 kms there and back, with a walk at the beach. Hilary played in the sand while di and I wandered on the wide open golden spaces, looking at shells and finding washed up pretty jelly-fish.

Bamburgh Castle reflected

Sun going down over Bamburgh beach

Jelly fish

It is a gorgeous beach, it was low tide that evening so there were miles of sand, and in the distance Islands and on the horizon to the north Lindisfarne or Holy Island with its priory and Castle.

We walked back, had a cup of tea, read books/stitched and went to bed.

The next morning was warm enough for just tee-shirts and I think, shorts. Certainly I had my fleece on when sitting in the sea breeze but otherwise it was quite pleasant. We walked down to Bamburgh again, had a browse through the shops, before heading to the sand dunes/beach. Hilary played, I joined in, we read books, I did some stitching, we had a picnic.

Me doing cross stitch on the beach at Bamburgh

Pretty Constable like clouds over the dunes

More pretty clouds

Bamburgh village and Castle

A pretty butterfly we saw on our walk

Playing at the play area (yeah right!)

Playing on Bamburgh beach

We headed back mid afternoon via Saint Aidan’s Church. Saint Aidan was a mink from Iona in Scotland who at the request of King Oswald came over to Bamburgh to help spread the word about Christianity in the early 600’s. There is a beam in the church which has been built into the roof 700 years ago, it is thought to have great healing powers, it is the beam that reportedly saint Aidan died against (didn’t heal him then did it??). They had to put it up in the roof because pilgrims kept nicking bits off it and it was disappearing. Two of the churches that had been on this spot over the years burnt down, and this beam survived both fires, so that adds to its status.

A pretty house in the village

The beam Saint Aidan died against.

The altar in Saint Aidan's Church

The next day (Thursday) the weather crapped out again. Black clouds and rain. We stayed in the truck and did crafty things for the morning, and until early afternoon when it started to clear. I was getting cabin fever so we all went out for an explore. We drove down the coast to Caster where we could walk from to Dunstanburg Castle. This is an old ruin on a point over looking ocean and farm land. Lovely spot.

Dunstanburgh Castle

On a tower at the Castle

View north from Dunstanburgh Castle

Castar? Harbour

I’m getting over piles of old stones and ruins though, as is Hilary. I think we need a break from this sort of thing, maybe some more action (or less). It was a nice walk in the sun though, interesting to see the sheep with their wool falling off, some with spots like dalmations (on their faces and legs only) but those with short wool had spots on their bodies too. The other interesting thing was too see the cattle who have free rein over the paddocks, bounded by sea in a couple of directions and gates and fences in others, there was a herd of them down on the rocks at the sea. I’m not sure if they were licking salt off the rocks or eating seaweed or a combination of both. I certainly saw one eating a large hunk of kelp, and others with heads down but nothing obvious around to be eating?? Maybe shell fish??

 Yesterday started gloomily again. No rain, and not cold, but not sparkly and light either. We drove back up the A1 a few miles to visit the Holy Island. I don’t know if you know this place but it is only an island at high tide, and a couple of hours either side thereof. At other times there is a causeway which heads across an inch above the sand for a long stretch and then up onto the higher ground. It is extraordinary that this piece of tarmac disappears under the sea and yet is otherwise like a normal road, it is in better condition than a lot of the local roads!!! I didn’t get a photo of it out of the water, though we did go back later and got a photo of it under water.



The causeway under water later

We walked to the castle, another interesting structure up on a rock pedestal. There is also a little garden out to the side, built/designed by  Gertrude Jekyll a very famous landscape architect of her time (not that I have heard of her). She led the change towards an impressionist flowery style garden with colour, away from the green, structured design of earlier. Apparently she was very visually impaired and loved colour. This little walled garden was a flower cum vegetable herb garden, lots of sweet peas which in a month or so will look great, but is still in its early summer state. It was getting bitterly cold by now in the fresh sea breeze.

Lindisfarne Castle

Near the entrance to the Castle (just inside)

Lindisfarne Harbour from the castle

A gull, can't remember what type

We walked over to the Priory, another fallen ruin, much like many others we have seen. I told you I was getting over it………

Statue of Saint Aidan in the priory grounds

From here we drove up to Berwick-Upon-Tweed, went to Tescos to top up our groceries, had a quick drive through the town to see the city walls, the River Tweed, and a very cursory glance at some of the buildings.

Then back to the camp ground.

Today it is cold again, trying to rain. We are supposed to be going to Seahouses, a little village 4 miles away. There is a horse riding opportunity for Hilary we are hoping. There is a riding place, just a case of it being available when we are there. We also want to take a boat trip out to the Farne Islands which are just off the coast. They are owned by the National Trust and are seabird reserves. There are 60,000 pairs of puffins and huge numbers of other birds like guillemots, kittewakes and others. Apparently they are so prolific and so safe and secure that you can get right amongst them. There was a really cool programme on BBC 4 a couple of nights ago about the islands with the reporter visiting the islands and talking about the breeding and feeding habits and how the numbers were. There is a decrease in numbers of birds throughout the UK but this area has an increase in numbers of most species. So anyway, it is nearly lunch-time. Hilary has found lots of kids to play with, they all arrived for the weekend last night. So since then she has been catching up on her kid time which is fantastic. She played outside until nearly 10 last night, and has been out there again for an hour and a half this morning. Wonderful.