We hit the road south to Seahouses where we got on board Glad Tidings and set sail for the Farne Islands. The trip took us out to the Longstone lighthouse and around the other Farne islands before a drop off at Inner Farne to visit the lighthouse and St Cuthbert's church.
One of the islands had the original lighthouse/beacon from the 1700s and the house where Grace Darling's father lived.
We saw lots of birds - oyster catchers, gulls, terns, and a gannet. At the Longstone rock we also visited the seals who weren't too disturbed from their sunbathing.
Looking back inland you could see how the three local castles protected the shore with the ruins of Dunstanburgh visible to the south, Bamburgh inshore from us and Lindisfarne to the north.
Wandering around Inner Farne we realised that there was no mains electricity or water.
And as the island is a bird sanctuary you have to keep to timber walkways to avoid disturbing ground nesting birds because there are no trees!
Heading back to Seahouses we had locally caught fish and chips before heading off to a beach that had been recommended by the barmaid at the Northumbrian Arms in Felton. She was right, it was a big beach with very few people on it. Getting to Ross Back Sands requires a 3/4 mile walk by public footpath from a farm across fields and over the dunes before you come out onto a wide open stretch of sand. We were the 7th and 8th people on the beach that had Bamburgh castle visible at one end and Lindisfarne at the other.
Wednesday's weather was OK, slighlty overcast at first, so we crossed the border into Scotland and visited Eyemouth, hoping to see the boat museum. Unfortunately it was in the middle of being built so we visited the local town museum where we saw the Eyemouth disaster tapestry that told the story of a storm that wiped out most of the fishing boats and their crews in the late 1800s. A walk round the dockside was interrupted by two swans coming into land.
After a seafood lunch in a harbourside bar, we decided we needed some exercise so headed off to St Abbs Head. We walked out to the lighthouse across the fields, but used the single track roadway to get back.
The views up to Torness and the Bass rock were OK but the sea haze meant that no decent photos were taken of them.
Thursday was slightly overcast at first. We had to get a slow puncture fixed on the car, turned out to be a leaking valve which was soon mended. After a cup of coffee in Berwick we headed inland to find the chain link union bridge, built in the early 1800s across the Tweed. I was impressed by the engineering.
After lunch in a tea shop in Wooler, we decided we needed more exercise and drove up the Harthope Burn valley. I saw a red squirrel in the wild for the first time that I can remember that hopped across the road in front of us, acorn in its mouth, before scampering up a roadside wall and out of sight up a tree. We also encountered pheasents (that Sonia wasn't going to get involved with again), as well as the usual rabbits and sheep. When we got to the end of the public bit of the road we parked the car and climbed the hill, stopping regularly to enjoy the view (and catch our breath).
Eventually we got high enough to see the sea and the dunes behind Ross Back Sands.
The evening gave us a few surprises, I saw a salmon leap out of the water about 30 metres away from the cottage as I stood at the window with a cup of tea, and then the pilot boat went out to guide a German ship into the harbour. The wheelhouse was well above us as it went past the window.
Our final morning was spent packing up all the little bits and pieces we had acquired. The estuary had one final surprise for me. When I pulled up the blind to the window there was a heron sat on the shoreline below the window. I managed to get a couple of pictures but the best one seemed most appropriate - the heron flying away across the river as we got ready to leave our little cottage by the Tweed.
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