Today we’re off to Lindisfarne, otherwise know as Holy Island which lies further up the coast from where we are at Beadnell. It’s reached by a causeway which becomes submerged every day when the tides come in so you have to manage your trip by keeping in line with the tide timetable. We don’t want to be the car that gets stuck on the causeway and end up in the ‘idiots hut’ having to be rescued by the RNLI so we planned our trip meticulously down to the last minute. What with our track record of incidents we could just see the car floating down the estuary and us three stuck in ‘the box’. Remembering our mantra ‘no speeding, no parking tickets, no incidents’ we thought we’d get there at around 10am, walk around the island which takes approx two hours, have a coffee and leave at 1pm. The tide was due in at 13.55 which would give us plenty of time to drive off the island.
Excursion sorted we headed down to breakfast at 8am and met up with Sue and Graham where we exchanged news of what we’d been up to the previous day and what we were intending to do that day, amongst other things. Talking about what we do for a job Graham’s philosophy is ‘you go to work with the end goal in sight’….meaning if you don’t like going to work just remember why you’re going.
With that in mind we wished each other a good day, packed up the car and with Maice in the drivers seat, Pearl in the navigational seat hooked up with SatNav Steve and me in the back seat with Marvin, who incidentally had been there throughout the whole journey hidden under a plethora of jackets and hats we set off. To be honest we didn’t need the services of SatNav Steve all we needed to do was follow the coast road north and turn right at the signpost to Holy Island, but you never know. We can go wrong anywhere. As it was we didn’t get lost, thankfully, and arrived on Holy Island, with the other hoards of sightseers at 10am. Where to go first? We could have done with a coffee but conscious of the time restraints we saw the castle and headed off in that direction. Now owned by the National Trust you had to pre-book if you wanted to go in and as we hadn’t pre-booked, we didn’t go in so walked around it instead.
As we retraced our steps out of the castle grounds who should we bump into but our breakfast companions Sue and Graham. Well, what a small world! Graham asked us a few questions about the castle but we’re ashamed to say none of us had read the ‘blurb’ about it’s history, us being on a tight schedule that is. They were hoping to go inside but as it’s fully booked they’ll just have to walk around the outside like us and read the information maps placed outside. We said our goodbyes and headed off towards the ‘heugh’, a Northumbrian word for a steep crag and is pronounced ‘hee-uff’. Here we found the ruins of the priory and some lovely views over the estuary where we posed for photos, holding down our dresses on this very blustery day. After a visit to the local shop where we purchased some rum and gin, both distilled on the island we made it back to the carpark and were across the causeway and back on the mainland at 1.15pm. Phew. We didn’t end up in the idiots box after all!
Our next stop was the village of Bamburgh, famous for its castle, but after this week will become even more famous due to Harrison Ford and his film crew filming the latest Indiana Jones movie there. You can see cranes and lighting structures all around the castle walls and there are fields full of massive production lorries and trailers at the base of the castle. It’s all very exciting. Note to selves.……must watch the movie when it’s released, although it will be the first Indiana film I’ve ever watched!
The ten minute drive to Bamburgh took well over thirty minutes, not because we got lost I hasten to add, but because the traffic came to a complete stand still just before we got to Bamburgh. So close and yet so far! We sent Pearl off to investigate and she returned some five minutes later with news that two camper vans/caravans had got themselves stuck in a narrow part of the road and were wedged in. ‘That’s the trouble with these country roads’ we said…..’they aren’t made for these larger vehicles’ and with that the traffic started moving and next thing we’re precariously passing a double-decker bus on the very bend the two vehicles got stuck. Hats off to these bus drivers, they must have nerves of steel.
Finding a car parking space, indeed, finding a car park in Bamburgh was a bit of a nightmare. We ended up at a very small carpark on the beach, finding it quite by accident, which of course was very full so we headed back into the village where we found a farmers field used as an overflow carpark. After a spot of lunch in one of the local pubs we walked down to the coast and were very surprised to find a long stretch of sandy beach with people in their socially distanced groups sunbathing and making the most of the sunshine. If you can’t beat em’ join em. We sat ourselves down on the sand and enjoyed a thirty minute siesta. Lying on the sand, feeling the heat of the sun on our faces almost felt like we were in Greece. Ah, it was wonderful.
All too soon it was time to leave and we headed off back to Beadnell. This was our last day together so for supper we took out the fold up chairs, put together some snacklets and took ourselves down to the local beach again for one last time. We would have stayed longer if it wasn’t for the pesky flies that appeared from nowhere. Never mind, an early night would do us good. We’ve got a lot of driving tomorrow, Pearl back to Aberdeen, Maice and I to Liverpool.
Tired out after our day in the sun at 10pm we bade ourselves goodnight and switched off the lights. Damn, it was still daylight outside!!!!
M&A and Pearl xxx