Haar comes Holy Island

The last day or our Northumberland adventure and we went up to Holy Island.  We parked at Beal and got onto our bikes to cycle over the causeway to the island.  We'd checked the tide times and knew we'd be safe from 8.30am until about 14.54 pm which gave us plenty time to explore.

I wasnt counting on it being so bleak and the Haar which had come in early morning was sticking around like glue.  Cold and damp in the mist made things a bit miserable so after a quick visit to the castle we were back over the causeway to the sunshine again.  Here are a few pictures from our quick trip to Holy Island.

Seahouses, Seals, Puffins, Beach & Castles

Easter Sunday started out with an early morning (10.30am) boat trip out to the Farne Islands to see the seals and seabirds.

The weather was perfect, blue sky, only a touch of a breeze and it was quite mild.  So off we went on the boat with 60+ other people eager to see the wildlife that the boat trip had in store for us.

The first thing we came across was cliffs full of seabirds, Gullimots and seaguls.  They were everywhere and it was a lovely sight to see.

On leaving the bird cliffs and heading to the islands where the seals are we saw loads of puffins in the sea.  They only come onto the cliffs when they're ready to mate and live on the sea until that time.  They were swooping and darting all over the place with their little wings flapping but I managed to capture these 2 just having a bit of a sit down, on the water.

We passed the lighthouse where Grace Darling and her family lived.  Grace became famous for assisting in the rescue of people from a shipwreck on nearby rocks and we planned to visit her museum in the RNLI base in Bamburgh later in the day.

Finally we came to the islands where the seals live and they were a sedate bunch indeed.  Only a couple of them lifted their heads to see us.  I guess they're so used to the boats coming past and know that we're not a source of food for them that they're just not interested.  They looked healthy enough and the boat man said there was a colony of 3400 on the islands.  Wow, that's impressive.

Safely back on shore we decided to walk along the beach in the direction of Bamburgh as it was a beautiful day and we were in no rush at all.  The thought of a cream tea in a little cafe was an additional incentive.

Before we set off we noticed a crowd gathering at the path before you head down to the beach and a woman informed us that there had been an accident on the rocks, a girl had broken her leg and they were waiting on the air ambulance to arrive so we waited for a bit too, until it arrived, which was pretty spectacular then we went on our way again.

At last the castle came into view and it was only a short walk up in to the village where yes, we dove into a small cafe and had the most delicious cream tea.  Afterwards we walked up to the Grace Darling exhibition in the RNLI museum and then just sat in the sun for the rest of the day.

Fantastic day filled with adventure and lovely things.  A great Easter Sunday however it was one without a Choc egg........hmmmmmm I'm sure I'll make up for that !

High Force & Kielder Water & Forest Park

Good Friday took us up to Northumberland via High Force in Yorkshire for an Easter weekend of walking, biking and boating (out to see the seals).

First stop on Friday was High Force waterfall and what a spectacular sight that was.  I'd never seen it before and it practically took my breath away when we turned the corner and there it was at the end of the river.  Spectacular.

After this is it was back to the car to head further North to Alnwick where we were booked into a lovely B & B and then on Saturday we headed a little west over to Kielder Water & Forest park with the bikes.  The route round the park, taking in the Castle and other scenes was approx 27 miles so that would do us nicely.

The lady in the gift shop said when we arrived that it was quite hilly in places and she wasnt wrong.  The park certainly did hold a few surprises of the hilly kind but we coped quite well with them.

The first part of the path on the anti clockwise route took us round the East coast of the resevoir and followed an attractive path littered with trees and other curious things.  One of these was the Janus chairs where Chris went for a quick nap.....zzzzzzzzzzzzz.  In reality they werent the most comfy of chairs at all.

Another curio we found was this big wooden head in the forest, quirky but very cool.

Further round we were lucky enough to spot an Osprey and what we think is a Sparrowhawk and the Osprey had just caught a fish.  I wish I'd been closer and gotten a better pic but this is the best we can do an we watched it for ages climbing on the thermals higher and higher.

Further round the landscape opened up a bit as we headed towards the castle.

And after a quick bite to eat in the Castle cafe we were off on our travels again round the park.  It was hard work but such good fun.

A great day out and a beautiful park and we were lucky enough to spot an Osprey, Sparrowhawk and a Buzzard earlier in the day that we didn't get a pic of. 

Bogged down on High Seat and High Tove

Saturday mornings are always fun when they involve an early morning start (6.30am) and a stop at Tebay services for a coffee.  Heading for the lakes the weather forecast was iffy but had the potential to be not a bad day.  Winds might hamper us but there was hope for some sunshine in between the showers.

Car parked next to a lovely little bridge with some watery falls and we headed up the well paved path towards the first summit.  It wasnt a high hill today but high enough to get the lungs working overtime on the steepish path upwards.  We followed the path of the water for a while so we had plenty chances to stop, get a breather and take a snap or 2 of the water flowing down the side of the hill.

There was a lot of steep zig zagging which brought us out on a flattish plateau area.  We could see High Seat in the distance and it was a fairly flat walk over towards the final path upwards to the trig point.

The views were good today.  Some cloud was hanging low and obscuring the tops of the surrounding peaks but the light changed every few seconds and brought out some nice images.  Would they translate into my camera, well time will tell !

After coming off the summit of High Seat we headed downwards to the plateau area before rising back up again to High Tove.  This was the worst part of the walk.  Bogginess and wet mud underfoot, terrific!  It was relentless and reminded us of a time on Kinder that we spent hrs trying to find a way through the mud.  This was like a mini Kinder and a lot of back and forward was going on to find a way through the mire.

We thought perhaps Tove was an ancient name for Bog as it was all around and not the most pleasant of walking.   Even after visiting the summit and heading on the path downwards we came upon a gate which was surrounded by watery stuff.  We named it Watergate !  Boom Boom ! 

 The path downwards was a dream.  A mixture of nice stepping stones and old stones which seemed to form the path of an old coaching road perhaps!   Soon enough we were down at the Tarn where we would turn right and head back along the river to the car park.

 Loads of mountain bikers out but luckily they didnt come our way.  Just a man and a tripod taking a picture of a bridge that wasnt really that picturesque.  Strange !  A bit further on we passed a house which had an array of garden birds flying about, this little cheeky chappie perched long enough for me to snap but was really too far away for me to capture him properly.

Nice walk back and after 4 hrs our walk was done.  A shortish one today, still 10km but not as high today but a great leg stretcher and the weather was kind.  Not much wind to speak off, sunshine off and on, no rain and a little bit chilly............so alls good ! 

Clough Head

After a fantastic breakfast in a brilliant little B & B we headed off towards the start of the path that would take us up Clough Head.  Again the weather was exceptionally bright and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.  That's mainly because again for the second day running all the cloud was down in the valley.

 The path upwards wasnt steep but it was filled with snow and ice and was fun in places to wade through.  The higher we got the more the views opened up and we spotted some hand gliders setting up on a flattish bit of ground below looking and testing for the perfect wind.

 The last path to the first of the false summits (there were a few!!!) was so packed with snow we had to get our ice axes out to give us another point of contact.  It was hard slippy snow and one slip could have been an ankle turner!

Finally after 2 or 3 false summits the trig point came into view.  We met a runner on the top who was doing a recce of the fells for some race later in the year.  He'd just popped up Clough Head and was on his way to Helvellyn.  He wasnt even out of breath. Grrrrrr!

 The views from the summit were amazing. Right over to the Northern Pennines and we spotted Mell Fell and Little Mell Fell which we'd been up a few weeks before.

Time to go down and the path was exceptionally good.  No shale, scree, just a well defined path, steep in places and packed with snow and ice in places but good all the same.  It wasn't long before we were back at the path that would take us back to the car and the start point of our walk.

On the way back round to the car we spotted this wee cloud, abandoned by its bigger inversion big brother and just left there all on its own at the side of Blencathra.

The end of the walk and the sky still bluer than blue !