Day 11 - Northumberland Coast

Its a lighthouse darling....

Tuesday 3rd August 2010

Wow...where do I even begin to start about today...the highlight and lowlight of the holiday occured all in about the same 2 hours and there was plenty of things to discuss in an area of the world where the views can only be described as world class even though it is incredibly geocache light. So the first part of the day we set our sights on going to the Farne Islands. For more information on this place click here. And it is well worth a read. You can only sail to the Farne Islands via Seahouses and

There is a seal on the rocks behind us..no really

about 80 people crammed onto the boat on a 2 hour cruise around the islands. It was here that disaster struck, Josh threw his dummy (he calls it dodo) out the boat and we didn't have a spare. On the way to the island we saw a puffin, then another and soon we saw 100's of them everywhere. The Comorants and gulls were everywhere too, and then the moment team Shiltonpig had been waiting for, we saw our first wild seal, and then another and still another. In fact we saw 10's of them by the time the boat trip finished. We stopped off on one of the islands, which was home to a lighthouse that had

Josh was thrilled to be with his Daddy

once belonged to the Darling family. No not Alistair but Grace. If you have never heard of Grace Darling then I suggest you read here. We have never seen wildlife in the UK like we did on these islands, never seen Britsih water so clear and the sealife so abundant. It really was a great experience, and we are gutted that we didn't fork out more to have a longer cruise. However I doubt Josh would have coped with it. So there was the highlight....on the way back Josh couldn't cope without his dummy and was screaming for over 30 minutes. The entire boat were giving us evil glares, but there was

Josh loves the beach, the sand and the splashing

nothing we could do to shut him up. On and on he cried, by the time we arrived back at the shore, we were ready to kill each other. We walked into Boots grumpily asked where the dummies were and finally after 2 hours Josh got his dodo. And in a split second he was smiling again....we were not amused. Anyway Mrs Shiltonpig went for a sleep in the car while Josh and Mr Shiltonpig attempted a fantastic cache called Bamburgh 360. Truly a contender for top 10 caches of the year. The views were astonishing. Having said that when I first arrived I thought I was going to have to climb down a drain

Beadnell Lime Kiln

to get the cache. Fortunately I didn't have to. Me and Josh found 2 little frogs nearby and were playing them for a while. Bamburgh Castle was in the distance and is quite frankly an astonishing castle on an equally astonishing coastline. Please go and visit that stretch of caostline if you have never been, you will not be disappointed. Josh was now asleep and so we drove to Beadnall to complete another cache while also picking up some fish and chips to eat on the beach....is it just us or do fish and chips on the beach always taste better? Yet again we were blown away by Beadnall, one side of the

Social Services stopped us going all the way

village is rocky cliffs with rockpools, the other is a huge expanse of white sandy beaches. If this coast was in Spain millions would visit it. It really is that good. Josh woke up and Mr Shiltonpig tried to bury him, but Josh wasn't having any of it, he wanted to play in the sea instead. I could write and write about this place as it was so good. In fact I wrote this blog in about 8 minutes simply because there was so much material to choose from. I have hardly mentioned about the cache we did in the equally stunning Budle Bay. Wow...wow...wow...with a heavy heart we had to move on...

The dramatic Bamburgh Castle