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Jon’s still not feeling 100% so we ended up having a more leisurely day than we initially planned. We woke up to a howling wind and brilliant sunshine. A total contrast to last night when the rain arrived. We did wonder if the winds would scupper tonight’s plans for the sunset sail.
We headed off the Craster where the plan was to park up and walk to Dunstanburgh Castle. Craster was a very pretty little fishing village and infamous for its crab. The drive here took us down some narrow lanes. For a moment, we thought we had taken a wrong turn as we passed through a gap in a wall, but turns out that was just in the road!
There seems to be a running theme this week – there was a sign on the gate at the start of the walk saying the castle was closed, presumably due to the winds and the fact it’s a ruined castle!
Jon decided to head back to the car at this point whilst Callum and I walked up to the view point where we could at least see the castle. It was much bigger than we thought it would be.
Think we need to come back and do a little more exploring!
We met up with Jon in the little cafe at the car park. Callum and I had crab sandwiches; Jon got one to take out and have later this afternoon. It was really nice, There was a steady trade at the cafe. They had the usual burgers and bacon/sausage baps but also Craster Kippers in a roll and another that was bacon and haggis! Intriguing.
From here, we headed back to Bamburgh. The plan was to park up and visit the Grace Darling Museum. Alas no parking on the roads and the car park opposite was closed! Best laid plans and all that. Jon took this as a hint we needed to head back to the cottage. If we’ve time tomorrow, we may pop in the afternoon.
This evening, we had booked tickets for the Serenity Sunset Sail. We headed into town a little earlier to grab tea – Scampi and chips from the Neptune Cafe. We ate them on the benches overlooking the harbour, something we’ve done on previous visits to Seahouses.
We had to meet at the Serenity Kiosk at 6.45 and we would be walked over the boat. Billy Shiels was also taking out a party along with a private charter. Our boat, Serenity V was the last to leave the harbour.
It was still pretty windy and there were white tops on sea with a reasonable swell. We were surprised that the ship “put its foot down” once we had cleared the harbour, but we soon found out why, The Billy Shiels boats had encountered a pod of dophins. The Billy Shilds boats disappeared just after we arrived, and the dolphins came up really close to our boat. The boat was still moving around a fair bit.
From here, we really retraced the route the boat took us on Monday. There were loads more seals visible today across the islands.
We also got to learn a little more about Grace Darling and the infamous rescue her and her dad made. The family lived in the lighthouse on one of the islands and Grace watched a boat crash into the rocks and with her Dad, rowed out to rescue as many people as they could. Many were already dead – just around nine people were rescued.
We also saw a “spectacled” guillemot. White line around the eye with a little line so it looks as though they were wearing glasses or a monocle. Loads more puffins, guillemots and Kittiwakes. We saw another gannet, diving into the sea and a couple more razorbills. There were also meant to be some cormorants and shags visible but we weren’t sure if we saw them.
The trip was only meant to be 2 hours and Billy Shiels were long gone. We saw the sun dip below Lindisfarne further up the coast and made it back into harbour at 9.45pm. The wind had died down completely for the last 10 mins of the sail back.
We were cold – even though we had layered up – fleece plus waterproof jacket. There were some people on the other sailing that were just wearing T-Shirts so not sure how they got on.
Back to the car and the heated seats went on, however, it didn’t take too long to warm back up again.
