The plan for Thursday was to visit Lindisfarne and have a look round the Holy Island. I was up earlier than the rest of the house and took the opportunity to take a walk down the coast to Dunstanburgh, to take a couple of panorama sets. The weather was really quite warm, I set out with a T-shirt and fleece on but the fleece had to be removed halfway there.
Whilst down there I looked to see if the end of a lobster trap was still there after we hid it earlier in the week, it was not so I picked up another wreck, of one for H.
We made sandwiches for the day I had Nutella, Helen had Marmite. Then headed up the A1 to Lindisfarne, it made a change to be travelling at the national speed limit. To get to the Holy Island you have to cross a causeway that is covered for about 5 hours on the high tide. We had checked out the tables and were OK till about 16:15. We parked just before the official car park with plenty of others and so avoided the £4 fee.
Looking at the map we decided a loop round the island was the best, option as the weather was probably going to deteriorate later in the day.
There were lots of Northern Marsh Orchids in bloom, and many other flowers to photograph. Highlights included Butterwort and Large Thyme. When we got to the northern end of the island we turned east at the beach and did some rock pooling, was saw the usual molluscs and a few crabs. There was also some interesting geology , with many layers often wavy, some of the layers containing fossils that looked like they were once worms.
We came across and interesting well build hut, it had seats built into the wall round the base, and windows built into the stone, supported by driftwood. Inside there was lots of stuff hanging from the beams built into the roof. Turns out it was a geocache, the most intricate and well built one I have ever seen.
Next we headed south towards the castle and stopped off at the bird hide overlooking the Lough. There were many starlings feeding young on a fence, other birds included Reed Bunting, Wheatear, Pochard, Swans with signets, and a Willow Warbler. We took the opportunity to eat our sandwiches.
Next stop was the Castle, a national trust property so we were able to claw back some of the money spent on National Trust membership. Whilst in the entrance we checked with the staff about the tides, good job too, we needed to be of the causeway by 15:30, or stay till 21:45! That did not leave us much time, we had about an hour to get to the car, Helen then went into route march mode.
It was like the was a mass exodus going as everyone seemed, to be heading back to the car parks, to get off the island. We got back to our car in good time but the tide seemed miles away, perhaps it comes in really quickly over the sands where the causeways is? Anyway we got off the island and across the causeway safely and in good time.
Next we stopped off in Seahouses for some gifts to take back and to stock up on food for dinner. Then it was back to the hut. The weather was just on the turn and a big storm is promised in the south west, and we may see the tail end of it tomorrow. We had had a lucky weather window again, it is a slight shame we miss judged the tides, as we may have timed the trips differently if we had know what the correct tide times were.