Holy Island, Lindisfarne. Bamburgh Castle. Farne Islands

October Half Term in the North East.

Aaaah, Pumbaa the Warthog. (The lovely Mark's favourite) Its ages since I've seen these Disney mugs. I had forgotten the Pixen had them in her cupboard.

I've not seen these paintings for ages either. You can't beat a bit of good scaffolding.

 Pixen had plans for a road trip while we were up in the North East with her. On her list she had Lindisfarne, Bamburgh Castle and Fountains Abbey.

Holy Island, Lindisfarne has always been on our list of places to visit and here was our opportunity.... although I hadn't realised it was so close to Scotland. Wow, we were only a few miles from Berwick.

Holy Island is only accessible by a causeway, AT LOW TIDE.

This could well have been us but we were sensible enough to check the tide tables and managed to drive across the causeway with merely wet tyres.

Pixen was chief photographer and delighted in making Husb nervous as she dangled his iPad very precariously almost out of the car window to get some good shots.

It was quite exciting to think we COULD be cut off. I wonder how many teenagers on a night out on the mainland, didn't get home because of the tide.

We parked up and prepared to storm the castle.

We actually got sidetracked in our castle-storming because on the way up to the castle we passed a brand new centre...

...which had only been open a few weeks (what superb timing by us)

...and had inside all sorts of things to look at, including a very interesting telescope which was strictly FOR CHILDREN ONLY PIXEN so we scuttled out with our tails between our little legs. Fancy being told off for not being children. INDEED. Anyway a castle awaited us.

"Onward and upward to the castle then, Husb. Time to storm it."

Storming couldn't take place till we had climbed and climbed. What a place to build a castle!

A star jump was necessary.

If ever you have an old boat you don't know what to do with, cut it in half and turn it upside down. It makes a great hut or shop or join-the-National-Trust-here booth. 

As storming commenced we looked out over the bay to see Bamburgh Castle in the distance. That was where we were heading to next.

After several hooty attempts at taking a selfie, I managed to delete all the other photos except this one where we are looking a bit "over there" but hey ho-we were at the top of  LINDISFARNE CASTLE.

Then followed a fun ten minutes on the beach with a ball and some handstands as we approached the mighty, magnificent, marvellous Bamburgh Castle. We even retraced the Bamburgh Triathlon...I bet it was hard work running on the sand.

Bamburgh Castle really is so picturesque. AND IT HAS A CRICKET PITCH!

LOOK!

THIS is the cricket square.

What an outfield! I could almost hear Husb's braincells whiring, trying to suss out how he could arrange a tour match or two up here. Surely they would need a tea lady too.

This was turning into an extremely good day. Roadtrip Part 3 and we were now going to catch THIS boat out to the

 Farne Islands 

The Farne Islands lie two to three miles off the Northumberland coast midway between the fishing village of Seahouses and the magnificent Castle of Bamburgh. As well as being the most famous Sea Bird Sanctuary in the British Isles they also have a large colony of Atlantic or Grey Seals.

There is not a wave in sight here but the man on the boat handing out the ginger biscuits knew exactly what was in store for us as we got out to sea.

I had no idea that it was COMPLETELY the wrong time of year for the puffins but we DID see a lot of cute baby  seals.

Returning to land (and in serious need of a cup of tea after THOSE waves) (it should be noted HERE that Husb left his cuppa to run down the street to see how big a miniature schnauzer dog was) (GASP!!!!) we were tempted by the smell of freshly cooked fish. It would have been rude not to sample a portion of Pinnacles fish , especially as the Hairy Bikers have declared PINNACLES as their favourite fish and chip shop. Robson Green rates it highly too. It was very, very, very good. 

Tomorrow...FOUNTAINS ABBEY.