A special post for Olivia - what Sniffly's been up to today:

 Sniffly liked the views and the sheep on Lindisfarne Island!

 

26th June                  Lindisfarne - Scottish Borders

Robyn writes: A busy day today! We've been really enjoying the Berwick area and have been really lucky with the weather for most of the time. This morning we were up at around 7.30 to another lovely, clear day, and much warmer than the 5 degrees that had been forecast (it was more like 15 degrees by the time we got out). We got ourselves organised to get out a bit earlier than normal, as we were planning to go over to the Holy Island - Lindisfarne.

 Lindisfarne Priory

Looking towards the castle from the priory

It's really dependent on tide times, as the island can only be accessed by a causeway across the sea at low tide. Today's safe tide times were from around 6.30am to 1.15pm, though they warn you should factor in a half hour safety buffer each side. As Lindisfarne Castle and Priory don't open until 10, we knew it wasn't much point in going too early, so we got over there at about 10 to 9, parked (4 pounds 40, not cheap!) and went off to explore the village a bit. It's a lovely little village, very pretty. We went and had a look at St Mary's church and the Lindisfarne Priory next to it - although the priory wasn't open until 10, it is in ruins and it was fairly easy to see it all anyway! The monks were there from the 600s and it was established by St Aidan and followed by St Cuthbert. In later years the vikings were very fond of raiding such a rich priory so St Cuthbert's remains were moved to Durham Cathedral. You could see that it was an incredibly imposing building in its day (the ruins date back to the 1100s, I think).

 Lex on the path up to the castle

 Wonderful views from the top of the castle

 

By now it was nearly 10 so we started heading up the hill towards the castle, incompany with heaps of other pilgrims/tourists! It's run by the National Trust, so we got in for free.The castle is built on the site of an old military castle/fort which dates back to the mid-1500s. In the early 1900s, it was turned into a wonderful holiday home and is still dressed as it was in Edwardian times. It's quite wonderful to see how the old fort was incorporated into a home perched incredibly high on an island hill! The view is, of course, to die for. We really enjoyed our look around the castle, then decided to set off for a walk along the coast at the top of the island.
We must have walked for several miles out and around a lake area; it took well over an hour and I was starting to fret about how long it would take to get back to the village (thinking of the 1.15 tidal deadline!) It was a lovely day for walking, at least, nice and warm and around 18 degrees with a light breeze. In the end, we were back in the village at about 12, so made a clear and easy exit from the island. We called in at the Spar supermarket at the Haggerston Castle Holiday Village to get some bread rolls then headed home for lunch.

After lunch, we went for a drive back across to the Scottish Border country to find some more of my ancestral family villages. We visited Swinton, Duns, Bonkyl Church and Allanbank/Allanton insearch of family names. I'll do a full post next week with family history info for my Thompson rellies, but I did find several graves for the Purves/Hately families, and we saw some beautiful countryside. I really liked the town of Duns, which has a really nice feel. We had a lovely afternoon tea in a little teahouse there.

Finally, we came home via Tesco's in Berwick where we got petrol and a few groceries. It was good to get home, get tea organised and now of course Wimbledon is on the TV (2 channels of it!), it's quarter to 9 and the sun is still shining. At the moment, Pat Cash is interviewing a group of rabid Aussie fans at the tennis!

25 June 2014

Berwick

Robyn was chasing ancestors at the Berwick archives today. She found that one branch of the family, from about 1818, might have to to be lopped off. Apparently, there was no record of the marriage of Margeret Haitley. She is now searching for the real parents of her great grandmother.

Meanwhile, I walked around Berwick and looked at the town. The harbour was interesting. Three seals were moping around, looking for an easy meal. Also a couple of hundred terns were dive bombing the little fish in the water. That was spectacular when it was in full swing. My camera wasn't good enough to get a good photo, unfortunately.

These terns were dive bombing a school of fish for about 15 minutes. You might be able to see one in the background, about to hit the water.

 

 

 

Berwick has a very long rail bridge that is about 150 years old. It looks pretty good from any angle.

It looks bigger when you stand next to it, or when a train crosses it. After 150 years, it is in fantastic condition.

The place also has a road bridge dating from 1624.

Tomorrow, we plan to go to Holy Island and see Lindisfarne castle/priory.

Ta Ta for now

Lex and Robyn

The church at Edrom

 Birds! So many birds!

The Darling family lighthouse

 Puffins - the world's most adorable birds!

 Cormorants or shags - not quite sure which

 Oh, the puffins!

 Happy bird watchers on Farne Island

The eiderducks were cute too

 

Happy seals

 

24th June                  Edrom - Farne Islands - PUFFINS!!!
Robyn writes: This morning dawned cold, miserable, foggy and rainy. Not nice at all! The forecast was for better things though, so we crossed our fingers to hope for a fine afternoon as promised by the Met Office, and booked a cruise around the Farne Islands for 2pm, to give it time to clear (we hoped!)

In the meantime, after putting on a load of washing (must make good use of actually having a washing machine this week), we headed about 15 miles west to the tiny hamlet of Edrom, where some of my ancestors on Dad's side came from (the Purves and Haitlie families). We found it easily with the help of our Tom Tom (who is now a bloke with an Irish accent!) and found the church. Sadly, it was locked up, but we spent quite a while walking around the graveyard to look for rellies. We found several Purves graves (none from the mid-1700s, which is when my ancestors were living there) but a few right into the 1800s so obviously the family continued in the area for some time. It had been raining quite a lot overnight and was still spitting while we were there so the bottoms of our jeans got very wet and grassy. Next time I'll tuck them INTO my boots. Ah, the joy of overgrown, wet graveyards!

We headed home for lunch around midday, I put on another load of washing (wet, grassy jeans) and then we realised time was getting away from us so we headed quickly for Seahouses, where the boat tour leaves from. By now the sky was clearing rapidly and it was turning into a lovely afternoon. All was going very well until we navigated to the postcode address which was on the brochure....and it turned out to be in the middle of a suburb, NOT the harbour! Panic stations - I rang them and the nice lady there guided us back through town and down to the harbour just in time for our boat trip. I raced to get tickets (15 pounds each) while Lex found a park and paid for parking (4 pounds - they don't miss you) and in the end we had plenty of time, as there were so many people lining up for the trip that they put two boats on. The first one was absolutely chockers, ours had only half as many people on board and was very comfortable! Sometimes it pays to be running a bit late.

Well, the boat trip was excellent value. It went for two and a half hours, which included an hour on Farne Island itself. This is National Trust, so we got onto the island itself for free; non-members had to pay six pounds eighty. First though we headed out to the island group - an interesting trip as there was quite a big swell and we were tossed around a bit. Fortunately we all proved to be excellent sailors, no one threw up on this trip! We circled a few of the smaller islands marvelling at the thousands and thousands of seabirds - gulls, kittiwakes, cormorants, shags, terns and of course my favourite, the puffins. The smell was also rather amazing - tons of fresh bird poo....powerful stuff! I uneasily recalled Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" as I looked at the hundreds of beady eyes and sharp beaks staring at us and hoped that none of them had seen it too...

Then we went past the famous lighthouse where Grace Darling and her family lived, and where she set out from to save the shipwrecked folk that made her a legend. (Grace is very "big" here; we passed "Grace Darling Holidays" later and there is a museum dedicated to her as well.) We also saw lots and lots of seals, swimming around our boat and lazing and rolling around happily on the rocks in the sun (it was a fairly idyllic afternoon by this stage).

Finally we landed on Farne Island itself, where we had an hour to look around via the boardwalks that cross the island. We'd been warned to make sure we had a hat - not for sun safety, but for tern protection! They are worse than magpies at the moment, definitely channelling Alfred Hitchcock and unfortunately they nest right along the boardwalk where you have to pass to get up onto the island. So that meant running the gauntlet of angry mummy and daddy terns who were chattering angrily and extremely protective. I got pecked a few times but luckily they're reasonably smallish birds, so it wasn't as bad as a magpie. Anyway, we soon got through the danger area into the foliage in the middle of the island which was filled with hundreds of puffin nests! I finally got to indulge my puffin passion with lots and lots of photos of lots and lots of puffins. When we'd had enough (temporarily) of puffins, the shags and cormorants were nesting right on the side of the cliff next to the ropes of the path, so we could get amazingly close to them and their babies (a very cute fluffy grey, even when they are nearly as big as their parents). We also saw eiderducks nesting and many other birds we just couldn't name. Not to mention several of the biggest camera lenses I've ever seen in my life! Apparently size does matter. There was some serious photography going on today.

All too soon our hour was up so we lined up ready for our boat ride back to port, which took about 20 minutes on a (thankfully) much calmer sea. It was a fabulous cruise; certainly the best wildlife cruise we've taken. When we got back to Seahouses, we wandered up to have a look at the town. I had ideas of a cuppa, but since by now it was 5.15 all of the town's teahouses were firmly closing their doors, so we grabbed a few groceries at the Co-op and headed towards Berwick. We made a stop along the beach near Banburgh to go for a walk over the dunes and onto the beach, where we had a nice rock climb and took photos of the islands and the famous castle, then headed finally for home (only stopping two more times to take photos of the castle!)

We've had tea and it's now 8.42 and the sun is still shining in the sky. It won't get dark until after 10 tonight, goodness knows what it will be like up in Inverness! Lex is enjoying the Wimbledon highlights on TV (it's very strange here - you don't have to stay up in the middle of the night to watch it!) Fingers crossed that the lovely fine weather lasts for a few days....

23 June 2014

Berwick on Tweed

Despite the light rain, today we ventured into Berwick upon Tweed; henceforth to be called Berwick, and pronounced "Berrick". A guided tour of the town stated at 10 o'clock, and we were on it, for the princely sum of 5 pounds each. Our guide was Norma, a Berwick local who was born and raised here. She had good reason to be proud of the place - it's been here since 1482.

The main street of Berwick

She showed us the ramparts that Queen Elizabeth (the first) spent a fortune to build. I'm glad she did though; we parked our car in a flat space just beside them. Norma told us that this used to be the moat. Berwick really is an interesting old town, and has a fantastic rail bridge across the Tweed river.

When the tour finished, all those who were on it (Robyn and me !) went for smoko at the same café as our guide. She recommended the border tart. I had it - very nice it was too. Mine had sultanas in it, but I think the locals in olden times would have used fruits and berries in season. It is really nice trying local foods (and beers !).

Robyn's great grandmother lived in Berwick a long time ago. That meant that we just had to look around the local church and graveyard. There were no dead relatives to be found, so we moved on to the army barracks. This place is now two museums and an art gallery. The Berwick museum was OK, but only one room. The art gallery only had local landscapes and portraits.

The army museum was huge. It had 15 rooms, telling the story of the British army from its beginnings up until the first world war. It was very well done. I spent a good hour looking at it all.

Domestic duties called us home, to do the washing. While that was happening, I jumped into the car and drove to Scotland. Sounds grand, but the border is only 5 miles away. As soon as I got there, I turned around and headed back to a beach near Berwick for a look. It was pretty similar to any Australian beach - sand and water. This is not typical of The English coast though. there are lots of cliffs on the exposed parts, as well as shell and pebble beaches.

Well, that's about all that happened. A quiet day really. Maybe tomorrow will be more exciting.

Til then...

Lex and Robyn

Sunday  22nd June                                          Alston - Alnwick - Berwick

 

Robyn writes:  Today we headed from Alston to our next weekly rental, a lovely little end-of-terrace house near Berwick. On the way here, we stopped at Alnwick (pronounced "Annick") and I visited Alnwick Castle there. (Lex is slightly over castles so he looked around the town.)

 Alnwick Castle is famous as the home of the Percy family 5th Dover 700 years, and they are the Earls or Dukes of Northumberland. (The 5th Duke is the current owner). It's also the site of several scenes in the early Harry Potter films, most notably the first broomstick lesson! They trade shamelessly on this of course....

Sniffly and I at the "Dragon Quest" exhibition

 Sniffly in the mouth of a rather huge and fierce dragon.

 Broomstick lessons right on the spot where the first lesson was filmed! (No, I didn't take part...)

 It's an amazing castle. I had a lovely three hours looking around, then met up with Lex and we headed for Berwick, got groceries, and were in our new home for the week at 4. It's a lovely little 2 bed terrace house with a garden, an all-important washing machine, and a great kitchen! Glen and Carol arrived at about 5 and we've had a lovely meal and are settling in for the night.

 

 This little tit at the Vindolanda café proved rather flighty and a bit hard to get a photo of!

 Sniffly and Lambie at the Roman Soldier Museum

 On Hadrian's Wall

Saturday 21st June          The Longest Day!                     Cumbria / Northumberland

Robyn writes: We all slept sooo well last night, being able to stretch out and roll over in our beds! We had quite a nice sleep in and all went down to breakfast (included in the tariff at Nent Hall Hotel) which was a huge range of yummy choices of the full English Breakfast. We all had a variety of cooked foods and it was a delicious breakfast - there were also pastries, fruits, cereals etc just in case we were still hungry! Naomi, who was in charge of the breakfasts, seemed anxious that we be adequately nourished for the day ahead. We got back to the room to find an email from Cait and Mikeal announcing that they had arrived safely in Rome and were in line for the Colusseum, lucky them.

Our lovely hotel, built in the 1850s as a family home. Previous owners were the Wilson family, so Glen's wondering if he's a rellie!

After breakfast we got ourselves organised and Glenn booked out (he and Carol had been unable to book rooms here for tonight when we originally called, so Carol had found and booked alternatives. Of COURSE we then got here to find they'd had several cancellations, but it was too late by then!) We headed off for Vindolanda, our major aim for the day. This is one of the best preserved Roman fort and settlements near Hadrian's Wall, and it's an ongoing excavation. We got there just after 10 and bought the joint ticket for it and the Roman Soldier Museum up the road (10 pounds). We discovered that a guided tour was starting shortly so we just had time to take a quick look at the displays and the temple and spring area at the top of the vicus (township) before it began. Steve, our tour guide, was really knowledgeable and coped admirably with the fact that there were about 40 people in the group. Unfortunately about half of them were a school group of teenagers. Half of THEM were great kids, really interested and asking and answering questions, but the other half spent most of the time talking. The teacher in me was seething and at one stage I couldn't help myself and moved the three boys who were chatting in front of me to the back! They went like lambs and had the grace to look ashamed.

 The bath house remains in the fort

Reconstructed temple and house

Despite all this, we learned lots on the tour and found out exactly how the settlement and fort looked. The archaeology is very well preserved and helps you to picture just what it was like. We went through the vicus first and then into the fort area, then down to the museum, shop and cafe area. They also have some reconstructions of a temple, a house and a shop so you can see what the buildings looked like, and copies of valuable artefacts found there which have been relocated to other museums. One was a copy of the only remaining Roman milestone in the UK still full size and in its original position. It's on the road 300 yards away from the museum (though all of the writing has been worn away over the centuries). Carol arrived after her drive up from the south and we decided we were hungry.

We had lunch in the courtyard - very pleasant - and then went in to have a look through the museum. This had a great display of the incredible artefacts they've found at Vindolanda - because the soil there is so moist, bacteria doesn't grow, and things like wood and leather are wonderfully well preserved. They had a whole wall of leather shoes which all looked in perfect condition! We spent ages looking at the displays in there, then Lex, Glen and Carol walked up to see the original milestone but I figured the copy was good enough for me! I spent ages trying to get a decent photo of a gorgeous little blue and yellow bird that was flitting around, then headed back up to the fort where I met up with them again. We looked around a bit more and at the replicas of the wooden and stone guard posts which used to be on the wall, then headed off for the Roman Soldier Museum, 7 miles up the road.

By now it was after 3 so we had a good look around - watched an excellent 3D movie about Hadrian's Wall and had some afternoon tea. Then we headed off in search of some of the actual remaining parts of the wall. We pulled up at one and discovered to our horror that parking was a flat rate 4 pounds (around $8AUS) for each car and it was after 4pm by this stage, so no way was it worth that much! Lex, Glen and I raced up to the wall for a look while Carol stayed with the cars. It is a spectacular achievement, even with the low and robbed out bits that remain, you can see what a huge effort it would have been to construct the wall. It's amazing how it goes over such high hills. After we'd had our (free) look at the wall, we bade farewell for the day to Glen and Carol as they headed off to their B&B, and we headed back in the direction of Alston.

On the way, we saw a sign saying Lambley Viaduct, so we pulled over to check it out. It was about a half mile walk away, so we headed off along the walking trail and soon realised that we were, in fact, following an old railway line. We followed it right to the viaduct, built in 1852 and actually in use until 1976, which is huge and very, very impressive. We went down into the valley to cross the smaller bridge there and to be able to look up at the viaduct to appreciate the scale of it (difficult from the top). Unfortunately, on the way down I was a bit careless not looking where I was putting my feet and have twisted my left foot - am hoping that's not going to slow me down too much over the next few days...anyway, the viaduct was excellent and worth the walk and climb.

Lambley Viaduct

I haven't mentioned our "new" car we picked up yesterday and will have for almost a month - it's much bigger than our previous one - this is a big black Renault Scenic which seats 7 if needed and has a huge boot storage area. It also has a built in TomTom which is a real bonus! We had ordered the next size up of car as we knew that once Cait and Mikeal arrive in Scotland we'll need more boot room, and were supposed to get a Ford Mondeo or similar. We went past a Ford Mondeo yesterday and this one beats it hands down, I must say - we've done very well!

Then it was back to Nent Hall for an excellent meal and relax - as it's the longest day, it's not going to get dark for quite some time!

A special 'Sniffly the Dragon' post for Liv:

Sniffly has had a wonderful time going back into Wales (being a little red Welsh dragon, after all!) He and Glen and Carol's "Lambie" were the mascots of our canal trip. Both being Welsh symbols (well, there are a lot of sheep in Wales!), they got on very well together.

 Going under lots of bridges

 Sniffly and Lambie together enjoying the views

 Crossing the Chirk Aqueduct which took us into Wales

Up on a bridge at Colemere watching the boats come and go

Sailing along enjoying the sunshine

 

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday             18th - 20th June

                     North Wales - Alston

Robyn writes: Well, we've had a lovely few days of relaxation on the waterways combined with the odd moment of sheer terror when our boat, the "Torlief", got stuck or radically disobeyed Lex or Glen's orders and headed for a bank, bridge or other boat! Thankfully after the first day or so these incidents became much fewer and they are now both fairly accomplished captains!

Wednesday: On Wednesday morning we began our trip back towards Whitchurch (about 20 miles - yes, I know that doesn't sound very long but when your absolute top speed is 4 miles an hour, it takes a fair bit of sailing....) and because we'd already reached our aim of getting to the aqueduct, we knew we could take it a lot more slowly coming back. We headed off a bit after 8, glad to be ahead of the crowd we knew would be coming across the aqueduct shortly, and started to retrace our journey. We stopped near Chirk and secured the boat on a straight stretch of canal, then walked to town. Amazingly, for a lot of the way, the canal is on really high land and you are sitting on a river of water up in the sky looking down at the land below in the valley. Very strange and not at all like Australia where all our waterways are at the bottom of valleys! Chirk was like this, and we had to walk down into the valley from the canal then back up the hill on the other side to where the town is situated (we were still in Wales at this stage). We looked around the town and had a lovely morning tea at a local tea room, got a few groceries to tide us through and headed back for the canal. When we got back, we realized that our boat had moved a bit, and closer inspection showed that it was tied by the central line...then we found a note, telling us our boat had been adrift, and a good Samaritan had rescued it for us! Thankyou, unknown masked man, whoever you were! Lex and Glen realized that the hammer in mooring stakes were not very reliable as when other boats went by (especially quickly) they exerted a great deal of stress on them and eventually pulled them out. From then on we used the curved ones which clipped over the metal edging on most of the canal.

 Farewell to the famous aqueduct

 We walked down the valley and up the hill into Chirk

 Lex taking the boat through the lock

 Quacky

Photogenic heron

Tuesday, 17th June                       Canal Boat Cruise

Robyn writes: Well, I have the perfect antidote to a hectic week in London - a canal boat cruise in Shropshire and northern Wales! It was Glen's birthday so we presented him with a genuine "Captain's" hat (from the Royal Navy Museum in Portsmouth, so is very authentic!) We left Leighton Buzzard around 9 yesterday (Monday) and arrived in Whitchurch around 12.30, had a lovely lunch in a pub there, bought some groceries, and headed for the canal boat place by quarter to 2. Here we were shown the (scary) lock DVD again, an engineer took us over the boat, we loaded up and we were on our way! Our boat is quite a long one - it has a double and a twin cabin, a toilet and a shower room with another toilet (very handy) and quite a good sized galley kitchen and eating area (the kitchen table can fold down into another bed if needed). It's well supplied with utensils, crockery etc and is really very comfortable - good use of space which a lot of hotel room designers could come and take a look at!

 Sniffly and I ready to cruise!

 Several swing bridges along the way

 Me holding the centre line to stabilize the boat

Beautiful scenery

Steering a canal boat, especially a long one like ours, is not easy, Lex and Glen have decided. You have to steer from the back and can't even really see the front of the boat! You also have to predict what the boat will do and move the rudder long before it's actually needed. We've had some interesting predicaments, especially when passing under bridges and meeting oncoming boats (rule of the canal: we go to the right; they pass on our left). Yesterday we had several "swing" bridges which Lex or Glen had to actually lift up so we could pass under, then carefully lower again! It was a bit traumatic at first, but 24 hours later they are both quite skilled at steering (a great relief to all, especially oncoming traffic. They really should issue newbies with an "L" plate, we've decided!) Trauma of steering apart, canal cruising is very relaxing, especially if there's a few of you to share the jobs. I've spent a good deal of time just sitting out the front or back watching the scenery go by.
Yesterday evening we made it as far as Ellesmere and moored there for the night at about 8.30. Carol and I prepared a delicious meal of sausages and salad which we all devoured (fresh air does wonders for the appetite!) We got a reasonable night's sleep (not easy with the strange sounds of the boat and being unable to stretch right out in my bed!) and were up not long after 5 to have breakfast and be under way once more. I made friends with a lot of ducks at the mooring site when they discovered I had crusts I was willing to share!

 The locks are interesting!

 Lex steering

 Going across the first aqueduct (below as well)

 Tunnels are a bit scary!

 Walking across the Pontcysyllte aqueduct

Stunning scenery!

We've had a massive day of cruising today, leaving Ellesmere before 8 and we got to Froncysyllte (just before the famous Pontcysyllte aqueduct) at about 6.15, with only one stop for lunch. Today we went through two locks, both going up, which didn't prove too traumatic as luckily there were lots of experienced travellers around to help and give advice, and both times we were followed by another boat which meant that we didn't have to close the gates. Tomorrow we'll be heading back through them which might just be interesting! Today we also went through two big tunnels, which are a bit scary - one was 459 yards (took nearly 10 nerve-wracking minutes) and the other not nearly so bad at 195 yards. We crossed back into Wales this afternoon and it was lovely travelling through the Welsh forests. So far we've been really lucky with the weather - it's been cool to warm; not too hot, and very comfortable to be out in. It was cloudy for a lot of today but no rain at all and it's now cleared to a beautiful sunny evening.

As soon as we arrived and had safely moored, we locked up the boat and headed up the hill to the Aqueduct Inn, the local pub. We had a lovely meal and drink there out on the deck with incredible views and chatted to a nice local couple who are also cruising in the area at the moment. After two days on the water, I was interested to note that my inner ear must be playing up (what Sandy calls the "upsy downsies") - the deck we were sitting on seemed to keep rocking gently! Then we headed back down to the canal and walked right over the aqueduct into the little town there in search of a corner shop we'd been told about - we successfully restocked on bread, milk and sandwich fillings (no Welsh cakes, alas - I was exceedingly put out) and came back. The aqueduct is amazing and just a bit scary to walk across, especially when it too was rocking gently for a time! It's just a metre wide footpath next to a very small stream extremely high in the sky! It's now nearly 9pm and we still have an hour or so of daylight left, but I think we'll sleep well tonight as it's been a long, long day!