Sitting at breakfast in the hotel that morning we looked out on a foggy scene. Then went out and took pictures (below) before the fog had cleared. Click on any of them to see larger.
Foggy Morning Breakfast
Tag: England
The Long View
Flight
Oh, Deer
Dune
The next day (Tuesday, 2nd April) we set off on a round-the-island walk, starting with the sand dunes and their grasses.
Dry Salvages
…The pools where it offers to our curiosity
The more delicate algae and the sea anemone.
It tosses up our losses, the torn seine…
– from T S Eliot’s Four Quartets (The Dry Salvages).
Click on any of the pictures below to enlarge them.
Hotel Room View
Lindisfarne
We took an initial turn around the populated end of the island, seeing the ruins left by Henry VIII, the castle in the distance, and St Mary’s church. Click any of the images below to see them bigger.
Still Life
Finally, we made it off the Causeway and on to the Holy Island, proper. We stopped in a crowded coffee shop to warm up and eventually the couple sitting at the table in front of this window left and I was able to snap this still life.
Causeway
Every time we thought we were coming to the end of the causeway we rounded a curve and found another length stretching off into the befogged, invisible, distance. We tried walking on the paved part of the causeway but had to leap off into the mud every time a car passed (which was surprisingly frequent).
Mud Flats
Lindisfarne – Holy Island can only be reached at low tide when the causeway emerges from the North Sea, surrounded by wet sand and mud. It was a cold, windy, rainy day as we trekked the 6+ miles. (Click the images below o enlarge them.)
North Sea
The next day (Easter Monday), we set out from our hotel between Fenwick and Beal for the Holy Island. This rise gave us our first view of the North Sea, off in the distance.
30
Eventually, we made it to the town of Fenwick. This was on the outskirts, about mile 12.
Before and After
One shot from before we reached St Cuthbert’s Cave (last post) and one from after. Except for at the cave we hardly saw a soul.
Postmodern decomposition
Happy 90th, Mom!
When monks first abandoned Lindisfarne, carrying the corpse of St Cuthbert, this cave was, according to legend at least, the first resting place of his miraculously un-decomposed cadaver. The people you can see in this shot were virtually the first we ran into on our walk.
Moo, Baa
Hill Descent
Some more images from the first few hours of our 14½-mile walk the first day (click on any of the images below to see them larger).
Hill View
Leaving Wooler, we followed the trail marks for St Cuthbert’s Way and found ourselves alone, with fine views and varied terrain, on a lovely day – click any of the images below to see them larger.
Unicorns at Easter
Easter Sunday morning we took off from our Wooler hotel, walking though town before coming to St Cuthbert’s way and beginning what would turn out to be a 14½-mile walk, nearly to Beal. Click on the images below to see them larger.
