I came away from Lindisfarne a little earlier than I had planned. But plans are made to be changed! Instead of moving inland, I hugged the coast, and headed south to Seahouses. The route took me past Bamburgh Castle – I thought about stopping at least to get a photo, but Bamburgh was also like an ant-hill – so I stayed on track and got to Seahouses about 12:45pm. That was also busy, but somehow I can accept that sort of little town being touristy and full of “stuff”. The parking lot was very full, and I dithered a bit, but found a space. As I got towards the end of the lot, I noticed that one of the boat companies had an office there, so I went and asked – I half expected that they’d have no room, but I got a place on the 1:15 boat out to the Farne Islands.
 |
| Looking north to Bamburgh |
 |
| and east to the Farnes |
Apart from not being in the evening, as I had originally hoped for the previous day, it was all I could have hoped for! The earlier clouds had lifted to give us some sun, the sea was pretty calm, and we were in one of three catamarans the company runs, which allows them to get close to the rocks. There was a crew of two, the captain who did all the commentary and was very knowledgeable, and another guy who moved around the boat. I’d hit lucky – there were only about 20 of us, and some of the other companies had way more passengers crammed in – we were able to move around freely.
 |
| Are we going in that? |
 |
| Way more space in this one! |
They took us out and around all the Farne Islands, which lie offshore between Bamburgh and Seahouses; they are cared for by the National Trust and are home to Atlantic grey seals and many species of seabird, including around 43,000 pairs of puffins, terns, guillemots and eider ducks. The Longstone Lighthouse on the outermost Farne has warned many ships off a dangerous part of the coast, and was the home to Grace Darling, who was hailed as a heroine for her part in a rescue in 1838.
 |
| The keeper's cottage, and the original "lighthouse" |
We weren’t allowed to land, because of avian flu, but many of the birds are nesting, and the naturalists are optimistic that last year’s losses will not be too much of a setback in regrowing the colonies.
 |
| Shags |
 |
| Cormorant |
We learned about the differences between cormorants and shags, how puffins are locally known as tommynoddies, and their young as pufflings. We learned how the guillemots take their young to the edge of the crags and encourage them to leap off – which is why they are known as jumplings – and we watched guillemot pairs with their single chick in the water – one parent standing (swimming) guard while the other goes fishing.
 |
| Guillemots with jumpling |
We spent some time with the grey seal colony – and got the invaluable information that a female seal can live more than 30 years, and spends 25 of them pregnant! However, labour apparently only lasts a minute!
We watched the arctic tern colony soaring and diving, soaring and diving, over and over. Their migration takes them from as far north as Greenland and Iceland all the way to the Antarctic. There is a strong breeding colony on the Farnes, close to where the National Trust Rangers are based – I bet life is not quiet there!
 |
| Birds birds birds |
As we motored back to shore, I could see Lindisfarne Castle in the distance to the north, Bamburgh Castle directly ahead of us, and Dunstanburgh to the south. A reminder that the border counties were frequently NOT peaceful.
No comments:
Post a Comment