The whole of this coast is one continuous beach, up to the Scottish border. Although there are a lot of people around, there is so much space that it is not crowded. The children have gone back to school which helps. Nice to have holidays in September for a change!

The dog (my friend’s), is desperate to get in the sea and starts whining every time she can see it from the car or even if we start driving east. She seems to know exactly where we are at all times and recognises all the roads that lead to ‘her’ beaches.

We went to Amble and then to Alnmouth. As it indicates, downstream from Alnwick where we went the other day.

In the evening we went on a sunset cruise to the Farne Islands. These are several small islands, just off the coast, which are a nature reserve run by the National Trust. (https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/farne-islands). At the moment, it is not possible to land, but the local tour companies are running socially distanced tours around them.

Because the tours had been closed all summer (COVID), a lot of the birds, particularly the puffins, had gone back to sea as they only come to the islands to breed.

The lad who worked on the boat brought me a hand warmer and the captain’s coat when the sea got a bit ‘lumpy’ and we all got wet. There can be advantages (disadvantages?) to no longer dying your hair. He also, when asked whether he had been furloughed earlier in the year, lamented the fact that he wasn’t able to show the birds to the children and watch their little faces light up.

We did see grey seals, shags, fulmars, gannets and kittiwakes although, as usual, I’m afraid that my livestock photography is useless and there were many photos of empty sea.

The lighthouse on the Farnes is where Grace Darling lived. She was a young woman when she helped rescue a group of shipwrecked sailors on one of the other islands during a storm. This was one of the examples of heroism held up to primary aged pupils when I was a child which means that almost everyone my age knows who she is but no one younger. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Darling)

Here are a few more pictures and the flamboyant sunset over Bamburgh Castle.