dogslife

A sunny window on Barn Ness Beach…..

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After a fairly wild night, the day dawned grey and breezy with a lovely sunny afternoon. No real plans today as we have covered all the beaches on this leg of our journey, so instead we took the best of the sunshine down for a lovely walk across the grassland to Barn Ness Beach. On the way we took a look at the beautiful Whitesands Bay.

Surprisingly only a few people were about.

Every one was dressed for an Autumn walk and flying kites! But actually with the sun out it was lovely and warm! Still on we went and after a run through the grassland that backs Barn Ness Beach…

We found Barn Ness Beach empty yet again!

So we happily enjoyed our freedom and the sunshine. Oh yes and this stunning rainbow way out to sea.

6 miles for me and 76 for Poppydog – good day.

Two thoughts of the day:

Where would you find an empty beach in Cornwall in August when the sun is shining?

Bavarian Ham – sort of bacon flavoured ham – quite delicious!

Back to St Abbs Head….

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A grey start with quite a strong cooling wind but as the day progressed the sun appeared and the wind eased. Today we ended up walking around St Abbs Head again, though our original plan was to walk along the cliff tops from Pease Bay towards St Abbs but in fact the coastal path mostly runs along the lanes quite a bit inland and we couldn’t find anywhere to leave the car – so here we are!

Today, though the tide was in, we ventured down onto Pettico Wick for Poppydog to have a bit of a play, whilst I watched the gannets diving for their lunch.

We then continued our walk up St Abbs Head.

The sea is a wonderful inky blue today and so clear – beautiful.

Wow – why would you need to go anywhere else in the world?

Imagine this tiny lighthouse shining the way for distant passing ships.

Even Poppydog deigned to sit and admire the view briefly…

Look at these delicate flowers taking a battering in the wind so gracefully…

Well as you know we don’t often do the same walk twice, though we did take different pathways this time, it is surely not a walk that you could tire of.

Starney Bay with St Abbs in the background marks the end of this 5 mile walk.

Two thoughts of the day:

At the risk of sounding boring – how beautiful is our coastline?

Isn’t it amazing how different the sea looks from day to day – I will never tire of looking at it – beach walking and sea gazing my favourite pastimes and I guess you could say – current occupation!!

A grey day in Eyemouth…

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A few overnight showers but another mostly dry day, albeit a sharp breeze blowing and mostly grey. Today we are off to have a look around Eyemouth, our most southerly visit from this site and in fact only a few miles from the English border. A small, pretty fishing town built around an active fishing harbour.

At first we walked around the south side of the harbour, up Gunsgreen Hill looking down on the town.

Passing Nisbet’s Tower, formerly a dovecote and now a sweet little holiday cottage.

Taking a moment to look at one of the poignant memorials to the 129 fisherman from Eyemouth who lost their lives on 14th October 1881.

Though the tide is pretty much fully in we found a small stony cove for Poppydog to have a little run around on.

With great views to St Abbs Head in the distance.

After a while we wandered back down to the town past the odd house emblazoned with the name of a fishing boat (presumably the skipper’s home?)…

Also nearly every streetlight was adorned with a banner depicting the various ‘Herring Queens’ elected by the town since the 50’s – what fun!

Back alongside the harbour we came across the seal feeding van, where you could buy pieces of fish (£2 for 4 pieces and £4 for 9 pieces!) to feed the resident (seemingly so) seals…

How random is that?

Along the sea front we found the powerful Jill Watson sculpture for the lost fishermen named ‘Widows and Bairns’ (as we saw in Cove and St Abbs) and based on the actual family groups left behind on that fateful day.

The beach was only a promise as the waves were crashing against the sea wall most of the way along.

Though as we climbed the headland north of Eyemouth we get an idea of what it would be like.

Above the town the remains of a Fort and canons a reminder of times past.

Beyond views along the rugged coastline towards St Abbs.

Quite a quirky town and we have enjoyed our 5 mile walk.

Two thoughts of the day:

Feeding seals – a visitor attraction or a method of protecting the fishermen’s catch?

We do like a sort of trail around a town / village – something to catch the eye and hold the attention – the beauty queen banners and fishermen’s houses did that for us – simple minds and simple pleasures!

A walk from Limetree Walk to Peffer Sands….

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A bit of rain again overnight, but nothing to get too excited about and a mostly sunny albeit breezy day – so we are happy enough. Inspired by our walk yesterday and knowing that today we are encroaching on territory that we intend to cover from our next site we still fancied a beach walk, so set off to pick up where we left off yesterday, on the other side of the river Tyne (not the Newcastle Tyne – at least I don’t think so!). We parked up in a lay-by (dodging the £2 charge in the car park!) at the end of Limetree Walk and set off in search of the Tyne!

Now Tyne Sands were largely underwater but we found a nice little spot for a bit of a play before venturing on around the headland.

From the headland (St Baldred’s Cradle)

we had a fabulous view of Bass Rock..

Continuing around the headland we came to Ravenheugh Sands..

A lovely long stretch of sand, albeit mostly covered by the high tide.

Surprisingly, we pretty much had the beach to ourselves so Poppydog was able to chase the odd stone I could find, as we made our way along. At the far end, the beach opened out to the rather glorious Peffer Sands.

Though at this point, as the tide was so high, there was no way across the Peffer Burn so after a final play we headed inland to make our way back.

Now looking at Mr OS it looked like a simple cut across farmland back, however… At some point the footpath (ok farm track) ended and we had to cut across a very underused footpath down the side of a field which led us to a never used track running in between a 5ft stone wall and a barbed wire fence! We waded through waist high grass, nettles and brambles for about half a mile, until we found a bit of broken wall we could climb over into quite dense woodland.

Eventually making our way through to a track on the opposite edge of the wood.

Which in turn led us out to Limetree Walk – at last! Not our finest return and my knees are still stinging now but a pretty glorious beach walk don’t you think? 6 miles round trip.

Two thoughts of the day:

Stinging nettles keep on stinging for hours – how mean!

I do wonder sometimes how literal is the Scottish ‘Right to roam’ ?

A very different day at Belhaven Bay…

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Seeing is believing but seriously we have gone from a blowy very wet Autumn day yesterday to a beautiful, mostly sunny and warm day today. Not to waste a bit if it we headed of for John Muir Country Park just north of Dunbar. Not wishing to pay the parking charges for the park we found free parking in West Barns (a little village just outside Dunbar) and walked the short distance to the park. There is a large section of woodland with various children’s activities that we skirted around until we came to the large area if salt marshes and low dunes.

Here it was quiet and appeared safe enough to allow Poppydog some freedom as we walked towards the far end of the park at the River Tyne estuary.

With a good stretch of Hedderwick Sands still exposed, even though it is nearing high tide.

Poppydog had to go back on a lead briefly as we cut across the end of the Spike (the sometimes cut off strip of dunes running in between the beach and the salt marshes) as it was fenced off to protect the nesting Terns.

Over the other side this awaits us….

A stunning long strip of soft sand, with more sand being exposed as the tide starts to recede.

Better still this end of the beach is empty, So we find a few stones and Poppydog enjoys a good run around along the beach and through the dunes whilst I enjoy the sun and the view.

After a while we continue along the beach towards Dunbar and for the first time in Scotland – surfers!

Mind you, to be fair it is probably one of the few times that we have actually seen surf! By the time we reach the end of the beach the tide has receded sufficiently to allow us to cross the river using the bridge.

We followed the trail back to where we left the car, with a last look up at Belhaven Bay.

A very nice 5.5 mile circular walk.

Two thoughts of the day:

Global warming? Mmm not sure but something is certainly going on!

In the nicest possible way, I hope the family opposite move on soon, their obsession with football is driving poor Poppydog mad! Oh yes and me too!