North Berwick- 26th till 28th August

St Abbs Head. Morgan would like to point out that he saw some people having sex on the beach - and no, not the cocktail. And no, it wasn't warm, or private - the beach was overlooked from a car park. Jane thought they might have been putting on their pants because they 'had just had a swim'. Bless. I pointed out people normally put their shoes on AFTER putting on their pants..

Our first stop in Scotland was St Abbs Head, a nature reserve next to the town of St Abbs.  It's a very good bird watching site apparently, although I seemed to only spot sea gulls. 

It was amazing how the landscape changed as soon as you crossed the English-Scottish border.  The coastline was more dramatic and trees more sparse.

Mire Loch. 

St Abbs town

Morgan, having just fallen over on his bottom!

We stayed the next two nights in the town of North Berwick.  Our site was great- very close to town and with incredible views out to sea and the nearby islands of Bass Rock and Craigleith.  While the views were great the site was a bit exposed and we had one fairly horrible night when the wind was so strong we couldn't sleep.

Our campsite with Craigleith Island in the background

North Berwick was a fun little town with seemingly few tourists.  We were very happy to find a great wine boutique, a French chap selling cheese, a fabulous Cantonese restaurant and an equally good Italian Restaurant.  Probably our best meal though was at the Lobster Shack, an atmospheric place down at the port.  The half lobster was only 8 pounds and was AMAZING.

North Berwick with Craigleith Island in the background

And to the east Bass Rock

A beer at the waterfront

The Lobster Shack

THE CLAW!!!!!

A Golf links

Boats in the port

In the background of this photo is "The Law".  To quote Wiki, it's "a conical hill which rises incongruously from the surrounding landscape (indeed, this is the definition of the Lowland Scots word "law")"!  For us it merely meant having the song "I fought the law and the law won" stuck in our heads.

We went on a boat trip out to see the nesting birds on Craigleith Island and Bass Rock.  Both are bird sanctuaries; gannets on Bass Rock and puffins on Craigleith, although unfortunately we had missed puffin nesting season.  Bass rock was incredible.  It looks white from a distance but when you get closer you realise that is because of the thousands of gannets nesting on every available inch.  Thousands more circle above the island, all moving in a co-ordinated anti-clockwise direction.  The sound and smell was also pretty impressive!

For our boat ride we were equipped with this fetching outfit and the instruction "don't look upwards, particularly with an open mouth"!

Bass Rock.  Out of nesting season it appears black apparently.  There used to be a prison on the island and the lighthouse was manned until 1988.

On our way to circle Craigleith Island

Bass Rock

Nesting gannets.  Apparently they mate for life and always return to the same nesting spot

 So thumbs up to North Berwick.  Now it's on to Edinburgh.

England The North- 22nd till 26th August 5557miles

Hadrian's Wall

From Coniston in the Lake District we headed north toward our first stop in Carlisle.  Carlisle, just south of the Scottish border, was a historical roman town built to support the forts of Hadrian's Wall. The town itself is fairly unremarkable but it did have a nice fort and an interesting church, and, more importantly, nice wide roads!

Carlisle Castle, built in 1092.

Parents be on your guard....

Carlisle Church.  It had an amazing stained glass window as you can see.  It was also really wonky because a 14th century church had been built on the remains of a 12th century church.

Incredibly blue 18th century ceiling.

Hadrian's Wall

From Carlisle we headed east, roughly along the path of Hadrian's Wall.  The wall is very impressive- it follows the hilly contour of a ridge and is surprisingly solid and well preserved.  We had a closer look at the wall at Housesteads Roman Fort.  The fort was one of the many used to police Hadrian's Wall and even though there are only ruins remaining, the skill and technology they obviously had is incredible.

Us at Housesteads Roman Fort

I was particularly impressed with this Roman Latrine.  The stone channels have been made so that gravity keeps the water flowing constantly around, providing clean water for washing.  Down below the latrine is also angled, draining the waste away in the opposite direction.  Very clever stuff. 

The Granary- the blocks are used to support a raised floor, providing circulating air beneath the grain.

Hadrian's Wall

 We followed Hadrian's Wall to the east coast of Northumbria, staying the night at a site just north of Newcastle.  I mention this place because it was the worst campsite we've stayed at.  Oh my god, a complete trailer-trash hell hole!  Still, we had a nice view and it definitely got us up and out of there quickly the next day!

From this angle the place looks okay....

......and it did have a nice rocky shore thing going on.

 From here we headed north along the coast.  Our first stop was in the town of Warkworth, which is twinned with...Warkworth, NZ, where I was born!  We visited the Castle which was partly ruined and partly intact.  Being school holidays they had a medieval fair on for the kids and a few ladies in bust-flattering costumes for the Dad's.

Warkworth Castle

This was my favourite scene from the medieval play- the gallant knight (giggling kinder) is being mauled (tickled) by the ferocious wild boar (pink plastic pig).  Super cute!

The ruined part of the castle had been de-constructed/fallen apart in a very cool way.  Reminded me of the final scene from The Labyrinth for some reason.

View from the Castle over Warkworth and Amble (in the distance)

Sidey madness

That night we stayed in Alnwick, at our first "Certified Location".  These are smaller sites, usually only with 5 or 10 spots, often attached to a business, in this case, a pub.  How convenient!  It was a great little site and the pub was run by a very friendly, slightly mad chap.  We were slightly taken aback initially by the lack of a menu ("just let me know what you would like") but luckily he was a great, and very speedy, cook.  It was also pretty amusing to hear a fellow guest say "No, no, I couldn't do a full english breakfast!  I'll just have eggs, bacon, beans, mushrooms and toast"!

Alnwick town was quite pretty and the photos (on another grey day) don't do it justice.  We visited Alnwick Castle, which was where the first two Harry Potter movies were filmed.  They had a very amusing guy taking a great "Broomstick Flying Lesson" for the kids- hilarious.

Alnwick street scenes

Statue of a guy called Harry Hotspur- now that's a nickname. First went to battle aged 8, and was knighted when he was 11 - what a badass.

Alnwick Castle

Cammo-owl

Alnwick Castle- the part they used to film the scene from the first Harry Potter movie when they learn to fly.

One of the birds of prey in the falconry display.  Apparently when not employed at medieval fair's they are busy working at large stadiums such as Wembley to chase away the birds and stop the seats getting covered in poo!

After this we visited....yes, another castle!  This one was Bamburgh Castle, which sits high up on a basalt outcrop overlooking the Farne Islands and Northumbrian coast.

Bamburgh Castle

Lights, camera, lame pose.  This castle was used in filming of "Robin Hood", the version with Russell Crowe.

The great hall.  The ceiling is held together by wooden pins.

I'll finish with the weather report.  Don't let the photos fool you. We have had a few sunny moments through the week but it's otherwise been pretty consistently grey, sometimes rainy and definitely cold!

From here we head north to Scotland.