Tuesday 22nd June: St Abbs and Eyemouth

During the night there had been a very heavy dew and the top of the car was covered in hundreds of dead flies, and some pretty impressive live ones, too, like this specimen. At first I thought it was a mosquito, but somehow it doesn’t fit that description.

Interestingly our red car had hundreds of flies glued to the roof, whereas the grey car next to it had none.

.We were away early , just after nine , we found that using the A697 as far as Wooler then cutting across country to Berwick is a great deal faster than using the A1 as there is almost no traffic.

Having made good time we stopped for a cuppa on top Halidon Hill overlooking Berwick at five past ten. I was able to upload the previous day’s blog and images as we were under the main transmitter mast, for the district, which meant I could use 3G mobile broadband rather than the dreadful 56k dial up that is normally available, and while I was doing this Pat was exploring and found a series of historical panels on a stone raised lectern at the highest point in the little car park.

This one describes a mediaeval battle between the English and the Scots

.This second panel has a rather nice drawing to illustrate the action just before the main battle. There were also panoramic view panels with all the distant hills and out of sight places identified

.Pat then took this rather nice shot looking down onto Berwick ,you can make out the many Tweed Bridges on the right of the foreground and with Bamburgh Castle on the sky line.

Pat took this from the raised plinth in the hilltop car park. There was still a bit of morning mist but she managed quite well

.We reached St Abbs just after 10 AM parking as usual on the cliff top. The sky was clear and it was much less crowded than the previous day at Seahouses and Bamburgh. This panoramic view is three images from the TZ6 compact combined

.A prominent feature of St Abbs is the cottages on the hilltop behind the harbour. It must have been very busy in the old days when the harbour was filled with fishing smacks out after the herring. Fishing is still going on from the village, though now it is usually for crabs and lobsters and a little long line.

.This shot is a little way out on the outer harbour wall, really atmospheric will the lobster pots and the riot of colours of the boats.

For a change we visited when the tide was in, and the water was so clear you could see right down to the bottom of the harbour.

One thing noticeably missing was the large jellyfish that were all over the harbour last year when we visited

.This shot is actually another panoramic, two vertical shots combined, this time taken with the Nikon and prime 35mm f1.8 lens, the colours and shapes in the harbour make great images, just right for photo books and calendars

.Pat took this delightful view from the outer harbour wall, look at the lovely balance of tones and that great blue sky!

.Then she saw this old vagrant walking along the outer mole and shot him (Well somebody should! He makes the place look untidy!)

.It had been our intention to have dinner at the Oxford Farm shop, but we were having such a good time we decided to eat locally.

We had a lovely crab salad for lunch in the Harbour Tea room, which is unusual as there are no seats inside, which must make business a bit dicey in bad weather.

Somehow we always associate eating crab with summer, and we were provided with very fresh and very large portions, only a stones throw from where the crabs had been landed in the harbour, you can’t get fresher than that.

It was a really nice meal, and well worth £6 each, if we go there again I shall definitely have the same again.

.From St Abbs to Eyemouth, where we filled up the car, for a rare change the fuel was actually cheaper than at home, and we parked down on the harbour,

Here at least there is some inshore fishing down and we had to tread carefully to avoid the trawl nets spread along the harbour wall to dry.

As it was high tide there were only a few boats still in the harbour, but enough to take some photos.

Once again Pat has produced a very creditable shot, and one that is likely to end up on another calendar, and in our annual photo book.

.Just look at the wide angle distortion on this shot when I poked the lens down to get the boats in, had more time been available this could be corrected in the image editor, still I quite liked the shot, so here it is.

.By now the afternoon was well advanced to we retraced our steps, stopping in Wooler for a much needed sticky toffee ice cream as the afternoon temperature had climbed to 25 Degrees Centigrade.

Once again we used the A697 rather than the A1 to avoid the heavy traffic.

Fortunately we had the caravan set up to keep it cool for Garfield and it was nice to get out of the heat.

Lots of the people on site were loughing around and soaking up the sun, they do that from dawn to dusk.

Not for us ! We prefer to keep cool in the shade.

By now the afternoon was well advanced to we retraced our steps, stopping in Wooler for a much needed sticky toffee ice cream as the afternoon temperature had climbed to 25 Degrees Centigrade.

Once again we used the A697 rather than the A1 to avoid the heavy traffic.

Fortunately we had the caravan set up to keep it cool for Garfield and it was nice to get out of the heat.

Lots of the people on site were loughing around and soaking up the sun, they do that from dawn to dusk.

Not for us ! We prefer to keep cool in the shade.