Nottingham, Northumberland and North to Scotland

After 17,000 kilometres Little Blue was back to England and still going strong. We rested up and planned the next leg of our journey.

Off up North!

First stop
Nottingham to see the birth place? of Robin Hood and stay with friends. And off course take in one or two of the old pubs near by.




Had to see this..... The Angel of the North




And it is as spectacular as it looks.

On up to Northumberland and we spent the day walking a part of Hadrian’s Wall. It was built under the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, the wall is 134 kilometres long.
The part we did was along unbroken parts of the wall that dip and swerve over high ground. The path had spectacular views which is probably unchanged since the days of the Roman legions.







Next stop Holy Island or Lindisfarne. It is an historic island which lies just off the extreme Northeast corner of England near Berwick-upon-Tweed. The small population of just over 160 is swelled by the influx of over 650,000 visitors from all over the world every year.



It is a tidal island that you can only get to by a paved causeway which is covered by the North Sea twice every day.




Locally the island is rarely referred to by its Anglo-Saxon name of 'Lindisfarne'. Following on from the murderous and bloodthirsty attack on the monastery by the Vikings in 793AD, it got its local name from the observations made by the Durham monks: 'Lindisfarne - baptised in the blood of so many good men - truly a 'Holy Island"





We went to Holy Island and walked around the priory (which is a pilgrimage site in the UK) and then out to the C16th castle which had been tastefully redecorated by a Dutch family about the turn of the century. They had turned a fort into a cosy weekend bach ha ha




No this is not for rent.... Just a way of recycling your old boat.....


Before we left for the wilds of Scotland we were lucky to spot Andy Howey's Bird of Prey centre just over the causeway. A lot of the birds were open and uncaged, just tethered to the perch. They had all been fed so were digesting a hearty meal. AND sooooo many were OWLS!

Some of my favorites are below.
You who know and love me will already know how I feel about these birds.




I love them.








Then we saw the flying demo with a barn owl and a Harris hawk. They flew from group to group landing on your hand to eat the minced meat.




Finally they got out an enormous owl (like 1.5m wingspan) and repeated the flying from group to group. Very cool and enjoyable.







Yes I want one!