Holy Island, Northumberland , Revisited...

It is strange that Berwick upon Tweed on the Scottish/English Border is 38 miles from where i stay and a far quicker drive down the A1, than Glentress trail centre in the Tweed Vally of the Scottish borders (48 miles),


Yet i have not visited Berwick and ridden out to Holy Island at low tide since July 2009...
So time for a revisit and with friend Jason we headed down to Berwick upon Tweed to leave the car at Spittal on the south side of the river Tweed estuary and bikes packed with bivvy kit rode east for the beach and low tide...






After Cocklawfoot its onto the beach proper and 8 miles of sand out to Lindesfarne...




Old rusty County Tractor, also an old Zeta nearby, used to drag nets up onto the beach...
















About half way out we leave the mainland behind and in from the coast its feels like the middle of nowhere...




Just visible offshore is an iron steamship wreck...


As we rode up onto the Island it was a nice sunset,though a low cloud bank would soon swallow up the sun before its setting time of 9.34pm...






The road into the island from the tidal causeway which we would cross next day...





A warning about the crossing, tide can come in across the causeway and surrounding sand faster than walking speed...




Time for a couple of pints in one of the Pubs...


Leaving the pub after dark we made the most of the er...strict no camping by laws and headed to find a bivvy spot, quite comedy as i had forgot my headtorch and no front lights on the bikes!...


Found a good spot if a bit sandy...


Time for a hot choccy...


Soon as i bed down i was out like a light and slept through until 6am, no burning hot sun to awake to but i was nice and warm, for a brew...






Im really pleased with the Alpkit hunka XL bivvy bag, loads of room inside and packs into its own mesh bag at the bottom...


We rode around the beach and to the road to the village, some kids have had fun on the sand the day before, though looks like an adult did this, a series 1 Landrover!...








You dont want to go digging about too deeply on the beaches here...




Holy Island (or Lindesfarne) is famous for a number of things, from the ruins of the monastery...


Its Castle...


The islands `Mead` alcoholic drink, of which we had a sample nip at 9.15am!...


And these old fishing boat hulls, cut in half and turned upside down to make storage sheds,
cool man caves...










Coffee shops did not open until later to catch the day visitors and the tide had turned an hour ago, although it said safe to cross until 1 pm we were heading acoss the sands so time to split...


The causeway has a safety shed above the high tide incase folk get caught out by the incoming tide...






horses being unloaded at the roadside...


Up inside it has an emergency phone,
Jasons quote of it; "Hello?...yes i need a Plumber!..."


Along side the present road is marked with stakes the ancient Pedders Way, it too has a wee tree house thing for safety...






Climbed up for a look around...


Mr Whippy ice Cream drove past on the causeway!, i waved for him to stop but dont think he saw me...


The platform was a bit wobbly so one at a time for the view...




Time to get rolling and across some slippy mudflats towards better looking sand back towards Berwick...




We both spied 2 WW2 Machine Gun Pillboxes on the coastline amongst rows of Anti Tank Blocks...


I went over for a look and there was still an accessable entrance in...


A wee film inside...


Jason road through shallow water and it was thick black mud under the sand!...


Soon enough we were onto better, if a bit soft sand and followed the coast to Beachcomber House and campsite, i think this is a WW2 observation building as there were live bombing ranges here during WW2 for aircraft...








Funny thing happened while taking pictures here, as often happens some folk asked about the bikes and pressed the tyres, then 2 kids walked past,looking at the bikes as he passed one said; "cool Surly Pugsleys"...
i replied "you know what they are?"...he replied "yes",
i asked "how do you know what they are?"... he said "oh i just know..." -:)
the force is strong in that young jedi...

Along the coast a bit further is the Bomb disposal Containers where they still retrieve unexploded bombs found here in the dunes, there was another tower like we just saw but this one was built on top of a another Machine Gun pill Box that is filled with sand...










They even have a BBQ site...


Soon enough we were back along passing the tractors and onto Cocklawfoot Beach...





A big tree stump bleached by the sea and smoothed by the wind and sand made a fitting last picture to a great wee trip...


We rode around 8 or 9 miles out and 20 returning around the coastline,
film?, er well some clot forgot to charge his Go Pro camera (doh!) so i made a wee slideshow after it went flat,
song is `cant see me` by `Ian Brown`...