Puffins

Today is Wednesday

We headed in to Seahouses intent on getting on a boat out to the Farne Islands. We were a bit worried we wouldn't get on one as it is now school holidays, the height of the tourist season and we haven't booked. Our luck held and we got on the first boat we tried. Puffins.

 






Puffins only breed on the Farne Islands for three months and this is more or less the last week of the season, They fly off to sit in the Atlantic ocean or North sea for the rest of the year, so again we are lucky.
There are many seabirds on the Farne Islands and also Seals.

 


 




 









 




 



Shag on a rock








 

St Cuthberts Chapel in the foreground built in 1370 dedicated to St. Cuthbert who lived there in 678.
In the background is Bamburgh castle.

The castle was first built in 420 but destroyed by the Vikings in 993. The present castle was rebuilt by the Normans around about 1050 and became the property of the great castle builder Henry II.
We really wanted to stop and explore it but now we really have run out of time.

Then it was time to head for Edinburgh, sadly the time had come to return our camper van.
On the way there we passed some black ducks, I didn't think black ducks existed, but there they were. 

Also along the way we passed a great railway viaduct at Berwick-upon-Tweed.

We got into Edinburgh at 5.00pm, rush hour. Our hotel was right in the centre of the city. After driving about in the busy city where no-one speaks English we discovered there is no where to park, at all. so we had to continue on to return the camper van with all of our luggage inside it. This is our first traffic jam since we arrived in the UK, it took an hour to travel the first kilometre. 
We did get to drive over the brilliant Forth bridge and see the amazing red steel railway bridge.
They are building a new bridge next to this one because the cables are rusting and they don't know how to fix it. I'm glad I found that out after we had driven across it.



Our Camper van 2,112 miles covered in 22 days. Wouldn't be many in Australia but it's a few up here. And we didn't crash it.


 









We were supposed to return the van at 4.00pm. Discovering that the camper van office was 25 miles outside of Edinburgh, on the opposite side to us, wasn't good. We eventually to arrived at the closed offices at 7.00pm and started trying to sort out our possessions. We have acquired a little bit extra. The nice man who was running the camper centre is also a taxi driver and took us back into the city, for a mere $120 and left us near the hotel. We turned up at the hotel looking like bag people, 2 suitcases and 12 shopping bags.
It was a slightly testing experience.
We dragged ourselves up to the room and opened the door.
One look at the view and all was good with the world.... 

The three views through the bay window of our room.
Yay WiFi.