I went to Holy Isle in the UK for a birdwatching weekend run by Birdwatch North East. It's a long haul from Cambridge up past Newcastle on the A1 - took me over five hours each way. Especially dire was driving back in the pouring rain on Sunday - happily the weather had been good up to then, especially clear and bright on the Saturday. We had a clear night for a lunar eclipse on Saturday - with all the telescopes around you could see the moon being occluded very clearly. I'm still not sure why even with the eclipse you could still see the half of the moon in shadow. Holy Isle is linked by a tidal causeway to the mainland. The few shops on the island open and close according to the tides - when the visitors are in and the tides are out they open, otherwise not. I was glad my mobile worked on the island which I wasn't expecting, even if it reduced the feeling of having got away from it all. It was a peaceful place to be, a place where time had slowed down.

It was a long drive from Cambridge up to Northumbria. The A14 was crawling, and the A1 around Newcastle was bad, but apart from that plain sailing - if a journey of 6 hours can be plain sailing. Saw the "Angel of the North" just south of Newcastle - what an ironwork statue erected not that long ago there is called. Not overpoweringly impressive to me. Stayed in the Victoria Hotel Bambrugh which was fine. That like much of the area could date from Victorian days if not earlier. It was stepping back in time a little. From my room I had a good view of the castle in Bambrugh. Dined at the hotel - just simpler - and breakfasted. On the Saturday I felt guilty as I got downstairs at 8am sharp and the staff were trying to have an early morning rest. I had gone up to Northumbria to go on a birdwatching day on Holy Isle. My bird watching is of a low-level, so by eye the kestrel perched on a telephone pole was an anonymous shape. Even with the binoculars I brought it could have been any bird to my eyes. In the telescope the guide had brought you could see the kestrel resplendent. The Saturday dawned very misty and stayed misty, making crossing the causeway from the mainland to Holy Isle more adventurous. This was my first time in the area and I had pictured Holy Isle as a rocky outcrop - instead there's an expanse of sandflats and marshes to cross before you get to rolling sand dunes then gentle hills where sheep roam. Part of the attraction was to see Holy Isle - a castle on a high mound, a walled garden seemingly in the middle of nowhere, the eroded walls of the Abbey, tea rooms in the High Street. We did quite a bit of walking between beaches and harbours and bird hide - saw apart from the kestrel fulmars and teals and grebes and guillemots and cormorants and eider ducks and goldfinches and meadow pipits. I wouldn't be able to tell them apart by myself even now!