Northumberland coast and castles

What a day! I have never known such challenging weather before. I was up at 5.00am and we were out the door by 5.30am, into such gale force winds (35mph) that we could barely stand upright. We went on to the beach to photograph Bamburgh Castle, as against all odds were hoping for a break in the clouds and a bit of a sunrise. Once we were there, we were kneeling down to stop blowing over and were holding onto our tripods, set up low, very firmly. We could not really move around to get different compositions as the rocks were so slippery and in that strong wind it was just too difficult. As you can see from this image, we were lucky and got a beautiful soft pink sunrise but it did not last very long. 

After breakfast we set out for Holy Island. It was still blowing like crazy and very cold - thankfully I have invested in a fantastic jacket, it's waterproof and warm enough for Arctic conditions so wearing that and 3 other layers I was fine - although I certainly made use of all the different fastening tapes and toggles to secure the wrists bands, hood, etc as it was absolutely necessary today. As Lee said, today was like Iceland on a bad day! Conditions out there were extreme - we wandered around and got many shots but they were all hand held as we just could not use tripods in that wind. I have an extra image of the priory viewed over a lichen covered wall.

We had a great coffee at The Barn at Beal, where coincidentally we bumped in to Gavin who was sitting working there while having a coffee! Then back out to brave more weather as we headed off to see Earl Grey's bathing house at Craster. We first ate our packed lunch in the car as it was too cold to sit outside, and then went down to the beach to get some photos as seen in the extras. The sea was wild, there was sea foam flying around everywhere and the waves were huge. After that we were going to photograph the lighthouse at Amble Bay but the water was coming over the pier and it was just too dangerous. We sat and had a cup of tea in a cafe before heading back to the hotel.

Tomorrow the weather is even worse - raining all day with stronger winds. I am not sure what we will be doing, we are not going out for the sunrise as they isn't one and we will decide what to do during the day at breakfast. A few of us are considering going home early as the weather is foul and there is no point trying to take photos in such conditions. We will however, see what it is like in the morning and then make our decision.