On the way home

As we feared, we woke up to very bad weather with lashing rain and gale force winds. Thankfully we did not go out at pre-dawn to take photos as there was no point in those conditions. We enjoyed a lovely breakfast at the hotel and then after breakfast, one of our party decided to go home as she thought the conditions were too extreme for photos – turned out she was right. We set off north to Spittal in the hope that we could do some close photography work of the multi coloured rocks, but the wind was howling so much with sand was flying all over the place and stinging us that it was impossible to take photos. We then headed south to Seahouses but again, the conditions were so bad that our course leader, Lee, thought it was hazardous to even try and take photos as the 50mph gusts of wind could knock someone over. Doing any long exposure work on tripods was absolutely out of the question.
 We tried one more venue, Craster, and it was the same very difficult conditions so by now we gave up! Poor Lee felt so bad – in all his years of running photography workshops he has only once before encountered such bad weather. He offered to refund all of us for today which was extremely honourable of him – we of course all refused, it was not his fault that the weather was so extreme and impossible for photography. We went to the Fish Shack at Amble where we had a coffee – I texted Gavin to come fetch me from there and we headed off home, a day earlier than planned. We were also concerned with the incoming snow tomorrow that the traffic would be awful – nothing like a bit of snow to cause chaos on the UK motorways!

It was such a pity that bad weather ruined my trip - I will just have to go back one day when the conditions are better!
 
We have just got home after a 6 hour journey. It warmed up considerably as we drove south and we had beautiful blue skies and sunshine. However, as unbelievable as it seems we have snow forecast again from early tomorrow morning, just as we were having warm spring weather in the south. This image is a drive by shot as we drove along the M1, I think it was somewhere near Loughborough. We have unpacked and are looking forward to see Adam and his girlfriend who arrive tonight for the weekend.