Far from the madding crowd

Two things are a given. When the mercury nudges 28 degrees you will not be able to see the sand for bodies at Portobello. Today did not disappoint on either count! The Police had to come and disperse some of the young beach goers and the local roads were gridlocked - again!

We escaped all of this by heading to Barns Ness - some 20 miles to the east. Here, we had a beach to ourselves and a lovely long walk too. Our picnic lunch on the sand was enhanced by the gannets and terns enjoying their high speed dives for their  marine buffet quite close to the shore.

On our way back to the car park we explored the lime pits and looked for fossils in the sandstone. We thought we even found some dinosaur footprints! We also stumbled on a crop of unfamiliar flowers which we are unable to identify. I have put a photo of them as my extra and any advice on what they are called would be gratefully received.

For the record we steered clear of the nearby White Sands bay which was very busy indeed as was the wide expanse of sands at Bellhaven which we saw on our way home.

We enjoyed the last of the sun in the quiet of our garden when we got home before the clouds rolled in again.