Good-Bye To All This

"And just before dawn at the paling of the sky,
The stranger returned and said "Now I must fly,""

A Spaceman Came Travelling - Chris de Burgh

My last morning on Holy Island - Lindisfarne - and the sky looks clear through the rooflight as I drift into what passes for consciousness for me at 6am.  Time for a walk to the harbour, and a surprise as I find several others around.

I enjoy the next hour or so watching the sun rise, listening to the eerie calls of the seals across the bay - one even pops it's head up in the harbour to see what I'm up to.  One of those wonderful mistakes in life, as I stood watching the scene the words to the song came to mind - but the words were "And just before the dawn, at the painting of the sky".  What a lovely mis-hearing of the lyrics.  A couple of dozen photos later and I'm ready for breakfast.

Packing up for the return journey today, the causeway is open at about 10.30am so my plan is to be on my way as soon as possible.  First call though is to meet Patrik, to see if he'd like a lift off the island this morning.  He's having breakfast and presents me with a surprise gift, a book of poetry as a parting gift!  He's staying on another day so I leave him to the delights of the island - the weather forecast is good again so he'll be dry.

Trip to Newcastle is straightforward, and I take a detour to Seaton Delaval for a bit of sightseeing, before calling in on J this afternoon.  The Hall is closed but I manage to look around the grounds to get some photos before the cloud moves in, then it's time to navigate to J's.

Welcomed like long lost family I have a coffee and show off some of the photos from the last week.  Also manage to get contact details for a place to stay in Derbyshire on my route home.  Making a detour via North Wales to get some more photos so in need of a good nights rest before the cross-country trek across the Cheshire Plain to North Wales tomorrow.

Rashly decided to do a bit of corner cutting to get to Eyam via Chesterfield, with it's twisted spire church.  Must have been something twisted about the roads too as I ended up on the road to Derby, so my short cut took longer.... any excuse.  Made it about 9pm.