
Nordic Walk - Holy Island
Mon 20th June 2011
What a day of contrast!
I’m sure there were many folk in
Northumberland who thought that it was a shame that it would be raining on our Nordic walk on Holy Island.
How wrong they would be. It was the most perfect day, lovely and sunny with a light breeze.
We set off on broad grassy tracks before picking up pathways through the dunes that hosted an array of beautiful wild flowers including marsh orchids, birdsfoot trefoil, wild thyme, eye bright and the stunning blue spikes of the viper’s blugloss complete with the burnet moth with its distinctive black wings and red spots.
We had beaches to ourselves which echoed with the haunting call of the grey seals, known as the sirens of the sea, basking on rocks just off the shoreline.After passing Emmanual head, a beacon located on the north of the Island, we again picked up grassy tracks and Nordic walked towards the iconic silhouette of the romantic 16C Lindisfarne Castle.
Skirting off to the right we made a slight detour to avoid the crowds and passed the quaint little garden that had been created for the castle by Gertrude Jekyll between 1906 and 1912.
We then headed inland and stopped at the Pilgrim Coffee Shop where we indulged ourselves with the most fantastic fresh crab sandwiches and fresh coffee.
This truly was the most perfect end to the most perfect day. Even more so because it started to tip it down in bucket loads just as we reached our cars which was great timing.
Thank you for everyone who came along, you were an absolute pleasure to Nordic walk with and I’m really looking forward to seeing you all again next time.
Nordic walking is sociable and fun, so if you haven’t tried it before, why not give it a go. You never know you may surprise yourself and enjoy it!
Go on, you know you want to ......
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