Iona - a morning at the beach

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Iona Pilgrimage

Every Tuesday come rain, hail or shine, some of the resident members of the Iona Community lead a pilgrimage around the island.  It covers about 7 miles and takes about 6 hours of gentle walking, pauses for reflections and plenty of time for chatting.  Like all pilgrimages, I guess, this one starts at the cross. This time its St Martins cross dating from the 8th century.

Jamie is a resident staff member of the Iona Community and has lived on the island for the last 18 months.  She is an ordained minister of the Reformed Church of USA - a delightful lady and I wonder if we could tempt her to visit us sometime. She was standing at the only point on the island where 2 roads cross and invited us to consider crossroads in our our lives and read the Robert Frost poem - The road not taken.

The labyrinth at St Columba's Bay

Most of the walk was fairly easy with some gentle climbs and weather favourable.

Some of the going was a bit more diffilcult - sturdy boots were essential.

This glam couple are waiting for the summer to begin

At St Columba's bay where he was thought to have landed from Ireland in 563. He was making a fresh start and we were thinking about that too. 

Meeting people from all over is one the other good things about being here.  Sharon ( black hat) is a priest from Somerset.  We became very good friends in a short time and I'm sure we'll keep in touch.   Mary in pink is a teacher and Caroline is a minister from Nebraska.

The heather is in full bloom all over the highlands as well as Iona

LOTS of bogs even on the high ground and not always possible to leap across them.  Even our good walking boots weren't quite up to keeping our feet dry.

One reflection is at the nunnery dating from 1203.  It is the most substantial remains of any nunnery in the whole of Europe.  It is within the village of Iona, close to the school, shop and houses and suggests the nuns related more to the locals than the men of the Abbey which stands outside the village in some seclusion.








At the end of the walk we put our boots out to dry - it took 2 days before they were completely dry.

At Iona

Phil had no trouble climbing up Dun I - the highest hill on Iona.  The Abbey is in the background with Mull across the water

The tiny island of Iona is beautiful - it was once home to over 500 people but the potato famine decimated that and while it has increased slowly, there are still only 120 year-round residents.  The Abbey though is the 4th most visited site in Scotland hence LOTS of day trippers.  A couple of days while we were there there were large cruise ships docked off shore bringing passengers in on the life boats. Tourists are an important part of the island's economy and they stick to a fairly short route from the harbour to the Abbey and back so they don't interfere too much.

From Dun I looking east across Mull.

Chopping veges with my buddies from US, UK, Czech Rep, Germany, France.  Some of us were just there for the week but others for longer - six weeks to 3 years

Phil was going so fast with the hoover that he's just a blur

From Dun I looking north across the crofts - Staffa and Skye are on the skyline.

Life on Iona isn't all climbing hills.  There are worship services at 9am and 9pm each day in the beautiful Abbey Church.    They are probably the main reason we go to Iona - really inspiring.  Also most afternoons there are prayers for peace and justice.  Members of the  Iona community are heavily involved in activities and advocacy in these areas. 

But there are also chores to be done.  One meal each day you have to help set up, serve andclear away then wash up.  In addtion I had to chop veges each morning and Phil had to hoover a hallway - not terribly onerous.

Some of these photos have jumped into odd places but I'm sure you'll get the idea.  More about Iona later.  Phil wants to check his email - we're not used to having to share one laptop!!! 

Brodie to Iona

Leaving the colourful harbour area of Oban

Getting to Iona is a bit of a chore but more so from Inverness.  An early drive from Brodie Castle into Inverness, a taxi to the bus station ; a bus to Fort William; another bus to Oban; a ferry to the Isle of Mull; and hour bus ride across Mull then another ferry to Iona.  Our connections weren't great so after leaving Brodie at 7am we finally arrived at Iona at 7 pm - a long day.

This lovely lighthouse is about half way between Oban and Mull

                                So it was so nice to arrive at Iona at last with the abbey in view

Just in time for dinner in the refectory

Meals are simple and mainly vegetarian which suits me just fine.  There was a group of 23 german people from Dortmund with us and some of them found the lack of animal protein challenging - they are used to cheese and sausage for beakfast and meat at least one more meal a day.

Brodie Castle - Loch Ness

Brodie Castle - Beach walk Findhorn to Burghead

Brodie Castle - Battle of Culloden

From Scotland

After 3 lovely warm sunny days, today is cool and damp hence we are in Inverness catching up on emails and soon to have a lunch at a 1 Michelin * restaurant.

We are staying in a beautiful little National Trust cottage in the grounds of Brodie Castle - 1/2 an hour along the coast.   It is a beautiful area - fabulous coastline with golden sandy beaches and then inland to the Cairngorms - dramatic highlands. 

Yesterday we took a steam train from Aviemore to Broomhill - the station called Glenbogle in Monarch of the Glen - we loved the scenery in that show so got to see it for ourselves yesterday.  We finished the day with a tour and tasting at the Glenfiddich Distillery - one of Phil's favourite drams.  All in all a good day.

Plenty to do here - later this week we'll take a boat along Loch Ness and do some more coastal walks.  Then Saturday we take a bus to Oban, then a ferry to Mull then a bus across Mull then a ferry to Iona where we stay for the next week.

Slow travel UK #3 - Yoxford Suffolk

We hadn't spent much time in Suffolk before so we stayed 3 nights at this rather quirly B&B - The Old Methodist Chapel.  Our suite was in the old Sunday School
rooms so we felt right at home.  Really interesting area -
lots of farming so great fresh produce.

Holy Trinity Church in Blythburgh near Yoxford is called the Cathedral of the Marshes

 - a beautiful example of local stone and a fine ceiling - note the angels.

This speaks for itself  - Wolsey and Pygot were protestants who refused to change their beliefs

during the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary 1

In contrast the magnificent cathedral in Ely dating from 673.

The walk we should have done last friday

This morning we took the bus to Birling Gap again and walked home - this time along the top of the cliffs.  No dramas to report - thank goodness.

A busy week

After Church on Sunday we went to lunch with friends of Christy's - we had a lovely time but PP found it a bit of a yawn

  Earlier in the week PP went to work with Christy in Tunbridge Wells wearing the white linen trousers and top given to her by Christy's fellow consultants - none of the rest of the family would dare wear white linen - we could never keep it clean.  She was passed around the department and then had a feed in a treatment cubicle (empty of patients) before we started the drive home.

Sir Colin and Lady Lucas celebrate 150 years

We spent a weekend last month at the Oxfordshire home of friends Colin and Mary Louise during which they had a garden party to celebrate their 70th and 80th birthdays.  It was a great occasion and guests included family, friends, fellow Vice Chancellors from around the country, their gardener, neighbours and us

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 a fabulous afternoon.

The caterers did a superb job with delicious food for 90 people

Time to sing Happy birthday

Their home was once a barn in the garden of their previous weekender ( when they could get away from Oxford).  About 10 years ago they decided to down-size and sold off the big house and half the garden and develop the barn and the remainder of the garden.  It is a beautiful home with a modern interior and cleverly sourced old materials on the exterior.

Reports of our dramatic rescue have been greatly exaggerated

Before you start reading this blog I want you to know that we are safe and sound and both in good shape at Christy's place and had a good night's sleep last night.  Neither of us appear to have suffered any ill effects. Now read on.

Yesterday morning we took the bus to Birling Gap about 12 kms along the coast from Christy's to walk along the cliff path over the Seven Sisters - the 7 chalk faces in this photo - Birling Gap is in the low dip at the right end of the cliffs.  We have done this walk many times and it takes about 5 hours to walk back to Christy's from here.

 

When we got to Birling Gap this was the view - the tide was right out and we have never walked back along the beach so decided it would be a change - bad mistake!!!

At some stages the walking was fairly easy.

But at other points it became VERY challenging and the going was MUCH slower than we anticipated.  We weren't too worried because we thought we could see the final headland before we turned the corner.  After that we expected a breezy stroll to the Golden Galleon, a very nice pub.  Wrong again!!   Soon after this we noticed that the tide was coming in quite quickly and while walking as fast as we could, we were also watching out for bits of beach above the high water line where we could safely wait for the next low tide.

   Eventually we rounded a headland and saw that the way forward was cut off by the tide and we needed to walk back 2 bays to a safe place.  Mobile phones don't work below the cliffs  so we couldn't phone for help.  I settled Phil safely in the shade near the cliff and stood by the watersedge signalling to people high up on the cliffs above, planes overhead and fishing boats .

In some places there were rock falls which were really slow to climb over.

After about an hour we saw the welcome sight of a RNLI  lifeboat coming around the headland - we waved till he saw us - he had been alerted by a coast guard ranger who saw us start the walk but not come out the other end.  We were just so grateful.  We would like to think that we would have been safe on the beach where we were but I had already made a bad call that day so don't feel too confident about that. 

Phil waiting for the lifeboat

The lovliest men took us safely back to their base.  They didn't once tell us we had been really stupid to attempt the walk without carefully checking the tide times. 

The one person who seemed to get a kick out of our rescue was this jetskier who jumped our wake all the way back

Passing Christy's place at Seaford

In all the drama, I left my backpack behind.  I went back at low tide this morning and retraced our steps but couldn't find it anywhere - the only thing of value in it was my wallet so today I have had to cancel credit cards and arrange for a new drivers' licence - a minor inconvenience really after what could have been a very nasty experience.   Phil stayed very calm and has no ill effects at all - Christy has checked him over. 

Phil, Marg, Jenny, Tim and Lou - I promise I will look after him better in future.

Ginny, I bet you're glad you weren't around for this part of the holiday.