My day off yesterday started (and ended) with a 2.5 mile hike to the bus stop, then an hour-long, 15-mile ride to Alnwick, in order to find an Internet cafe and check out a bookstore. Arrived there to find the Internet cafe closed and under renovation, and nothing of interest in one of Britain's largest second-hand bookstores. With much disappointment, I jumped on the bus back to Seahouses, a small touristy town a little south of Bamburgh, in order to try a boat trip out to the Farne Islands.

Found a nice deal amongst the various companies running tours, and took a 2.5 hour trip out and about the islands (just a couple miles from shore), to see seals and many kinds of seabirds. The boat dropped us off for an hour on one of the islands, which are controlled by the National Trust, who charge an additional fee to come ashore.

As you can see from the photos below, I got to see puffins pretty close up! There are over 55,000 pairs of puffins and huge numbers of other birds too, such as gulls, kittiwakes, razorbeaks, cormorants, eider ducks, terns, guillemots, etc.



Puffin bringing food back to its babies in its burrow



Puffin on ledge



Many puffins!




The Farnes greatly resemble the Isles of Shoals but lack the 15th- and 16th-Century buildings




Seals with Bamburgh Castle in the background




The National Trust's paths let you get quite close to some of the many chicks on the island this time of year (this is not a puffin, not sure what it is, probably a tern)