"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant." ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

It was a rather short day of hiking today. We started from Fenwick this morning and we arrived on Holy Island Lindisfarne right around lunchtime. The longest part of the walk (and the prettiest) was across the mud flats. The day was perfect and when we set foot on the island I was surprised by how much traffic there was coming in. There is a causeway connecting the island to the mainland, but when the tide comes in, it covers it. There have been quite a few cars stranded midway when they thought they could get across before the tide. It was very busy here until about 3 pm when all the car traffic knew they had to get back to the mainland before high tide. Then this afternoon all you could hear was the birdsong.

Forgot to include a pic of our inn from last night - Black Bull Inn in Lowick.

 The sky was spectacular today.

Walking through our final sheep pasture toward Holy Island.

 You have to call the signalman before you cross the tracks. Trains travel very fast (in excess of 100 mph on this track). They will let you know whether it is safe to cross.

 Flowers along the train route.

Just after we crossed the tracks, this train went whizzing by.

 Andrew shedding his boots for our trek across the mud flats.

 These stations are positioned along the way just in case you get caught when the tide is coming in too fast. I don't know how safe I would feel up in this stand with water surrounding me!

A very small piece of dry sand along the way. Some hikers we met kept their boots on, because in places it was extremely slippery, but they got really soaked!

 And the end of St. Cuthbert's Way - in front of the priory. The priory we see today was built by Benedictine monks in the 12th century and served until becoming a casualty of the English Reformation in the 16th century. Originally Bishop Aidan, an Irish monk from Iona, founded a monastery here in 635 when King Oswald offered him land, with a view to spreading the Gospel across the North East. Cuthbert became the 6th Bishop of Lindisfarne later that century.

 My treasure for today - beachcombing for seaglass is very productive here.

 Looking across to Lindisfarne Castle from the priory.

 Inside St. Mary's Church. The oldest section of the building dates from the 1100s. We attended the evening service here and were amazed at how well the sound travelled to us in the back row. 

 This was a life size statue made of wood depicting the monks carrying St. Cuthbert's coffin (to escape the Norse invaders). 

 A closer look at Lindisfarne Castle - we will visit here tomorrow.

 Another angle of the priory and if you look closely you can see St. Cuthbert's statue.

 They call this St. Cuthbert's Island and apparently there is the remains of a small chapel here. We may head over at low tide tomorrow to have a closer look.

 Beautiful red poppies growing near a stone wall.

And this is our home for the next 2 nights - Bamburgh View. Andrew is getting tips on a good place to have supper from the owner Kevin Archer.

This is where we crossed earlier in the day, now covered in water. The posts keep you going in the right direction for 4 km.