Puffins

Today we were leaving York, and didn't have anything specific planned. We wandered around the town and saw anything we may have missed during the tours. This was the old city walls that you could walk all the way along that almost completely encircle the city still. A strange and interesting experience. The moat is even visible to this day, though overgrown and grassy. We then split with Dad and Andrew going to pick up the rental car, and with the rest of us walking through the fields and parks. There are hundreds of squirrels everywhere you look that are very friendly and likely fed very often. We continued to the more consumerist part of town and did some op shopping. There were some great pick ups to be had but my lack of funds at this point of the trip restricted my spending. I did still pick up a pretty great shirt. After this we were picked up by the boys and we headed off to the main reason for everyone being in the UK, Scarborough. Where Nanny had grown up, we were excited to see her childhood home, where she worked, and of course, scatter her ashes in the Moors. She loved it there and it only seemed fitting to let her rest there. On our way we stopped at the Bempton cliffs to see the puffins that call this place home during this time of year. As we quickly learnt, the reason they love it is its a sheer cliff face that is safe from predation. But the frosty wind that the cliffs generate make the walks very painful. It is truly a sight to behold and well worth battling the cold for a little while. There are thousands of birds of many different species occupying the sky and cliff face that make the spectacle pretty mind blowing. Although the walk was incredible, we were becoming disappointed and disheartened by the fact we were yet to see a puffin, there were simply too many birds in the sky to be able to easily differentiate which was which. We had heard the best bet is to find them in the cliff face in their nest. But hundreds and hundreds of nests made this an equally difficult task. Eventually we found a volunteer there who had spotted a puffin nest and allowed us to use his telescope to take a photo. It was very lucky and we were so happy to be able to utilise him. It provided a great view. Having seen what we came to see, we could begin the journey back, and get out of the cold. Once we had done this we continued the journey back to Scarborough. We unloaded all of our stuff, which was becoming quite the task, relaxed, had a drink and enjoyed a nice afternoon overlooking the quiet, coastal town of Scarborough. Although Nan hadn't lived here in many, many decades, it felt like the town likely hasn't changed all that much. Of course more modern, the city still felt like it was stuck in the past to some degree. In a good way, though.Read more