Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland

It has to be said that the journey down from Pitlochry was uneventful and somewhat boring. The first bit isn’t so bad but as you go further south you leave the mountains behind and the roads become more substantial. Rob had already joined the main A9 route yesterday evening and it’s the A9 he followed to Edinburgh where the A1 continues south to England. The A9, like the A1 afterwards, is a mixture of dual carriageway sections interspersed with good two lane roads but the road planners in Scotland clearly operate on logic not of this world. The dual carriageways are fine, being a limit of 70mph as you’d expect. The normal road sections are then 60mph, also as you’d expect, except that for some unfathomable reason there is a trial speed limit of 50mph for lorries. There are a lot of lorries, so it means no-one can ever reach 60 as it’s near-nigh impossible to overtake a lorry on that road. Oh, and the roads are religiously monitored with average speed cameras. Furthermore, there are sections reduced to 30mph for roadworks that don’t exist and electronic information signs saying things like “Are your eyes fit for driving” and “Soft tyres waste fuel” which, of course, everyone is so grateful for. Rob was hoping to see more useful signs such as “Do not eat yellow snow”, “Keep windows open while vaping”, or the fact everyone forgets “Do not sleep and drive”, not forgetting the extremely informative “Hats keep bald heads warm”. Anyway, eventually Rob arrived at Bamburgh in the hope of getting a coastal castle photo.

Weather-wise it was as predicted with plenty of sun around, stormy clouds and showers. No hint of thunder though, but it all looked promising to get Bamburgh castle lit by the sun with dark storm clouds as a backdrop set on a sandy beach with tall grasses for decoration. Success? No!

When he arrived, Rob took the phone photos first because they’re quick to do and if he doesn’t do that he can forget to take the photos for you to see, which is what happened a few times in Iceland. So what happened then? Well, you can see those dark clouds in the photos but just as Rob had the composition he wanted and was ready the clouds obscured the sun and within five minutes the rain was hammering down on the car window. Rob sat in the car for over half an hour as it got darker and wetter, then he left to go to find where he was staying for the next three nights.

No photographs today then and now Rob is starting to get a little disheartened. Tomorrow’s forecast is sunny with clouds and no rain, but on Sunday it’s supposed to rain all day. It would therefore be really good if tomorrow turns out to be a successful photography day. The aim is to get some coastal shots, including a castle, or patterns in the rocks or sands. “Tomorrow is a new day” ... there must be a sign for that.Read more