Monday 18 May 2009

St Abb`s Head.

Forecast time.Off we went to the far east again as it was cloudy or raining most other places. (What a surprise)
What started off as a throwaway bet in the pub has grown to a firm commitment to see if we can go a full year in scotland without getting a soaking.As you,ve probably guessed we,ve both served apprenticeships in the usual mist, rain and snow and we are determined we`re not going to take it anymore! Summer is always out there it just takes a bit of finding some days ,thats all.
Parked in the £2 car park above St Abb`s then wandered down to the harbour for a wee snoop around...



Very popular with divers from both Scotland and England this place, as its the start of an underwater eden of caves ,rips and steep"hanging garden" dropoffs.After a tour around we climbed back uphill to start the route where we found this handy board...



A gently ascending climb on short grass took us to the start of the cliffs and sea stacks.



After that every new turn and bend opened out to further views of stacks and cliffs asking to be in the camera lens.Here`s an intrepid old coffin dodger nonchalantly balenced on the end of one.



Seabirds...Guillemots,Razorbills,Kittiwakes and Fulmars clung to every ledge and a few dedicated snappers with serious zoom intentions clung to cliffs nearby braced above the waves on tripods.



Soon we reached the lighthouse and left most of the tourists behind going on to further stacks and cliffs before reaching the famous headland itself where a little scramble was called for to test the nerve.



Having been down to our local mountaineering club recently and given a lukewarm reception to our sunny sunday exploits(i.e. sad old gits-well past it....humour em,they`ll be dead soon!) we decided to pull out all the stops and show these young whippersnappers what it was like in an era before ropes.
Not having sufficent comely madiens hair to chop off and weave into a confidence line just like in the old days, we soloed up the near vertical grass in style.
Ha! Eat your heart out men of St Kilda,these two old gits will do anything for a photo opportunity!
(Dear milk tray ad,here is our c.v....."having swam from the boat with the chocs stuffed down our boxers" etc....)



After the adventure of the cliffs we headed inland at Alex`s insistance to bag the usual trigs,fundamental skid marks and assorted little lumps of white sticking out of fields in the middle of nowhere.(What,s wrong with that boy!The cliffs man, the cliffs!)
A great remote epic can be done, if your lucky enough to be without a bagger, all the way to Fast Castle missing trigs and wee white sticky up bits en route.
Anyways the views were suberb, as always, all the way back to the car.
We then motored to Eyemouth (interesting big harbour) for further trig adventures round the back of a sports centre .
Incidently,Eyemouth has more curry houses,chinese takeaways and kebab shops than I`ve ever seen in a small town main street before.
Must be a hell of a laugh in the toilets at chucking out time.Facilites being at a premium hereabouts.




All in all a brillant day on what must be some of the most varied and exciting sea cliffs in scotland. A real five star gem of a outing.



Divers returning to St.Abbs.....

2 comments:

The Glebe Blog said...

There's so much of Scotland i haven't seen (in exile for 38 years),and St Abbs and Eymouth are now on my must do list.
Thanks for a great blog guys.

Michael Reid said...

Great photographs!
Avoiding rain in Scotland is one heck of a mission!
Good luck.