July 24, Eyemouth

 Let's see, today's itinerary had a lot pieces.  First, at 5:45, Harry's Taxi drove me from Reeth to Darlington, about 50 minutes.  The lady driver drove fast and the road was curvy and she didn't have a Lexus, if you know what I mean.  I did tell her that I suffer from motion sickness and could she possibly go a bit slower. She obliged for about five minutes.  At the train station, an employee helped me retrieve my ticket, which was supposed to be available from the app only it wasn't.  Pleasant  90 minute train ride from Darlington to Berwick-UponTweed, (known as Berrick, to the locals) during which I read the Daf, did Connections and the Spelling Bee.  Woods Taxis picked me up and brought me to Eyemouth where I dropped off my suitcase at the B and B, and then took off along the Berwickshire Coast Path heading north.  

The coast looks like this:

Anyone who has done coastal walking would know what the ups and downs are like.  First you go way way way down, to the beach,  followed almost immediately by a way way way up to the top of the cliff.  The cycle is repeated several times. Fortunately, it was not a scary path, as in I never felt that I might end up in the North Sea.

At one point, however, I thought the directional sign was pointing to the little gap among those ferns.  "No!  The route cannot go through there and up that monster hill!"  It didn't.

The harbour at St. Abbs.

The walk continued around "St. Abbs Head" but that would have added several miles and since I did not start out until 9:00 a.m., that would have made too long a day, so I headed back.

People were frolicking and cavorting in the water (I know they were frolicking and cavorting because I could hear them laughing)....this is the North Sea.  Can you imagine how cold the water must be?

Some impressive cliffage:

There are a number of places where you can divert and go down to the beach, although the beaches are, for the most part or for the whole part, not very nice.  And besides, those are hellish descents.

I do not have to be told twice:

Hydrangeas:

This guy, Willie Spears, with the fish who looks as if he is saying, "Go West, young man," only because of the fish, that does not quite work.  Anyway, he is a local hero: he fought the Church for twenty years because they wanted to tax the fish being caught.

Twenty years of fighting with the church is persistence.

I returned to the fairly pleasant B and B, which has one super amenity:  A FRIG!  The one grocery store in town rates about a C minus, but I am learning how to make do!  

The town: I have never seen more bird shit in my life and bird feathers, too, blowing around.  Legionnaires Disease you could get even without an air conditioner, I swear!  The town has two main churches that look alike, one with a red door and one with a blue door.  Tomorrow, I shall explore the harbour after getting back from walking  to "Berrick."