4 of us met at Eyemouth on saturday morning to kayak to Berwick & back. Dave Towsey , Fearghal Kelly ,Steve MacFarlane & myself.
After the usual beach briefing & coastguard call we set off with minimal swell. First stop one of the caves near horse head – probably best part of 30m long.
On past Burnmouth doing a small amount of rockhopping through rock gardens with about a foot of swell. A brief pause just south of Ross point where there are the remains of an old salmon station with winch and ruined cottage.
Next stop Marshall Meadows bay . Leaving Fearghal minding the boats we found the rope and ladders leading up to the start of the man made tunnel through the cliff. The ladders are now very overgrown and Steve’s trust in the questionable integrity of the rope was unfounded so we made it up. The tunnel remains intact but drier than usual and we soon found out why. The entrance at the caravan park end has been roofed over and new steps up to the surface end in a high fenced enclosure with a gate locked with a combination lock. At a push you could clamber over the 1.5m fence but it would be difficult and risks cut hands. Not sure who built this ( Network Rail?)but it required a lot of pre formed concrete and prevented us getting the normal cliff edge views. Gingerly retracing our steps and the ropes & ladders we rejoined Fearghal who had been emptying his snack supply while ensuring the boats didn’t drift off.
After getting back on the water we headed south to have lunch south of Sharpers head about 1.2km from Berwick Pier beneath the caravan park there, and the sun poked through. There was a juvenile porpoise carcass just above the high tide mark and a member of the Dolphin conservation society had come to see it. She had suspicions the the neat serrated bite mark taking out most of the gut had been an Orca attack ! Possibly?
Heading back we explored the natural arch at Needles Eye ( see photo) and with the freshening SE F2-3 wind behind us we paddled back to Eyemouth in just under 2 hours.
Probably about 28km travelled over the day
Thanks to everyone who came to explore more of this locally remote bit of the East Coast.