OK - back from a great trip - thoroughly enjoyable. I have been to the
Isle of May in the Firth of Forth and so had a pretty good idea of what to expect, but in some ways this surpassed that.
I went with Serenity Tours partly because the timing suited me better and partly because the catamaran is allegedly a smoother ride than other boats and would provider a better platform for shots on the water as well as being easier on the digestive system.
I opted for the trip to Inner Farne - again largely due to timing, but I think all the trips at least visit all the Islands even though you only land on one. The two guys running the tour were great - the pilot banging on his window to alert me to anything he saw in case I had missed it, and holding great position under the cliffs of Staple Island to give great photo opportunities.
The catamaran operated by Serenity does seem to give a nice smooth ride and good clear views all round - I was really impressed as to how good a view you got even from the boat - I think some people would be happy with just a cruise without landing. At one point I was actually too close to take shots as I had my big lens on.
I didn't see anything new to me but then I wasn't expecting to - on the trip around the islands we had the ubiquitous eider, guillemots, razorbill, puffins, shag, cormorants, kittiwakes and assorted gulls and sandwich and arctic terns. Fantastic views of grey seals both hauled out on the rocks and swimming around the boat to get a look at us.
On Inner Farne itself we had an hour (which turned into an hour and a quarter by the time our boat had queued up at the jetty to collect us.
On the shore of the island we had common and sandwich terns greeting us as well as eider and oystercatcher and I saw a single turnstone. Afer the gentle climb up the boardwark into the middle of the island there were arctic, sandwich and common terns, black headed gulls and puffins streaming past our noses (although thankfully not aimed at us!) and eider wonderfully camouflaged just inches from the boardwalk.
The clifftop by the lighthouse again offered unrivalled views of kittiwakes, shag, razorbill and guillemot to the extent that I had to move back in order to focus on some. I was trying to get a shot of a puffin when a kittiwake landed six inches from my hand!
You are quite regimented on Inner Farne compared to the Isle of May, being fairly clearly restricted to narrow boardwalks, whereas on Isle of May there are no such barriers. I don't really have a problem with that as I often had to check myself from blundering into female eiders sat motionelss on nests on May, but it does make the place look and feel a little bit artificial - almost like a safari park.
I'm not sure if Staple Island is quite the same - I suspect it might not be.
Anyway - the Farnes are a magical place, especially once you are out there, and the tours make an excellent job of keeping people informed - from the enthusiastic nature watcher to the japanese tourists (who spend much of the trip gagging into handkerchiefs over the smell off the bird colonies as much as seasickness!)
My advice though - go for the full day excursion where you get a couple of hours on each island. One hour isn't really enough - could happily have spent 3 or 4 hours.
I'm uploading pics from my trip to my
flickr account if anyone wants to see.
