Sunday Times Where Was I? Holiday Competition

Near as I can figure it, through the possibly flawed perceptual filters of my own reality tunnel, the most likely answers this week, seem to me to be:


Q1. Whitley Bay


Q2. St Mary's Island


внимание друзья! For Question 2, St Mary's Island, is also called 'Bait Island', on some maps.

Scroll past the pictures for the breakdown and solutions to the puzzle clues:


The Eastender's blogg has been a bit delayed this weekend, due to him being asked by the joint American-Thai contingent, to lead a Munro bagging expedition into the fierce icy and rocky wilderness east of Glen Falloch, with the aim of reaching the summit of a lofty eminence, called Beinn Chabhair. The American-Thai contingent were initially a little concerned at the conditions but after the Eastender had assured them that a temperature of 12 degrees centigrade is regarded as T-shirt weather in this part of the world and that this was the best time to go, as the bracken was only sprouting, thus no jungle, ticks or midges to negotiate, dodge and otherwise hinder our enjoyment of the trip, things soon got underway and we entered the temperate rain forest at the base of the mountain, where we encountered a giant waterfall, which is not visible from the road, before sumitting the Beinn around three hours later. We were passed on the way by a Royal Marine in shorts and T-shirt, travelling at a fair old clip, who cheerily informed us that he was 'just out for my afternoon jog'. We lunched at the summit, where it was two degrees cooler and blowing a hooley and then on the descent, nearly lost one of the team over the aforementioned giant waterfall, when fatigue and loss of concentration caused them to trip and pitch forward at an alarming rate, fortunately they were grabbed before they went over and then admonished with the phrase 'don't do that again! '.

                                          Picture of the Giant Waterfall, which is not visible from the road.

                                                            The fierce icy and rocky wilderness:

                               View from the summit of Beinn Chabhair (933 metres or 3061 feet)

Nice view taken on the steep ascent

Some of the other waterfalls encountered on the trip:

I digress, the initial clues seem to place us in the town of Whitley Bay, in one of the most beautiful counties on the big British island, namely Northumberland. One of the inventors of the windscreen wiper, who was born c 1880, at 4 St Ann's row, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, according to some of his biographies, was a chap called Gladstone Adams. He allegedly came up with the idea after travelling from Newcastle to London to watch a football match, in a primitive car called a Darracq and because it was raining and snowing, had to lower the windshield in order to get a clear view of the road. Adams appears to have been in the RFC and helped arrange the funeral of Baron Von Richthofen. Some of the biographical reference sources, claim that he spent the rest of his life living in Whitley Bay, running a photographic business.

A disaster which occurred c Jan 16 1862, is probably the Hartley Colliery or Hester Pit disaster, in which two hundred and four men lost their lives, when the beam of a pumping engine broke and sent parts tumbling down the only shaft into the mine, blocking it and trapping the workers.

The 'splendid home', in an estate which lies north of Hartley village, is likely to be Seaton Delaval Hall, which was designed by an architect (born c 1664), called Sir John Vandbrugh. The owners of Seaton Delaval hall seem to have been notorious pranksters and it is said that guests could awaken to the sight of a room turned upside down, with the furniture on the ceiling. The place seems to have burned down c 1822, with the fire being reported by sailors off the coast of Northumberland.

A nature reserve two and a half miles south east of the 'splendid home' and which was founded c 1992, is probably St Mary's Island Local Nature Reserve. It was originally designated St Mary's and Curry's Point Local Nature Reserve but is now usually just called St Mary's Island (L.N..R). The island does have a decommissioned lighthouse on it, was constructed c 1897/98 and has 137 steps to the top.

An aircraft which crashed in the area c 1940 was a Hadley Page Hampden bomber Mk 1, L4054, returning from a patrol with a full bomb load , which got into difficulties and circled the lighthouse for ninety minutes signalling SOS, before crashing inland and blowing up, with no survivors. St Mary's is reachable by a concrete causeway, which gets covered by the tide.

N.B. The Eastender has moved to moderated comments due to the number of people who normally write letters in green ink, posting on his page. Rest assured though, if you have a non abusive comment relating to solving the puzzle and possible solutions, he will publish it.