A fabulous day. Yesterday was all about seeing similar things from a different angle, whereas today was all about seeing new things. I had 3 nice but very different experiences today - each one wonderful in its in way but, due to the melancholic mood that’s still about me, I’d only rate it as a 6 out of 10 sorta day - yesterday was nearer a 4!
I decided to go south today and north tomorrow- after having a car free day yesterday. But the day didn’t start properly until noon. The normal lie in was followed by a more modest breakfast of bagels and bovril. I was washed and heading for Alnwick by 10.30. Visits to the petrol station, Argos (pick up Charlie’s birthday present) and Sainos (for a new battery and a few provisions) meant that it was gone 11.30 before I punched Alnmouth into the sat nav.
I’d seen a travel programme on it a few years ago and it looked like nice - so, why not? The name sort of gives it away but it’s down river from Alnwick where the river Aln meets the coast. I have no idea how the locals pronounce Alnmouth? If it’s anything like Alnwick, then it will be “Ann-muth”?
I drove through the wee town and obviously Kim came to mind. It’s the sort of place she / we would have stopped at and whiled away an extremely pleasant hour or so. Not something I would be doing today though - I still actively avoid this sort of thing. She loved it so much and it’s one of those things that could never be the same without her.
So, I headed for the beach car park. I don’t think I had a plan when I set out except I had to walk north as the river got in the way of walking southwards on the beach. The great thing about up here is, as long as it’s not high tide, you can walk out on the beach and then back on the coast path thereby creating a bit of a circular walk. And that’s just what I did. Once in the car park, I wasted 30 mins hanging on the phone to book an MRI. Got it booked for 3rd October - seemed a long time to wait but then reminded myself how blimin’ lucky I was to have the benefit of private healthcare!!
The dogs did their normal manic start to a beach walk. Running in and out of the water, barking at the waves (Tilly) and emptying their bowels at least a couple of times each!
There was a sprinkling of folks and dogs around - not as busy as yesterday- and it got less busy the further we walked away from Alnmouth. In fact at one stage we had a patch of beach to ourselves for 15 mins or so.
There was a series of beaches / bays connected by rocky / seaweedy outcrops. As the tide was out you could walk through the rocks and seaweed to get to the next bit of sand.
We walked about 3 miles along the beach along Alnmouth Bay, Fluke Hole and ending up at Boulder Haven. I got off the beach at Boulmer, I noticed on my OS App that there was a pub in the village. But I suddenly changed my mind and thought I’d like to get to Cragside - a close by National Trust property before 3. So, at about 1.30 I ignored said pub and headed back on the coast path. The 3 miles was a lot quicker on the path than on the beach (even though some of the path was indeed on the beach!) so I was back in the car park by 2.30.
I arrived at Cragside at 3pm. And this is where I had my only significant conversation of the day - excluding dogs that is! The NT volunteer on the gates / welcome centre was lovely. I gave her my Caravan Club card by mistake so I think she soon realised what she was dealing with. A lot of chat about what was on offer at the property, where to go and what to do with the dogs etc.
I have to say, the grounds were huge and very impressive. The house is very quirky and most of the rooms were open. It took a full hour to walk round. There were some nice bits (like the private Turkish Baths) but it was no Canons Ashby!
I grabbed a takeaway coffee and then drove round the Carriage Route. A lovely winding trail around the whole estate. I didn’t fancy walking the dogs as a lot of it would be on the lead, I was warned (by the nice lady volunteer) of blue algae on the lake and the surrounding forests looked quite thick - I was worried about Benny getting lost again! Kim and I would have headed straight for the tea room but that was another Kim favourite that I avoided!
Unsurprisingly after only a 2.5 hour walk, Tilly was up for more exercise. I tapped in Warkworth into the sat Nav - another place that I’d heard of and that looked nice. It’s about 3 miles south of Alnmouth so I retraced my journey from earlier in the afternoon. And we crossed some gorgeous and wild scenery! I thought Derbyshire was hard to beat but I think I’m switching my allegiances to Northumberland as my favourite county - so so beautiful, both coast and inland.
Warkworth didn’t disappoint. Another pretty little town, although by the time I got there (just gone 5) it was shutting down. At the end of the High Street was a mighty impressive ruined castle. It was shut - obviously - but I got the dogs out and we had a walk round. The sun was really out now. We had some sun earlier but not as much as yesterday - however it was now a really lovely evening so I just followed the sign down to the river and checked out a nice short (1.5 mile?) walk on my OS App.
It was gorgeous walking along the banks of the a river Coquet - virtually no one about. The dogs enjoyed being in water that they could drink!! There was a ruined Hermitage on the other side of the river bank - closed! You couldn’t see it from the trees / undergrowth. Turns out it’s closed permanently which explained the semi submerged ferry row boat!
Back home via a lovely footpath on the outskirts of the town approaching the Castle from another angle. It has lots of interesting history (including ownership by the Percys and lots of visiting Medieval English and Scottish Kings. Interestingly the experts can’t be certain who built it - Henry II of England or Prince Henry of Scotland!?
And so home to Brunnehilda. It was gone 6.30 by now and even though Matilda was up for one more final beach walk - I wasn’t! I fed the dogs outside the van and read my book for 30 mins before heading inside and cooking the other half of the pork loins with pepper sauce. This time, thanks to my trip to Sainos, I had dressing for the salad and some microwave fries to spice things up a tad!!
The usual end to the day - 2 more Waltons episodes, blogging and an episode of Better Call Saul on Netflix. All washed down with 2 cups of tea and quite a lot of Maltesers!!
So the end of another lovely Northumberland day. In theory it couldn’t have been any nicer. In practice it was better than yesterday but my mojo still hasn’t caught up fully yet.
I’ll leave you with this nice picture of 2 very stiff and knackered collies. If you want to read more about my self indulgent psycho analysis then read on. However if you would rather not then I totally and completely understand - why would you? This bit is really just for my benefit (in a cleansing sort of way) and for anyone else that might be going through similar sh*t and may find my honest and embarrassing thought processes helpful.
After more self reflection - an advantage (or not!) of spending a whole day with just your own thoughts - I have came to 2 rather embarrassing conclusions. Both confirming significant character flaws but, as I keep telling myself when listening to these odd people breaking down in tears about the death of a privileged 96 year old nice lady that they’d never met - we all handle grief differently - AND THATS OK!
1) I soon figured out that my most successful and positive coping mechanism was to focus on a happier future. There will be good times, exciting changes, fun and laughter around the corner and everyday is one step closer to it. Very much a Bobby (youngest son) approach to life! Problem is, this isn’t working quite so well this week and I think it’s all about my recent “good ear” deafness, cough and lots of tests to schedule. I know it’s complete and utter nonsense but when the last MRI test you can remember resulted in the person you love with all your heart and soul being told that they have terminal stage 4 cancer, it’s hard to shift your mind into thinking about a happy future! This is very selfish and I know irrational but there it is. I am aware of it so I can keep fighting it.
2) I said I was comparing this year with last years visit to Northumberland. Has my grief / mindset shifted? Well the answer is definitely… yes.
The good news is that I can now walk by 60 year old + couples and not wish them dead! There are 3 other caravans on this site all with 60 year old couples with dogs. I’m not angry and I’m not jealous.
I think the self pity is much better too - well at least it has been. I can’t think the last time I felt the world was against me. And I’m not getting so angry with people and things that don’t matter - although the demise of BJ has probably helped that!!?
Now here’s the other difference. I still miss Kim so much and always think what she would be saying / doing but, I’ve noticed that, while I would give anything for her to be with me on these trips, I’m feeling more loneliness than I am desperately missing Kim. It’s as if I know, as much as I long to, I can’t share these things with her but I need to share with someone - anyone but 2 stupid collies!
Anyway, another day of indulgent self reflection tomorrow - unless I meet that nice fungi lady again or someone else that takes me away from my own thoughts! I suspect I’ll keep them to myself from now on though as I’m fully cleansed?!
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