More coast and castles - 6th May ‘23

A very decadent late rise this morning. I don’t think I managed to peel myself out of Brunnehilda’s big comfy Teutonic bed until well gone 10am!

A quick bowl of cereal and a cup of tea and I was leaving the van just as King Charles III was arriving at Westminster Abbey - or so the man on the radio said. It’s weird, as the last time I was in Northumberland his mum was being buried! I’m coming back up here in September - maybe I should tell him?!

I had no great desire to watch the festivities. I’m not particularly a Republican, it’s just that I have a problem with all the hypocrisy from the Daily Mail / Express and their supporters/ readers getting excited about our countries qualities, compassion and other values when we are also cheering on inhuman / illegal policies from Ms Braverman and her ilk! I know that’s my problem but I own it and I will gladly live with it. Seriously, I’m delighted we have a King, if we had the alternative, an elected Head of State instead, I just know who the great British electorate would vote in - Boris Bloody Johnson! 

My feet have only partially recovered from Thursday’s walk so I thought I’d do a fairly modest (beach based) 8 miler. After having worked out I’d previously walked from Bamburgh to Alnmouth, I thought it would be nice to walk from Alnmouth to Warkworth - so that’s what I did!

It took me 20 mins to drive to the south side of the Aln river - just opposite Alnmouth. During the short drive down the coast the early morning mist was gradually lifting - which all boded well for a nice walk.

And my goodness, what a nice walk it was - well most of it!! As I walked down to the sea and across the dunes I couldn’t help but notice this wonderful sign - see below.

Now compare that to the National Trust’s “ALL dogs on a very short lead at ALL times from March until September”. Guess which one I was happy to obey! And that’s what happens when you let zealots write instructional signs!

The tide was quite a way out so the beach walk was amazing. The light was wonderful - the sun shining on the sea mist - and there was no one there. Probably all watching an old man with a funny hat and cloak splashing oil on another old man with a funny hat and cloak. Oh well, everyone to their own!

So this was Alnmouth Bay - perfect. I walked about 3 miles along the beach and saw about 6 people. Even a middle aged couple hand in hand couldn’t spoil my mood - in fact this was just about the perfect place for that sort of behaviour!

The beach suddenly got busy with lots (well half a dozen!) of families. I had reached Warkworth beach car park and obviously the old men in funny hats and capes had finished whatever they were doing on TV!

A quick walk along the car park road, over the medieval bridge and I was in the quant village of Warkworth. Again, a perfect stopping place for my missing travelling companion!

I’ve been here before - last September. Although I arrived after 5 and everything had been shut - including the castle. So, as it was open, it seemed rude not to.

What a place? It’s run by English Heritage and for less than a tener I was in and set up with an audio guide thing. I spent a very enjoyable hour wandering around and listening to a very knowledgeable chap telling me all about it! The dogs were perfectly behaved- dutifully following me around and plonking themselves down when I sat down to listen to my new friend giving me the “ins and outs”.

It was built in the 14th century and was the family home of the Percy’s - Earls of Northumberland. Although it’s partially ruined (by those naughty Parliamentarians in the Civil War) all the rooms in the main tower were accessible - even to an old man and 2 collies!

There were so many fascinating rooms including one in the chapel with a number of tiny slit stone windows - so the “high born” women could join in without actually being seen / getting in the way. Jeremy Clarkson would have loved it!

The sun was still shining so I had hoped to get something to eat at the pub opposite the castle. All the outside seats were being used and I didn’t want to push my luck with the dogs - Bigby is due a return at some stage and I didn’t want to risk it! 

So I walked out the town and retraced my steps back to the beach car park. By now the tide was well in so, instead of going on the beach, I headed onto the Coastal Path (aka St Oswald’s Way) and a less windy but not so nice 3 miles back to the car.

My bloody right foot toes and my left foot ankle were really quite painful again so the last couple of miles were tough. I was, once again, very glad to see the car. Just over 8 miles averaging 2.4 miles / hour!!

Funny thing, I only realised about 60 mins into my walk that I had forgotten to put my hearing aid in!! The good thing about only talking to yourself all day is that you don’t actually need functioning ears! Result!

Back home to Brunnehilda for a snack, a couple of episodes of Black Adder and a rest on the bed!!

I went into Embleton village to the local (The Greys Inn) for dinner - at about 7.15. It was very busy with the Saturday night local crowd but I eventually got a table and had a pleasant meal and pint! 

The pub is very dog friendly with lots of friendly dogs in the bar. I would have loved to bring them in but … I didn’t!

By the time I finished it was 8.30 and getting dark. I took the dogs down to the beach and golf course at Dunton Steads for one last Northumberland walk. 

A lovely hour on WhatsApp with Thom, Rach, Bobby and Hols and then off for an early night.

It’s been a great 4 days. The weather was so much better than advertised - I only got wet once - and I managed to do lots of different walks and see different things so my worry of being in a rut was exercised!

I’m not sure if this “solo holidaying” gets easier? Sometimes I think it definitely does and then other times ….

The Embleton Boy Caravan Park was as great as usual - if it just had better 4G it would be about perfect. Although they have put their prices up another £5 a night compared to last year!

Thanks for  reading the blogs. I do find it so helpful to do them. It gives me stuff to think about during the day and then stuff to do at night - very therapeutic!

The final picture - soooo appropriate.

Thanks Mandy for sending it me!

On an historic day like today it feels appropriate to end with some words from Johnny Rotten:

God save the “King”
We mean it, man

(PS This was about the only lyric I could quote that wouldn’t get me taken out of my mothers’ will!!)

Inland and Upwards! - 5th May ‘23

So, after reading back the last 2 blogs - something I realise you are probably best doing BEFORE publishing rather than AFTER - I will attempt to document todays activities without mentioning either nesting birds or dog excrement! 

The weather had been forecast to be rubbish today for the last few days, but on awakening to a bright morning and checking the BBC Weather app, it looked like it was to be fine for most of the day with a slight risk of showers - that will do.

The plan was always to go to a National Trust property so I didn’t see the need to change plans. 

A non cooked breakfast got me in the mood for a bit of plumbing. After 20 minutes I gave up - again. Like most things DIY, this one turned out to be way above my “pay grade”. Oh well, it just means what little water I use needs to come from the watering can and the kettle - a good excuse to drink beer and go dirty!!

I was locking up Brunnehilda by about 10.30 and headed for the local beach- at Dunstan Steads. I thought it a good idea to give the dogs a run before we go out for the day. It was beautiful - the fog lifted and gave way to some blue sky and sun. I probably saw no more than a dozen folks and half a dozen dogs on my 45 minute walk up and down the Bay. 

I’m not going to mention it by name, but as the more observant of you will see from this picture the dogs won again today!

Talking of observation - to add some much needed blog “added value” - I thought I would add in a competition today. What’s the story here?

After the beach we headed off to the nearest NT house I hadn’t already visited - Wallington Hall (near Morpeth). About an hours drive through some pretty (although views spoilt by the fog) Northumberland countryside.

The house looks magnificent and the grounds were interesting and extensive but … apart from a fabulous central hall it was a little bland / ordinary with only the downstairs open to the public.  It was originally built in 1684 but with lots  of remodelling during the 18th and 19th centuries.

It was very appropriately the home of the Trevelyan family. The last owner, Charles, was a member of the Labour Party’s first ever Government under Ramsey MacDonald in 1924! He gave the house “lock stock and barrel” to the NT in 1942. Appropriate because today the radio was full of the welcome news that after the local elections, we are possibly one step closer to getting rid of the current Tory Government. Yippee!

Oh, and another thing … Although there was one lovely young volunteer who was very chatty about the house and another lady who was also very good and gave an interesting 15 minute group presentation in the central hall, I was annoyed by one of their colleagues. She was sitting in a particularly interesting room reading something. I amplified my body language to suggest that I was up for a chat and to find out more about the room. She ignored me at first and then suddenly put down what ever she was reading and enthusiastically called over to me - that’s nice I thought! But no, she told me to take my rucksack off! Now given that the said ruck sack was tiny - to be fair I know a lot of men with fatter backs than this - i couldn’t believe it!

PS the last sentence works better if you read it in a Victor Meldrew voice!

The lad in the cafe was top notch though and I let him “upsell” me the potato wedges to go with my burger. And all with the 20% volunteer discount as well - result. I sat in the courtyard with said burger and a cup of tea and did a bit of discreet people watching - in the bright sunshine! Strangely I think I was the only “single” visitor. Although this really doesn’t bother me anymore.

And talking of which. Having a day like this on your own is really quite fun. You just make your mind up as you go along- where to go, when to go, what to eat, when to eat, when to leave, where to go next, when to go home. And no one to talk it through with and compromise!

If that’s on the credit side, it would be remiss of me not to mention the debit side - love, care, affection, companionship and cuddles!!

As is to prove my point, I didn’t really know where I was going next when I got back to the car. A quick look at the map and I decided to climb a hill!

First stop was to a Boots to buy some stuff to make my toes hurt a bit less. After asking Google maps, the nearest one turned out to be Rothbury.

What a smashing place - the town I mean, not the Boots! A typical pretty wee market town full of local interesting shops and lots of places to eat and drink. The sort of place that Kim and I loved and now the sort of place I can still only enjoy from afar. So, after visiting Boots I headed for the hills.

I don’t know how I picked the Beamish Valley and a place called Ingram - just inside The Cheviots National Park. The map showed a nice circular walk up Brough Law (about a 1,000 feet) and past some interesting hill forts. 

I was quite surprised that the car park was totally empty - and it was still only 4pm. Then I saw the incredibly threatening looking clouds! I changed my mind and plotted a shorter route along the river, up the hill (mountain?) via a steep path and then back down via the more modest main path. During the whole time walking I didn’t see another soul!

It was going well until I got about 7/8ths the way up. It had started to rain and there was suddenly a loud clap of thunder and Benny bolted back down the hill.  After a lot of screening and shouting he finally stopped and Tilly and I caught up with him. Time to get down ASAP. As I tentatively made it back down the main path in the pouring rain, thunder and lightening, I wondered exactly what Kim would have said! For a start we wouldn’t have been anywhere near this bloody hill - we’d be sitting in a lovely dry and warm coffee shop back in Rothbury!

I punched Embleton Caravan Park into the sat Nav and was virtually home when I decided to do a detour to Seahouses and go to one of my fave fish and chip shops - Neptune’s.

I had planned to eat it by the harbour but it was drizzling so, after a nice chat with the attractive middle aged lady server (potentially quite a “catch” I thought - mates rates for fish and chips as well!), I headed back to Brunnehilda for the feast.

Another great day and another lazy night - watching Black Adder episodes and blogging. 

Last day tomorrow -  something else is happening tomorrow but for the life of me I can’t remember what!!??

Dogs, birds, twitchers and biting off more than I can chew! - 4th May ‘23

WARNING: this is a long one with no particular theme or interesting subject matter - not a great advert to invest your time in reading it I’m afraid! I’ll leave it up to you and won’t be offended either way! 

No rain due today + lots of rain due tomorrow = walk twice as far today and put feet up tomorrow. No! I think it fair to say that the 13 mile walk I did today was just a little too much for my crappy old feet! It was another one of those walks where I suddenly found my self 6 miles from home, sore feet and still walking in the wrong direction!

It all started well. A good nights sleep with a substantial 2 course breakfast! I left Brunnehilda at about 10.30. I decided I wouldn’t use the car today so I would head down to the coast and turn left and find my way to Beadnell. Completing this stretch means that I’ve now walked all the way from Bamburgh to Alnmouth (minus a short section by Boulmer). That’s over 20 miles by car so probably a bit more by hugging the coast line. 

Lets deal with the geography first - I walked on the footpath from the farm down to the Coastal Footpath. I then got on Embleton Bay beach and walked to Low Newton by Sea.

After that it was across to Football Hole Beach (yes, really!) and then dropping onto the huge Beadnell Bay beach. Walking the length before going through the village of Beadnell. Then I followed the Coastal Path back to Low Newton and headed over the fields to the caravan site.

Overall the walk was about 13 miles at my usual slightly over 2.5 miles per hour. That’s nearly twice as many miles per day as General Sherman’s “March to the Sea” in the US Civil War. Although to be fair he had a lot of earth scorching activities to complete while I just had to deal with 2 crazy collies!

Oh and the collies were crazy again today! We had our usual game of “Carry the poo”. The idea of the game is for them to maximise the time I have to carry their excrement. And boy, they’re good at it!

It was a classic start. One of them waits until we’re 200 yards past a bin and then they perform. I pick it up and then turn back the 200 yards to deposit it. They smile and walk a further 500 yards and then the other one performs. Clearly I can’t go back again. So I do what a lot of my dog walking friends do and get a stick and flick it into the hedge. Ok, I’m on top of this. Then another half mile later one of them does another one - although this time it resembles a chicken tikka bhuna. That’s getting flicked no where fast so I reluctant bag it and start praying for a bin. There is never one when you want one and, as if to rub my nose in it (figuratively speaking), they finish me off by depositing a puréed chicken tikka bhuna - as we’ve now had 1/2 a mile of them drinking sea water! I admit defeat and keep the bag at arms length until I eventually find a bin. I gave them a celebratory drink of water.

Wow, this is quality blogging. Where else would you get so much detail about dog excrement?! No wonder my 11 regular readers keep coming back for more?!

For folks that don’t walk on their own, this maybe a surprise to you but it’s not a lonely experience as you are talking constantly. Not out loud (well just occasionally!) but internal conversations and arguments about all sorts of tosh. The dog poo being one example.

The other substantial internal debate I had today was the usual one of birds and twitchers! Firstly, let me say, I don’t like bird watchers! They seem to have sizeable chips on their shoulders and are so engrossed in watching said birds that they don’t have time for the rules of common courtesy- a smile, a few words.

One of them told me off today as he (and his wife who looked rather like a bulldog chewing a bee) asked me in a passive aggressive manner if I knew I wasn’t allowed on a part of the beach he had clearly just seen me on. I said no but politely thanked him for letting me know! We can all be f**king passive aggressive mate!

Lots of signs about dogs on leads and flippin nesting birds again today. Mostly on NT land. I wouldn’t mind but they bloody nest from March to August? Couldn’t they bloody do it in the winter? And, while I’m on it, it rather goes against Darwinian principles for us all to go out our way to protect something that hasn’t got the evolutionary good sense to build its darn nest off the ground!

I also spent some time drafting a letter (in my head) to the NT to make my case but i suspect it very unlikely that this particular correspondence will ever get written!

Meanwhile the scenery was wonderful - the sea was wild and ferocious and the sky was grey and threatening. It was bloody cold as well (7 degrees in May?!) but as usual there were very few folks about - about an equal number of dog walkers and bird watchers.

I had a bit of a mare with lunch as well. I planned to eat at Beadnell but that was easier said than done … I walked up the beach spotting an ice cream van in the distance. Like some desert mirage it seemed to take ages to get there and then just as I was within 25 yards it drove off. I muttered under my breath and headed for the main village but the only place I could find didn’t open until 5. But at least there was another ice cream van! Unfortunately just at this time I realised I was busting for a wee. No problem, there was a public toilet close to hand. The gents was locked and out of order but helpfully the sign said the problem had been reported- well thank God for that!! Anyway, I can’t enjoy an ice cream when I need a wee so I headed through the large caravan site and onto the dunes to seek relief. So much for eating at Beadnell!

The dogs and I ended up picnicking on the beach much later on. Mini pork pies, chocolate cookies and Doritos slipped down nicely! At this stage I had my only physical conversation of the day. I said a few niceties  to an old gay couple but my bloody deafness prevents me from accurately recounting their witty retorts!

Ok, it’s 11pm now and, apart from sticking a fish pie in the microwave, I haven’t moved from Brunnehilda’s bed and the dogs haven’t moved from under the table for pretty much 6 hours. Doesn’t bode well for the morning but it’s due to rain anyway!

And I’ve still gotta a bloody leaky tap to fix!