The little brown car took me,
Irene, Paul and Mary with our entire luggage on a five hour trip ‘up north’. We
made two rest stops, with a driver change before leaving the A1 and arriving at
our holiday home in Beadnell. Half way through the journey we left the sunny
weather in exchange for the ‘wet stuff’. In addition to the rain the unseasonal
cold was to be a feature of our holiday.
We neglected to research the road
to the bungalow, which turned out to be unmade which also became a small pond.
As the picture shows the car needed to be parked on the grass as there was no
drive to the property. To add to the fun of getting to the door there was the
obstacle course of rabbit holes and droppings.
However, it was good
accommodation. Each couple had a private bath or shower. The living room/
dining area, kitchen was spacious and the rear windows looked towards the back
of the dunes. Unfortunately there was only one day when it was fit to go over
the dunes to the wide sandy beach.
Having unpacked we set to explore
the village. This was mainly to find our evening meal. The local pub turned out
to be very expensive, as did the restaurant near to it. Costly dining was
another feature of the region. We did spy the church and went in to see their
preparation for the village celebration of the queen’s ninetieth birthday.
Finally we parked at the village chip shop next to the general store.
Firstly
we walked along the shore which was the rocky side of the peninsular and then
we returned to purchase our fish and chip supper. Just before this Paul and
noticed that swallows were going into the bus shelter. Inside he found a nest
of chicks.
On Saturday, despite the
continuing inclement weather we headed north along the coast road. Seahouses
was the first place we reached. The town boasts a Co-op, a garage and a
harbour. While Paul and Irene explored the gift shop Mary and I went down to
the harbour and booked our trip for the Farne Islands. We thought that the weather
may improve later in the week and so we booked our trip for Wednesday at 11.30
pm.
After our shopping we carried on down to Bamburgh. At the entrance of the
town, by the castle was a large car park. A pleasant, but two edged sword about
the area is that there is a lot of free car parking. Having taken some wet
weather shots of the castle we walked into the village and looked to get
somewhere dry. This turned out to be a visit to the large (for the size of the
village church) and then opposite into the ‘Grace Darling’ Museum. Grace was a Victorian
heroin who lived with a large family on an island in a lighthouse. She and her
father saved a number of lives when a ship was wrecked in a storm. Four years
later, at the age of 26, she died of TB. Before leaving Bamburgh we stopped for
refreshments at the cricket pavilion where there was a craft fair. I had
interesting talks with a local artist and a professional photographer.
Then we drove on up the A1 and
made a right turn towards Holy Island. Thinking that there would not be food on
the island we stopped off at ‘The Barn’ at Beale. They were offering
pensioners’ portions. How could they think that pensioner eat less than younger
people.
Driving on to the island was an
experience. I had not expected to be driving on a good road going for such a distance
with mud at each side. I had even thought that it would be a quick on and off
before the tide came in. Surprisingly there was a large car park with hundreds
of cars and the island was swarming with people. There was plenty of time to
explore and the weather cleared a little. We took the bus from the car park to
the castle. Here we left Paul and Mary and went up and into the castle. As
members of the National Trust we had free admission. The Norman castle had been
turned into an early 20th century holiday home.
The return bus took us into the
village and we walked to look at Lindisfarne Priory. After beverages and scones
in a tea shop we re-boarded the bus to the car park and so back to Beadnell. On
the way out of Seahouses we noticed that the golf club was offering well priced
Sunday lunches.
On Sunday the weather was truly
atrocious but we did need to get out of the house.
We spent a happy time in the
local church where we had our morning refreshments. Then we went into Seahouses
for more supplies and a look at the harbour. This was mainly to pass some time
waiting to go to the golf club for Sunday lunch. Here we eat a good sizes
dinner of good food. Then there was nothing left to do but to fritter away the
rest of the day in the bungalow.
We were about to start the fourth
day of the holiday with little let up in the weather and so on Monday we
decided on a town visit and it would be to Alnwick (pronounced anick).
The
owner of the property had supplied us with a ‘parking clock’. In the event we
did not have to use it as we easily found free parking in the town. We split up
into pairs. Irene and I were in search of galleries or museums. At the
designated time we regrouped and went in search of morning refreshments and
came across a café where a pleasant man served us. We overheard him telling
others that his wife was suffering from an illness and would not recover and
that he was winding down the shop for when the lease ran. How sad are some
people’s lives.
The four of us went off to the
castle where it was decided that we would be happier going to the gardens
despite the rain. It was a good decision. The fountains were fascinating. A
mother duck and her ducklings did not seem to know where the water was. There
was gate that made bird songs. The toilets were brilliant with glass bowls that
changed colour. We had a good dinner consisting of baked potatoes. There were
other water features. Then we went to the poison garden. This was seriously
enclosed and a guide took a few people at a time through. They had cannabis
plants kept in a cage.
To end the visit we went to the
tree house. Irene thought that it was just for children but it had adult sized
rope bridge and a large restaurant which was too pricey for us.
On the way back to the car we
managed to buy two much needed jigsaw puzzles.
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| The sinks change colour |
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| Upside down fountain |
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| Keep off the grass (cannabis) |
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| Tree House |
We rose to another wet and cold
day. This called for yet another town day. Our destination was Berwick-upon-Tweed.
I think that this is England’s most northerly city. It is just over two miles
to the border. This was noticeable when talking to the locals who we sometimes
could not quite understand.
In Berwick we discovered the one
failing with free parking; there was none available. Disc parking was ‘free’
but only allowed us three hours. Irene and I again set off for museums and
galleries with no success. However, we did find our way on to the wall and down
to the river and along the bridges. Here I was able to take some atmospheric
photographs. Because of the rain we returned to the car park earlier than
planned but I did succeed in getting a cup of the hottest coffee that I have
ever had. I phoned Mary and she told us that they had found a pub for lunch and
that the landlord would move his car when we arrived. Which he did.
Strangely, the cloud lifted as we
reached Bamburgh and so we stopped to take some sunnier pictures of the castle.
Even so mistiness can be seen in this picture. Before returning to the
bungalow we had one thing to do. This was to find and photograph the Beadnell
AA Box.
The rising cloud was a good
portent to what we would find the following day. It turned out that the trip to
the Farne Islands would be blessed by brighter, clearer, warmer and, above all,
drier weather.
After the chaos of crowds on the
dock side we boarded the ‘Serenity’. This was known by me as the ‘Serendipity’.
The weather was a happy accident. The cruise took us around the islands to view
the wild life from the water and then we landed on Inner Farne. We had been
well warned to cover our heads as we had to run the gauntlet of Arctic terns
nesting right up to the board walk. Mary was dive bombed 9 times to my three
times and mum’s not at all. Mary wore a green coloured hat, I had straw and mum
had white. I wondered if there was a correlation between hat colours and the
frequency of dive bombing. The professionals in the camouflage hats seemed to
fair the worse as they seemed to be targets of the droppings.
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| Guilemot chick |
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| Razorbill |
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| Common gull |
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| Arctic tern |
On the island we had an hour to
walk around the board walk. This took us to the cliff edge to view the cormorants
with their chicks and then more shots of puffins before returning to the landing
stage to be trapped in a line, as a good
target for the terns before getting back on to the boat.
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| Beadnell Lime Kilns |
The weather held and mum led an
expedition over the sand dunes and on to beach. It was a beautiful beach that
we ought to have been able to enjoy more. Even as we stood on the beach a dense
sea mist blotted out our view for a time. To the far end we knew that there
were rangers camped out to guard the little terns as they nested on the beach.
The rangers even had to put the nests on boxes to keep them from being washed
away by the tides. At our end were the lime kilns which date from around 1800,
when coal was king.
On our last day the weather was
back to its usual thing. Once more the even browner car was put into action for
a drive south along the ‘Coast Road’. First we came to Aylmouth (pronounced
Ailmouth) after the river Ayl (pronounced the same as the town, but not after Alnwick).
The beach had beautiful soft golden sand, but we were not even tempted to
paddle. Here we had refreshments in the local tea room.
Going further south we came to
the town of Amber. They had made a brave attempt to attract tourists with
colour in the town centre and modern shopping kiosks around the harbour.
Unfortunately the little food available in town was too pricey. The assistant
at the information centre directed us to a modern restaurant, a little out of town
where we did enjoy the last sit-down dinner of the holiday.
Warwick castle, on the way back
to the bungalow, made the last shot of the holiday. Then it was time to pack,
go to bed, load up the car and take the five hour journey home.
This was without incident apart
from the fact that mum stubbornly refused to keep to 50 mph through road works
to the visible and audible call from a lorry who wanted her to move into the
overtaking lane so that he could undertake her at slightly more than the speed
limit. If it’s not the rain then there has to be something else.
We arrived home in good time. A
lot of unpacking was done. Around tea time I had a call from the community
centre to say that the toilets were flooded. A top had come off a tap. You
can guess when the rain chose to bucket down. With water turned off, a plumber
booked and the chairman alerted it was time for tea before Paul and Mary picked
us up finish off the day at a friend’s 60th birthday party.
Things can end well!
Our family Christmas got fully underway on the 27th. First Tim, Isla, Izzie and double bass arrived. This was followed in a matter of minutes by Joni and Fiona. This was followed, just a little later by Iona who had come alone on the coach (Tim did not have room in his car for Iona and a double bass).
On Thursday we woke to continuing fog and freezing conditions. We all stayed in late and then after breakfast we went for a walk along the Nottingham Canal at Cossall. These conditions are good for atmospheric photographs.
Tim and Isla, very kindly, took us for a curry at Weatherspoons before disappearing into the foggy night and that was Christmas over.
