Northumberland Holiday

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 20^th 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.

The sinks change colour

Upside down fountain

Keep off the grass (cannabis)

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.

Guilemot chick

Razorbill

Common gull

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.

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 60^th birthday party.

Things can end well!