I was listening to a discussion on the radio last week as I was driving home from work. One of the women was talking about why she doesn't take her children out for a walk at this time of year because it is cold, wet and muddy and everyone just gets miserable. Anyone coming the other way would have seen a mad looking woman shouting at the radio. You don't have to go out and get muddy, anyone wearing the correct clothing and is prepared for the weather can have a very enjoyable walk. Anyway, enough of my ranting, the point is James and I walked 14 miles this weekend and had a thoroughly - muddy and wet - good time.
As you can see we are suitably attired in our winter gear, and ready for all weathers, which was just as well as that is what was thrown at us!
We did decide, however, that taking the footpath route was perhaps not the best option!!! This muddy field was the result of a lot of rain and cows. We decided to take the road instead...
The advantage of taking the road route meant that we were closer to the sea so every now and again we could walk along the beach. This is the stretch that leads to Seahouses.
Seahouses Harbour. You can take boat trips from here out to the Farne Islands, famous for both the birds that live and nest there, as well as being the setting for Grace Darling's heroic rescue of sailors off a sinking ship. There is a museum celebrating Grace Darling's life in Bamburgh. There weren't any trips going to the Farne Islands today - perhaps the sea was a bit rough!! In fact most of Seahouses seemed to be closed.
After Seahouses we continued to walk (along the road again) until we reached Beadnell. We laughed at this sign as just moments before a young lad in a car had appeared, at great speed, around the corner and proceeded to overtake another car, doing anything but 'driving carefully'.
Is this how old I will be this year?????
At Beadnell the St Oswald's Way follows the road through the village but it is well worth taking the road straight ahead down to the picturesque harbour. (We actually went this way looking for the toilets but didn't find them). Because of the turn of the bay this is, apparently, the only west facing harbour on the east coast of England.
The three disused lime kilns that form the harbour buildings are in the care of the National Trust. Although small it is still a working harbour as can be seen from the stacks of lobster pots. From the harbour we made our way through the sand dunes onto the beach.
As we walked around Beadnell Bay we passed these two men trying to fly this huge kite, I am not sure who was flying who. It was taking the strength of both of them to hold it down. I expected them to go flying across the bay at any moment!
At this point the tide was coming in quickly and we had to walk fast to get to the end of the bay and then through the dunes to Low Newton by the sea. Here we were met by Tim, Kez and Ben with lunch and a warm flask of coffee. I didn't get any photos of this as it started to rain and we jumped into the car for some shelter.
After Low Newton we headed towards Newton Pools where we came across this bench made entirely of beach finds (mostly driftwood and fishing remnants) with a backing screen woven from willow.
The footbridge across the river is the route of the St Oswald's Way. This picture sums up the walk as we make yet another detour caused by flooding. To be expected at this time of year I suppose.
James was getting a bit tired now so we were relieved to see this little causeway just before Dunstanburgh Castle, a few metres before we had been worried we might be forced to turn back and take the road route through Embleton. We continued on across the hill under the castle and were met by the welcoming sight of Tim, Kez and Ben walking up from Craster to meet us.
Just to return to the point I made at the beginning, it was a joy to do this walk with my son where we could chat to each other without any interruption from TV or computer games. He was so proud of himself for completing the whole 14 miles. I have been out today and bought him a new pair of walking boots as a reward!!