Weather: Sunny intervals.
Distance:
14 km (8.7 miles) Total
Distance: 3072 miles
We had
travelled down from Stirling at the end of a fine holiday in Beauley near
Inverness where we had rented a log cabin for a week. We then called off on Stirling on the way
back so we could visit Edinburgh and the festival yesterday. It had been a great day, going into town on
the train and then wandering the streets all day looking at the street
entertainers and then the parade that opened the three-week festival.
The
previous evening at the B&B had also been strange. An elderly South African lady had been
staying and we think woke up in a confused state and started to wander around
all the bedrooms and strolled into the boys room as they were getting ready for
bed which rather frightened them. When
we met her in the morning she was perfectly OK and told us how her father had
been the Lord Mayor of Johannesburg and when she was little they had
entertained many famous heads of State including a Prince from England.
We got
to Whitley Bay by around late lunchtime and I found where I had stopped last
time. Margaret took the car and headed
up to Blyth and I walked North along promenades and cliff top path, not a lot
of cliff top though. I got talking to a
partially sighted lady that had become un-nerved when a small motorised street
cleaner went past brushing sand from the promenade. She retired to the area and loved it.
St
Mary’s Head looked good and there was quite a crowd out walking the path. I talked to a lady and it transpired she had
just been on holiday to Conway Holiday Fellowship. It brought back a lot of
memories.
Seaton
Sluice is very much a sluice with a deep gully taking the river out to
sea. I crossed on a low footbridge and
then onto the beach north for a couple of miles.
Things
looked worse as I approached Blyth. The seaside looked derelict which is
pretty difficult as all it is is a beach. I ended up in the docks area and had to backtrack half a mile as there
was no way out. The houses this side if
Blyth were mainly small but kept reasonably.
I walked though a very well maintained park – a real jewel, before
finding the inevitable quayside redevelopment.
Margaret and the boys turned
up just as I did. They had been for a
look around the town. They moved the car
to the town car park and I went off in search of a map as I had just walked off
the edge of the previous one. I eventually
found one in Smith's and spent my mother-in-laws book token on it. I bet she
thinks I spend them on intelligent reading matter!
There
then followed a frustrating two hours looking for a bed and breakfast. It was the only accommodation that we had not
booked in advance. We
pulled into Ellington and found one B&B and Margaret went in to enquire but
reported back that there was something she felt was not quite right about it –
especially the way the landlady didn’t appear at all keen to want any guests
staying – a bit bizarre for a person running a B&B!
We went down to Cresswell on the coast, then
up the coast past a sign saying road closed which indeed it was after 2 miles!
– back again! And up to Amble – Nothing at all. Then we found the pretty village of
Warkworth . We found one B&B on a housing estate that I didn’t fancy – I wasn’t
coning from Coventry to stay on a housing estate. We drove around in a big
circle getting cross and then back to Warkworth. Eventually Margaret went into
one that was full but kind enough to phone around many in the area – only to
find them all full. We headed south and
all the way into Morpeth where we saw a sign off the main road pointing to a
B&B. It was perfect – a old big stone terraced house run by a man from
Dublin. He even offered to take us
around to the town to show us a good Italian restaurant that was OK with the
kids and indeed it was – good value for money food in a good busy atmosphere.
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