Walking to Scotland

Really weird weather this morning as we set out, sunny a few hundred metres in from the coast, but the coastline itself was blanketed with a thick low-visibility fog. Was it cloud? Tiny droplets of salt water whipped up by the strong wind? Sand? Turns out that it was "advection fog" when warm air is blown over something cold (ie the North Sea). Locally (according to Wikipedia) it is known as sea roke or haar.  Golfers in the mist (Dian Fossey's less popular sequel)  Still, everyone is complaining about the current heatwave over most of Western Europe, so I won't complain  Just for balance though I will complain about this: about half way between Beadnell and Seahouses someone has built an incredibly ugly house, seemingly modelled on a small warehouse in an out-of-town industrial park, right in the dunes. They have fenced off a large chunk of the dunes as their "garden" and now the path has been redirected away from the dunes up to the road and then back in ...

 Or vignettes, if you prefer... Far I had carefully planned this walk, even, I confess, to the point of having a spreadsheet. A small spreadsheet, but a spreadsheet nonetheless. On that spreadsheet Wednesday's walk was listed as being 19kms. The longest day so far, but not an insurmountable challenge. On Tuesday evening, however, I was checking everything and discovered that our accommodation, which I had, for some reason, thought was in Newton-by-the-sea, was not actually there, but in a place called Beadnell. Luckily Beadnell was actually on the walk and not, say, in Wales. But it was 6kms further along, turning a manageable 19km day into a daunting 25km one. The silver lining here is that the expected 16kms today, Thursday, is now only 10. Boots I have exceptionally wide feet. They don't seem that exceptional to me, but I have become aware, over the years, that normies clearly have scrawny feet. Hiking boots, which need to fit really well, are a challenge. Last year I got a ...

 We have arrived in Beadnell. It was a pretty long pretty hot day. As a result I'm too knackered to really write so instead I'll recount the day through photos. I might write something tomorrow. If you're nice. The shop where we stocked up on snacks in Alnmouth  Our accommodation last night  I love the British thing of putting benches in beautiful spots  A Sheffield Wednesday fan, obviously  Paula enjoying the view Coming in to Craster, with Dunstanburgh Castle in the background  Eating Craster kippers in Craster  Leaving Craster Approaching the castle  Leaving it behind  No filters. The colours were exactly as as vibrant as this  A stopping off point for liquid sustenance with just 6kms left... 

I could tell you that I planned this so meticulously that I thought we'd start with a mid length first day followed by a shorter second day in order to ease everyone into the physical aspect of the walk. In truth, however, these decisions were based on where I could find accommodation. (No, in case you were wondering, we are not camping) There are worse views to wake up to  A quick inventory of aches and pains this morning showed a pretty positive picture. A couple of sore backs, a stiff leg, a painful heel and a protoblister. Could have been worse. Breakfast in the (very good) hostel and then we were off again, this time heading inlandish to start with so we could cross the river Coquet at Warkworth. Was it just me, or were all the settlements on this route designed to remind you that you are walking? Crest-well, Amble, Walk-worth,  Perambulate. (note: there may not actually be a Perambulate)  Warkworth has an attractive castle and an attractive river (the one that we'd ...

Day 1 of the walk. The Northumberland Coastal Path begins from a place called Cresswell, so getting there was the first task of the day. Well, perhaps not the very first task of the day, but the first directly connected to the walking part.  There had been an anime convention in Newcastle this weekend, so we were forever bumping into groups of cosplayers wandering around. I can't tell you exactly who they were cosplaying as, because I don't know, but they all looked pretty impressive and they brought a dash of colour to the city. This morning, however, they had reverted to cosplaying as normies (though it was fairly easy to guess which of them had spent the weekend in anime-tion) Anyway, I digress. We arrived at the bus station, where bay P was where our bus left from. Bay Q was buses for Berwick. It was tempting, but... no. Instead we went on what I quickly realised was the football bus, because it passed many football landmarks. From the off we could see St James's Park, ...

There's an old joke, in which a car stops next to a man by the side of the road. The window is wound down "excuse me? How do we get to London?" The guy thinks for a minute and says "Well, I wouldn't start from here"  Hiking to Scotland is the kind of journey one should only undertake if you start from the right place. London, would not be a good idea. New Zealand, even worse. So we are starting from Newcastle upon Tyne. Even still we are still looking at 100km. Two and a half marathons.  So, the long and the short of all this is that we (which is to say my immediate family) have, this year, opted to walk the Northumberland Coastal Path. I'll be honest it surprised me too, but our elaborate holiday selection process ended up choosing this option. It has long been a bit of a dream of mine to do it ever since teenage holidays up here walking along bits of it. I only hope my youthful thoughts of walking along a beautiful coast from castle to castle, stopping...