Going off the trail

 Somehow, in many different ways, today was a bit different. After 4 days of hiking along the coastline, passing castles and cute little villages, surrounded by birds, today differed. Firstly the trail itself went inland today over the other side of the tracks (the east coast mainline) as well as the other side of the A1. It was due to be a long day too, another 25km trek.

And so, when Paula asked whether we could have a day off walking, I have to confess that I wasn't disappointed. In the end we split into two groups, Paula and I took the bus, while the others did the walk (at one point during discussions, Erika said "we came here to suffer". I disagreed, arguing that actually we came to be on holiday.) The hikers left after breakfast, whereas we two spent the morning wandering around Bamburgh Castle in the cold (and yes it was pretty cold)





There are only three buses a day from Bamburgh towards Berwick so we had to wait until after 1 to catch it

Our bus approaching 

Happily the bus took us almost directly to our destination - especially as we had all the bags. (Somehow I've still managed to walk 14km and 18,500 steps today).

Now, about that destination... We've stayed in a small hotel, a motel, a room above a pub, and a hostel. All in attractive fishing villages. But today we're in a vast caravan park (which is set back about 4 km from the coast, right on the A1). It's a totally different world. There's a massive Wetherspoons in the middle of it, and a burger king. Paula and I went to the on-site supermarket to get food to cook for the evening - it genuinely took us minutes to locate the one tiny shelf devoted to fresh fruit and veg (apples, lemons, carrots and onions, since you ask), while the freezer containing ready meals stretched all along one whole wall. I mean, I get it - people are on holiday and they don't want to cook, but bloody hell. 

Anyway, once we'd checked into our... thing (as far as I can tell it appears to be the somewhat oxymoronic static mobile home), located what little unprocessed food we could, and had a small lunch, I set off to try and meet the others (who, backpackless, had been making good time). The other big change from previous days was that this involved me walking alongside the A1 for two kilometres (and of course another two kilometres back the other way once I'd met them). While walking along the coast means taking care to not disturb nesting shorebirds, walking along the A1 involves skirting roadkill. It is not quite the same.

Anyway the upshot is that today had been somewhat different. I'm looking forward to getting back over the right side of the tracks, heading back to the coast, and completing our hike properly tomorrow. 

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