After a good night’s sleep, I was awake by six and as I had to get up to walk over to the toilet block (which is further away than your typical Wetherspoons) decided to go for a morning constitutional.
There was a light drizzle when I set off, crossing the road outside of the caravan park to see the sun struggling to make an appearance through the gloom.
I had noticed a geocache near the harbour in Beadnell so made that my destination. One of the first places that I passed was the local shop but that wouldn’t be open for another couple of hours so couldn’t nip in for a can of something.
I made my way along the coast road to the harbour area where stood the remains of some lime kilns. This was the location of the geocache although in this case, it was the location of an information board from which I needed to find some numbers.
The numbers discovered gave me the distance and bearing to the final hiding place.
I scribble the digits onto the only piece of paper I had on my person but took this photo in case the paper got totally soaked.
Looking at a map, I guessed, roughly, where I needed to be and made my way across the bay (or more precisely around the bay).
When I was in roughly the right place, I checked to see if I was 289 metres from the lime kilns. Unfortunately 289 was the bearing ! Needless to say, I didn’t find the cache but got well wet from the long grass.
Further checking of the geocaching.com app revealed an Adventure Lab in Beadnell, the nearest location was back at the lime kilns – so off I traipsed. With that question answered (from the same information board as earlier) and another nearby, I made my way into the centre of the village for one at the church before making my way to the main road and an old AA box (actually, they probably don’t have new AA boxes).
There is also a proper traditional cache at this location but we were going to save it in case we had a fallow day and needed a cache.
However, as I was already here, I quickly grabbed the cache.
The final AdLab location was on the way back to the campsite after which it was back to base.
Back in the tent, it was off with the wet clothes and once ensconced in dry clothing on went the kettle for coffee.
This is the first spell of persistent rain and the tent is holding up quite well with a little pooling on the roof which was sorted by adjustment of the guys.
While waiting for the rain to subside (which it probably won’t do today – rain forecast for most of the day) I found a website where I could enter co-ordinates, a bearing and distance and come up with a location. I did this with my collected numbers (getting them the right way around) and discovered that I’d walked past the puzzle cache from earlier. At least, I known where it is now.
As a bonus, I recorded my jaunt on Strava giving me another five and a bit kilometres.
Also, although I should have mentioned this earlier, today is our Forty Second wedding anniversary and I’ve booked a sunset cruise for later.
If the weather forecast turns out to be correct, it won’t be anything like this …
Eventually, we realised that we couldn’t (or shouldn’t) stay in the tent all day listening to the rain so decided to make a break for it and visit Alnwick (pronounced Annick) Castle. Before setting off I found a couple of caches to pick up en route.
The first was hidden on a big chunk of metal that used to be part of a public weigh bridge and was manufactured in Birmingham (as was I).
The second involved parking in front of a field gate and as I was returning after finding the cache, a van pulled in behind. The driver didn’t say anything (hopefully he knew what we were up to) and we beat a hasty retreat.
The final cache was a multi cache which involved collecting digits to guide us to the actual location of the cache. As it was still chucking it down, I took a photo of the required info and retreated to the car to compute the answer.
On the approach to the castle we joined a queue of very slowly moving traffic and as we got closer to the head realised that cars were being turned around.
When we did, finally, get to the front, a member of the castle staff told us that a tree had fallen blocking the road and if we were heading for town we, also, would need to one-eighty. When I explained that we were looking for the castle, we were diverted thorough a gateway into the castle car park.
A short walk through the rain (did I mention that it was raining?) brought us the the entrance.
To escape the rain (and see what made Alnwick castle so great) we visited the State Rooms which were very sumptuously furnished. Unfortunately photographic was prohibited indoors.
After checking out the castle, we called in at the cafe for an uninspiring lunch.
It was while we were eating that my phone rang with a local number. Answering I was told that the cruise had been cancelled and we could either postpone our booking or get a refund. The caller said that the weather SHOULD be better tomorrow so our anniversary cruise will have to be delayed by a day.
We now had no time restraints so reckoned that we could have a nice evening meal instead of the boat. After looking around on t’internet, we plumbed for the Old Ship in Seahouses and booked a table for seven (that’s o’clock not people).
We were to have a look around Alnwick proper but we lost interest in finding a car park and I suggested another castle namely Bamburgh.
It was still hoofing it down as we approached Bamburgh but were impressed as the castle materialised from the mists.
This is a proper castle, with buttresses and on top of a hill. The swirling clouds just added to the atmosphere.
We were advised, as it was getting on, to visit the interior (State Rooms) first. A sit we needed an excuse to get out of the rain (did I mention that it was raining?)
Bamburgh Castle’s interior is not quite as grand as Alnwick but it does feel more like a castle with its stone walls and high vaulted ceilings.
This castle also has links to Armstrong (he of Cragside) as he bought the castle but died before the planned restorations were complete.
We spent a time wandering around with Sue studiously reading most of the information signs before ending up at the obligatory gift shop.
Luckily (?) Sue managed to find a teddy wearing a Bamburgh Castle tee shirt so that was added to the collective.
We were now ahead of schedule (dinner at seven) but managed to amend our booking to five (about an hours time).
We finished at the castle and grabbed a little cache just outside of the castle walls. A couple of AdLab locations were ticked off in the village of Bamburgh (without leaving the car) before we headed to Seahouses and food.
On the outskirts of Seahouses I spied a “Welcome to Seahouses” sign. I used to work with a guy whose other half’s family live in the area so decided on a selfie to send to him.
Once the cheesy grin photo was camptured, I check the geocaching website and discovered that there was a cache hidden on the sign. The cache was soon found and the logbook signed.
From the outskirts we made our way into the town centre. parked up and headed towards The Old Ship Inn calling in at the gift shop where Sue had spotted a teddy during a previous window shopping exercise. Another one for the collection.
It was a little before five as we entered the pub and were shown to our table and presented with menus. Today was Pie Day where you get a free pint with a every pie.
After checking the bill of fair, I went for the Fish Pie (with a pint of Farne Island Brewery beer) whilst Sue went for the boeuf bourguignon (no free pint). I added a portion of hand cut, chunky chips with truffle and parmesan.
The food was excellent and the chips were amazing.
Sue and I finished the meal with Bread and Butter Pudding and the cheese board respectively. The puddings were as good as the mains.
A trip to the local Tesco for a few tinnies and other provisions rounded off our evening in Seahouses before we made our way back to base.
Back in the tent (no leaks) I logged the few caches and am just finishing off todays blog.
