Following a drug induced sleep (don’t worry it was only Ibuprofen and Paracetamol) I awoke to the sound of pigeons cooing from the hedgerow behind the tent.
Sue asked if I remembered the children TV show from the seventies and I surprised her by singing the theme song …
If you lived in Pigeon Street,
Here are the people you could meet,
Here are the people who would say,
“Hello”, “Goodbye”, “Hello”, “Goodbye”,
We broke fast with instant porridge and coffee whilst making plans for the day ahead. The plan was drive over to the National Trust property at Cragside then drop in on Alnwick on the way back. We would also pick up a cache or two during our travels.
On the way out, we grabbed our second closest cache (we’re saving the nearest in case we have a quite day and need a cache).
There was also an AdLab (part of a series of towers) at Preston – not the one in Lancashire from where Sue hails.
From here it was onto the A1 and to the village of Longframlington. Rocking down the A1 we passed a couple of signs for Shilbottle. I don’t know if it’s just me but that’s not how I read it first time and I’m surprised that the signs haven’t been doctored.
A little ways further we turned off to the right and were soon pulling into Longframlington where we had an Adventure Lab series to do. After pulling into a parking space outside of St. Mary’s church I noticed a traditional cache on the opposite side of the road which was quickly logged.
We walked around the village, picking up the AdLabs which each one found providing clues to a bonus cache at the end.
With all the parts found and a ;its of numbers collected we retired to The Run-in Fox café for a drink.
As we supped our beverages we slotted the collected digits into a ‘formula’ which gave us the co-ordinates of the final bonus; some two hundred metres away.
As the café was part of a shop and bakery, we bought some artisan bread and cakes for this evening’s supper. Oh, and Sue found a teddy with a Northumberland T-shirt – she had to have it.
Returning to the car, we set off to find the bonus cache which didn’t give us too much trouble then consulted the Geocaching website to discover another four traditional hides in the village on the road to Cragside – our next destination.
The first was at the village hall and as we were hunting around, a lady came out of the hall to see if we needed any help. We explained that we were treasure hunting. “Oh” she said, “We have tea and coffee inside” she offered. We thanked her and she went back inside and we completed our dirty deed.
As I was retrieving the final cache, a passing dog walked asked, “Geocaching?”
“Am I that obvious?” I asked.
“Not really”, he replied, “Have you found the one on the bench down the lane?”
As we had just come from that one, I replied in the affirmative.
While mooching around Longframlington, we did see this poster on a telegraph pole.
I don’t remember my back to school days having anything to do with beer but times move on.
Our next port of call was the National Trust property of Cragside made famous by being the first house in the world to be lit by hydro-electricity.
William Armstrong, whose home this was, was an industrialist making and selling armaments. He was also a bit of a boffin experimenting with electricity and installing the aforementioned electric lighting, an early dishwasher and hydraulic lift among other items.
He did alright for himself getting a peerage – the first engineer or scientist to have this honour bestowed, becoming Baron Armstrong of Cragside.
Being an electrician, by trade, one thing struck me as not being quite right. Although there is a need to move with the times and install LED lighting in the original fittings, these lamps had a blueish hue whereas, I assume, the original incandescent bulbs would have been a lot ‘warmer’ or orangey.
After touring the gadget and art filled house we adjourned to the tea rooms for some sustenance.
The Cragside estate covers over 1,700 acres and is home to the tallest Scots Pines in Britain and a colony of red squirrels. A scenic drive of six miles (the Carriage Drive) loops around the estate and is open to the public to drive around which, of course, we did.
Finished with Cragside we moved down the valley to the nearby town of Rothbury for more AdLabs (and a cache). Following the signs, we found a car park down by the river which may flood. Not much chance today.
Sue was feeling a little fatigued so we agreed to leave her in the car (just in case a tsunami hit) and I went off into town to find the answers to the AdLab questions.
A couple of the questions concerned Mr. Amstrong and while I was strolling along the high street, my Apple Watch stated that it though I was doing a workout and would I like to record it. Of course. After completing my walk and uploading it to Strava (if it’s not on Strava, it didn’t happen) I’d added another two and a half kilometres.
The final part of my AdLab concerned some stepping stones (I had to count how many there were).
I did a little experimenting with my phone.
I propped the iPhone against a tree and made my way back onto the stepping stones, turned around then as I was walking back, triggered the iPhone with my Apple Watch to record a short video from which I selected one frame. Worked quite well – I’ll have to remember that.
From Rothbury, we drove back to base picking up a few more caches on the way, the last one of which involved walking up a heather cover hill and gingerly making my way down a bit of a rock face. The view from here, looking towards The Cheviot, was quite magnificent.
We were hoping to have a look around Alnwick but it was gone five by the time we got there so a quick drive through will have to suffice for now.
Dinner was chunky soup with our artesian bread and cheese with our posh cakes to follow.
So far this week we have stayed dry (although according to Sue, it did rain around six this morning) but as I write this blog we are just starting to get the pitter patter of raindrops on the tent.