One of the walks that have become a bit of a tradition with us when we come to the Northumberland Coast has been that of Craster to Beadnell; a walk of 8.1 miles. So today we would keep to our tradition seeing that it was forecast to be another dry day; not particularly sunny, but dry nonetheless.
Now as it's a one-way walk, we needed to get the bus to Craster. We could have gone for the 10:05am, but instead made the decision to get the 12:05pm so that we could stop off at the Ship Inn at Low Newton about half-way and have a late lunch. What does amaze me a little is that we are always being told that we need to get out of our cars and use public transport, but the bus journey costs £4.75 for a distance that would have been pushed to reach £2.50 in petrol! And made worse as the bus windows were so dirty that you couldn't even enjoy the views as you made your way through the countryside. First world problems though, so not really the end of the world.
Anyway, we arrived in Craster at 12:30pm and were soon on our way up the coast. About a mile along the path you pass Dunstanburgh Castle, a well known historic landmark on this section of the coast, but closed today as it is for much of the mid-winter I would imagine. I always enjoy this section of the walk, just imagining times gone by with marauding hordes trying to take the castle from either the sea or land. I must admit though that I never find it easy to take photos when in this area, I just can't ever find a decent composition. Mind you, it's not all about the photos, is it?
The next section takes us along what is arguably my favourite beach in the UK, Embleton Bay. Lovely flat red sands flanked by rolling dunes, being caressed in today's heavy winds by the waves of the North Sea. We soon reached the Ship Inn and stopped off for about 45 minutes to have lunch, a drink, and a crumble pudding to get us ready for the second half of the walk.
We didn't head off along the main St Oswald's Way up the coastal path but chose to detour around Newton Point to allow us to stay looking out to sea for part of the walk. It was very windy now, and even though it was quite mild we had little option but to pull our coat zips right up and flip our hoods over our heads to stop them slapping us across the face!
At Snook Point we headed back inland to pick up the main path as in about 30 minutes we would need to do so anyway, to allow us to cross the bridge over the stream at Nanny End. The pace had been picked up now, we were just focusing on getting back to Beadnell and into the cottage to put up our feet. We've done around 39 miles so far since we arrived last Saturday, and to be honest, I think both of us would just be glad to get off our feet. So just one full day left, maybe a trip up to Holy Island tomorrow with a short walk around the abbey and castle area.
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