Month: October 2019

From Old Hartley to Whitley Bay…..

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Not a particularly cheery day, the sun did try but couldn’t quite muster the energy to break through but it did remain dry. Keen to explore our new surroundings we took our morning walk along the coastal path towards St Mary’s Island….

Which we can also keep an eye on from the van!

We continued along the same path later and as the tide was out, followed the causeway to get a closer look.There are just a few houses clustered around the Lighthouse which sits on a mostly rocky outcrop.

We enjoyed watching the seals basking on the rocks, though they weren’t close enough to capture in a photo before heading back onto the mainland.

We continued along the coastal path which runs along the cliff tops above Whitley Sands, joining the promenade where we were able to get down onto the beach.

At the end of the beach we clambered back up to the cliff top and made our return journey along the top.

Moving on to Old Hartley….

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A grey start to the day but fortunately remaining dry whilst we packed up and set off on the long road south! We were a little late away as I helped a neighbour jump start their lovely vintage VW camper but it was not a bother as per, we are only travelling about 50 miles to our next site at Whitley Bay. The weather deteriorated about 20 miles from our destination and by the time we arrived it was raining, not heavily but still annoying and wet! After a bit of a battle with a hose (which I lost resulting in very wet legs and feet!) whilst filling the water container, we settled down in the warm waiting for the rain to ease before heading out for a shortish walk.

Visibility is not great so only a couple of photos but the site sits right up on the cliffs looking out on St Mary’s Island and it’s lighthouse.

This is accessible at low tide via a causeway so we shall definitely be exploring it soon. For now though a walk along the coastal path to Collywell Bay, for a good runaround for Poppydog ….

The tide was high so there wasn’t much of a beach but enough for Poppydog to fly and plenty of stones for her to chase until it was time for us to make the damp walk back to site.

A beautiful day and a beautiful beach…..

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Well it is still blowing a hooley out there and decidedly chilly but otherwise a stunning sun shiny day. Having at long last written last Saturdays blog, I realised that we only dipped briefly onto Warkworth Beach and even then with visibility quite poor, so we are off to see it again in the sunshine and wow….

It did not disappoint and in fact was much nicer than we imagined, looking to the north towards Alnmouth…..

And the south towards Amble….

The tide is almost fully in but we managed to walk along the edge of the wet sand (dodging the odd wave) as the soft sand, though lovely, powdery and white, makes for tough walking! Part way along the beach someone has been creative with a branch and stood it upright in the soft sand (not sure how long that will last in these winds!).

At the Amble end of the beach, the beach ends abruptly with a large boulder breakwater, serving to protect the harbour and entrance to the river Coquet and hidden on the other side, this little windswept beach….

There is no access from here to Amble without walking the mile or so into Warkworth to cross the river and then back on the other side of the river so we turned back to take a leisurely stroll back to the other end of the beach.

Well when I say leisurely stroll, 5 miles in total, I did but Poppydog as ever is a 90 miles an hour girl!

From Cresswell Pool to Lynemouth Power Station….

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Beautiful sunshine greeted us this morning but unfortunately it was fairly short lived as the clouds rolled in, however for us it stayed dry (and that is all that matters, if we’re honest!) though it had clearly rained on site at some point during the afternoon. We made the journey south again this time to Cresswell, a small village strung along the roadside behind the last if the dunes of Druridge Country Park. As the tide is fully in we followed the coastal path along the cliff tops away from Cresswell heading southwards. The ground was becoming increasingly scrublike with only the distant Power Station at Lynemouth to look at, oh yes and a couple of traveller ponies nibbling away at the grass! Still we persevered and eventually made our way down a little used path to Lynemouth Beach…

Certainly not the most attractive beach, more like coarse builders sand, in fact it did look as though the back of the beach had been excavated and of course an excellent view of the Power Station…

Still Poppydog was not bothered and as we had the beach to ourselves, I was happy to let her career about yelping as much as she liked! After a while we made our way back into Cresswell, once you have seen one Power Station and we have seen a few on our travels, you have no real need or wish to see another! And there tucked away beneath the dunes and the little village of Cresswell a proper sandy beach….

The tide is almost fully in but we clambered down anyways for a little play.

We also attempted to clamber over the rocky headland of Stank Letch Rocks (who?) to get to the Cresswell Links end of Druridge Bay but had to give up part way and rejoin the pathway running through the dunes until…

We made it! This is more like it.

Only 5 miles but plenty of play time and those clouds are looking a bit iffy!

From Druridge Country Park to Cresswell….

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Not quite such a nice day today but dry with a little bit of blue sky here and there. Today we set off for Druridge Country Park, not wanting to pay car park fees we parked up in a little place called Red Row and walked the mile or so through the park to the beach.

There were less people around today so Poppydog got her freedom pass as soon as we arrived on the beach and was gone!!

Apart from a couple of streams forcing us (well me actually) off the beach briefly to find a bridge to get across it was beach walking all the way.

Even the sun came out to join us for awhile …

As we got towards the end of Druridge Bay which ends at Cresswell, we decided to leave the last bit for another day.

And with a last look back along this beautiful beach we took the coastal path route back to the Country Park and completed this 8.5 mile walk back to the car.