Warkworth

Our first task was to wish Sophie a Happy  26^th Birthday.  She was already on the train to work, but was happy to hear from us and looking forward to her time with us in Edinburgh next week.  Our second task was to eat yet another hotel breakfast and then we were happy to spend time catching up with Ems and Hamish on Skype.  It’s a dull day weather-wise, so after deliberating whether we’d take a walk or do the washing first, we decided the latter was a better plan. Warkworth doesn’t have a laundromat, so we had a short drive to another coastal town named Amble. We chatted to a couple holidaying from Leister while we let our washing do what it needed to do. Once we’d transferred the wet washing to the drier, we ventured over to an Illy café and had our first flat white since leaving NZ.  This afternoon we decided the rain wasn’t going to come (but took our jackets anyway) and headed out to take photos of Warkworth castle, and the environs. What a great walk it turned out to be. We found a path which led down to the river. We had a lovely amble alongside the river, it was very still and picturesque. We’ve decided this kind of peace is what we are enjoying most at this time. The path then led us up a hill and back beside a wheat field towards the castle. There’s something going on there today as there were heaps of cars. The castle is more or less in ruins, but there’s still a lot of great shapes and angles to photograph. 

Back around the other side of the castle we found a path which directed us towards the bridge. The path was bordered by an interesting array of stone and wooden walls, and behind these were interesting looking gardens.   The bridge had a plaque which told us it was more than 600 years old and probably replaced an even older bridge. We crossed it as we’d been told there was a path leading to a “must see” beach which turned off at the right hand end.  The path was actually a small road and apart from a few cars and few people walking dogs, there was very little activity on what turned out to be a very vast stretch of sand and water. There were still signs of concrete barricades left over from the war, and set to try and prevent the enemy from landing. I don’t think they would have much trouble now, as these are now almost completely buried and easily surmountable.

We walked back to the hotel and put our feet up for another few hours before dinner. I also made sure I got this blog up to date!