So, hopefully a better day today. It does seem somewhat promising. It looks foggy in the morning but it doesn't look like it is raining. There are some different plans, either riding all the way to Newcastle or trains from some of the intervening stations. But I suppose unless you take the train from Alnmouth (only like a few miles away), none of the other ones save you much distance. And the day turns out to be a much sunnier one. Ahh, and swimming too helps my spirits.
Breakfast, served in the main dining room, yet another full English breakfast day. The guy scurries about bringing more tea, more toast, more tea again, etc. But enough, time to go then. Alnwick has what is supposed to be the biggest used book store in England or something. I'm sure that would be nice but not sure I want to do that when I would have to carry everything and don't really have enough time to look around properly. (Besides, it probably nowhere near as amazing as Powells in Portland, OR.)
I kind of want to set off on my own too. There is a castle to see in Warkworth and we are supposed to meet up in Newbiggin by the Sea for lunch (one of the most wonderful cafes in the world on Caroline's research list), so whatever happens, I know where that is and how to get there and all that. Many times, it is nice to just follow behind somebody who knows where they are going, just along for the ride, but it is also nice to find your own way through it all. I'm still feeling a bit anti-social and want to wander on my own and find my own way for a while.
The only strange part is getting out of Alnwick. I'm slightly confused by it all, there are a few confusing choices but I figure if I follow the signs to Shilbottle, the worst that can happen is I'll be a mile or so off course. But I think I navigated just right and the turns in the road match what I expect from the map. I love the fog. It isn't raining either, which is really nice. The roads and the hills disappear off into the distance in the mist. It isn't an overly difficult ride and I make it to Warkworth.
The castle is off up in the distance. The town seems quite cute. The castle isn't quite as dramatic as the other ones, but there is a whole lot more of it. Going through the gate, I see that Matt's bike is already there. Wonder how he got past me, he must have taken a slightly different road since I didn't see him go past.
The keep I assume was pretty rebuilt, almost all of it is still there. It is a pretty neat design too, it is all clustered around a central light well. I assume it would still be fairly dark most of the time but that probably helped quite a bit. I click across the stone floors, climbing up to the upper stories and see the new view from the upper windows. Others arrive and I want to at least walk some of the way to the hermitage before I go. It looks kind of involved to get there, taking a boat across the river, so I don't do much more than kind of look at the river and in the general direction. I guess I'm about ready to go then.
Amble isn't far down the road and has a segregated path so I can slowly ride along and look at the river and the harbor. Going through Amble itself is a little confusing. The signs seems to have stopped so I just kind of head towards the ocean and figure if I follow that around, it will take me where I need to be eventually. The plan works pretty well and into Hauxley Nature Reserve. Hmm, warm day out, the ocean is right there, I probably have about 30 minutes on most everybody else, I start plotting a swim as I head through Druridge Bay.
One likely spot is filled with ramblers eating and drinking so I keep going. Slightly further down looks perfect. I can stash my bike in the grass and dunes and change there and the beach looks pretty deserted. Well, it is so foggy too, you can barely even see the water from up here. The water looks a bit rough and this is the North Sea too, that might be a bit cold. But I'm determined.
Changed and ready to go, I run down and jump in. Ok, I wade in just a tiny bit and then walk out a bit further, avoiding the large rocks underneath and then flop around in it all and get hit by some pretty big waves. Wow, that is breathtakingly cold. I don't really last all that long but I'm glad I did it. Funny, as I'm just starting to come out of the water, I see like a small car park just further down the coast and everybody pulls up and looks out over the water. I wonder if they can see me here. Or just think some crazy person is in the water. They hang out a bit and then move on. I still have to dry off and change back and that takes a little bit of time.
My swimming mission done and a bit behind everybody now and ready for lunch, I speed on to see if I can possibly catch up. The pretty parts start to petter out. Around a power station and a metal mill, you know you are approaching civilization when you pass the first burned out patch on the ground from a burned out car. And a syringe by the side of the road. Civilization, ho!
On to Newbiggin and everybody else is just queueing up for lunch in the cafe. The place is pretty funky, lots of 60s/70s type stuff, but I'm not exactly sure what makes it, in the words of one cafe reviewer, like the best cafe ever. A sandwich and tea. I'm rather disappointed when I miss the last of the berry/apple pie and just have to have plain apple pie.
Onward again, with the rest of the group this time. Another power station and Blyth seems a bit bleak. The wind farm and pier area is kind of nice but I'm not overly excited by Blyth. We come to Seaton Sluice, which is a pretty clever channel, an opening on one side and another one blasted through a hill, so the tide will wash out the silt keeping the channel clear. Onward, down past St Mary's lighthouse, which is barely visible with the fog.
Whitley Bay has yet another one of the highly wonderfully reviewed cafes. I'm mostly amused by the staff, who all seems under 18 and seems highly bored. As we leave, they lock up the cafe and pull down the shades. We go past surfers in Tynemouth, taking advantage of the rather rough waves. The castle and priory ruins look nice on the hill, but there is no time to stop and look at them. We head inland and follow the path along the Tyne.
Part of the rest of this route to Newcastle is pretty decent and pretty but so much of it is that whole mixed bag of Sustrans stuff, confusing mazes of turns, back alleys covered with broken glass, and other strange things like that. We go past what I think is the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall at Segedunum. There was a bit of wall sticking out into the path. But a few more miles and into Newcastle itself.
I'm not sure there was all that much in Newcastle that seemed all that interesting to me. We hit the town in the evening of a Saturday in what was probably the peak of hen/stag party season. If it had been winter, I assume the women would have been wearing a whole lot less, it seems to be an inverse proportion to the temperature. Mostly they had on sashes proclaiming their different groups. And all the guys looked exactly the same, the same shirt with the kind of rolled up sleeves, the same trousers, same haircut and all with a phone to their ear, mate, where are you, I'm at such and such street now, etc.
The backpackers place is somewhat of a dive. I'm most impressed by the vomit on the doorway to the first floor bathroom. So, generally I go up to the second floor after that. Search parties are sent out to find suitable food. Chinatown seems to be a reasonable destination, if we could figure out where it is. A few false starts and we finally end up there with a variety of choices. How about a buffet then. Seems cheap and you can pick what you want and have as much as you want. A whole lot of fried stuff and a lot of it is a bit dried out under the heat lamps but I find enough to eat. Well, I do eat a bit too much and feel a little sick.
Back to the room, all 12 of us in it together, sort like a calm bit in the middle of a storm. As Newcastle heaves outside, drunken groups come up the stairway in the middle of the night, singing at the top of their lungs, I sort of fear to see what the outside world will look like the next morning. But sleep, it was a full day. And 54.18 miles.
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