10 September 2023 - Seahouses
Miles driven today = 27
Total Miles to date = 384
We packed an awful lot into yesterday and pretty much wore ourselves out so today has been considerably less strenuous. We followed the B roads of the Coastal Route north through Embleton. All very scenic but the roads are in a terrible condition, inducing a cocphony of squeaks and rattles in the van as we drove. We by-passed Beadnell and continued to Seahouses where we just about squeezed into one of the car park spaces so as not to incur the wrath of the local parking wardens.
We really didn't know what to expect of the town but it seemed pleasant enough, centred as it is around a harbour, which is home to fishing vessels and tour boats in roughly equal measure.
Seahouses is the main jump off point for the Farne Islands and the kiosks selling tickets for the boat trips seemed to be doing a roaring trade. We would have been interested but we read recently that most of the puffins and other birds who breed there have usually already migrated in September so there didn't really seem to be a great deal of point.
Seahouses has its own whalebone arch albeit not as impressive as the one in Whitby.
We headed down to the rocky shoreline.
According to Google Maps this is a "Gunpowder House" Presumably it is positioned out on the rocks and well away from any houses just in case the contents go boom.
We sat on the rocks and nibbled our sandwiches as we gazed out to sea. That's the Inner Farne Lighthouse you can see in the distance. We also spotted the dolphins again with one of the youngsters entertaining the tour boats by jumping clear of the water.
Lots of the old fisherman's cottages have been restored giving the town an authentic feel, although the majority seem to be used as B&Bs these days.
We popped back to the van for our shopping bags so that we could pick up a few supplies from the Co-Op and found the car park filled with at least 50 Harley Davidson bikes. When we returned with our goodies they were in the process of leaving and making a fabulous roar which was loud enough to set off car alarms.
We moved a further mile or so down the road where we noticed a number of cars and vans parked up on the verge, so we followed suit and took one of the paths leading through the dunes to the beach. We ambled along for a while but it was becoming noticeably more chilly and there were some rather threatening looking rainclouds approaching so we retreated to the van and headed for Bamburgh.
In a similar arrangement to the one we took advantage of in Amble the other day Northumberland Council allow a small number of vans to overnight in their car parks for a set rate of £12 and we have one of these booked for tonight in the car park directly in front of Bamburgh Castle. Amble was an otherwise free car park so we could pitch up early. But this isn't the case at Bamburgh where we have to pay extra if we turn up before 6pm and there was already a van in our alloted space anyway so we decided to backtrack and park up elsewhere for a while.
We went back to have a quick look at Beadnell but apart from another gloriously sandy beach there doesn't seem to be a lot there. Besides we struggled to find somewhere to park so we basically ended up back on the roadside verge we were on earlier and sat in the van listening to the first proper rain we have had on this trip battering on the roof.
A little before 6 we moved back to our paid space in Bamburgh. There are 5 official spaces made available here for overnighting with vacant spaces left in between for safety, but some chancer has parked himself in the vacant space next to us (presumably without paying) with our habitation doors barely a metre apart and is now playing a re-run of Last Night at the Proms very loudly on his telly. We can only hope that he wakes up to find a whopping penalty charge stuck to his windscreen in the morning. Grrr!
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