Bamburgh

This was the last stop in our autumn travels of the UK. We had intended to head to Scotland but I had a meeting I had to attend back home. The Northumberland coastline is an undervalued part of the country. This is, I think, due to being north and hence worse weather. Still the sea was blue, most of the time the sky was blue, the countryside is lovely and the cliff edged bays around the coast are filled with white sand. We stayed on Warren Caravan and camping Park (£17), a big holiday park, with restaurant, shop and outdoor splash pool (closed ), the sort of site we avoid but actually it was a really nice site. It had lots of space, quite nicely located, it even had it’s own nature reserve. I suspect it will be horrible at high season when it is full. Bamburg itself has a castle and not much else, although we found a rather nice tea shop although spoilt only by the woman serving pulling a “bloody customer” face as she left every table she served. We spent a fair bit of time in Seahouses and tried 5 times to go on a boat trip. A cycle ride took us to Berwick. I have a thing about just how bad cycle lanes are in the UK, often they are a line painted on the edge of a busy road no wider than a push bike, or they cross the busy rode many times and have “cyclists dismount” signs at the smallest of obstacles, generally trying their hardest to make cycling unsafe and not fun. The cycle ride to Bewick was on National Cycle route 1. It crossed the A1 twice (no bridge or subway) although the A1 is single carriageway at that point. Then it went across farm fields on barely worn tracks, it was a splendid route along the coast even if it was muddy and hard work and so for a national cycle route in this country not that bad. Berwick barracks is the most boring museum I have every been in but the town seemed OK. Of course in this area the other place you have to visit is holy island which we duly cycled to and spent a pleasant day wandering around.