Monday 21 October 2013--The plan today is to walk north the three and a
half miles to Bamburgh, catch the X18 south to the Newtons to get the pint I
missed the other day at the Ship, and walk the five miles or so from there back to
Seahouses. I would then have covered the full length of the coast from
Alnmouth to Bamburgh, a distance of eighteen or twenty miles. There is a
speed bump first thing this morning, however, when I look out the window at
breakfast and see that my car has a flat tire. I spend some time on the phone with
the rental agency, and wait for the AA man to show up and take care of it.
So I'm off a bit late. The stretch of beach leading to Bamburgh is popular, even
on a gray Monday.
In Bamburgh, I check the bus schedule. The 1:50 would be perfect, but it does
not appear to stop at High Newton. I don't know why that would be. I call the
information number posted at the bus stop, which does not link to the operating
company, but to someone whose job it is to read every bus schedule in the UK.
She can't tell me anything I can't read on the schedule myself. When the call is
dropped, I give up, and decide to have lunch at the Castle Hotel. I could still
take the 2:50 down to Newton, but I probably wouldn't have time for a pint
there. Decide I'll just walk back to Seahouses after lunch. But lunch and
accompanying pint sap my will. Catch the bus back to Seahouses instead.
Dinner at the Bamburgh Castle Inn (again), and pints at the Olde Ship
(again). I need to find some variety here. Have I had enough of Seahouses? I
don't think so. I don't know why it draws me, really, but it does. Anyway, there's
still the stretch of coast from Amble to Alnmouth to walk. And maybe next year
I'll get that pint at the Ship in Low Newton.
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