After a long journey on Friday, our first site was the Haltwhistle Camping and Caravan Club Site. This was a pretty site on the bank of the River Tyne and we had a lovely sheltered pitch with the river behind us. There were also plenty of footpaths from the site to explore the local area.
Pitch 11 Haltwhistle Club Si9te
On the first day we walked from the site to Haltwhistle (the Centre of Britain) and had a walk around the town before heading for Hadrian's Wall. We walked along part of the Wall to Milecastle 42 at Cawfield Crags before heading back to Haltwhilstle and our site.
Hadrian's Wall from Milecastle 42
As the previous day's walk had been quite challenging, we decided to have an easier walk on our second day, especially as rain was forecast in the afternoon. We walked from the site along the South Tyne Way (an old railway line) to Lambley Viaduct for some stunning views. It was only when we returned to the site we regretted not walking down to take a photograph of the viaduct, but we'll do that on our next visit to Northumberland.
View from Lambley Viaduct
On Monday we travelled across to the Old Hartley Caravan Club Site at Whitley Bay for another three nights. We knew this would be a windy site as it's on the top of the cliff and even with a sheltered pitch we didn't put the roof up for the first night. We also left it down when we went out the following day - better to be safe than sorry! Our first day's walk was along the Coast Path past St Mary's Lighthouse, through Whitley Bay to Tynemouth. This wasn't our normal coast path walking as most of it was along footpaths, but we enjoyed spotting locations from 'Vera'.
St Mary's Lighthouse on the way out ...
... and on the way back
When we returned to the site the wind had dropped to a slight breeze, so we were able to put the roof up and sit outside.
Pitch 55 Old Hartley Site
On our second day we walked the coast path in the opposite direction to Seaton Sluice and the Port of Blyth. As with the previous day's walk, most of the coast path was along footpaths by the side of the road, but there were plenty of interesting places to visit.
Seaton Sluice towards Blyth
Our next site was at Spittal where we stayed at Berwick Seaview Caravan Club Site for four nights. This is another exposed site but we found a lovely pitch on the lower level - we didn't have a sea view (like most of the pitches) but it was sheltered.
The first day's walk was following the Lowrie Trail through Spittal, Tweedmouth and Berwick and also the Castle Walk in Berwick.
View from Meg's Mount over Berwick
One of the reasons to spend and extra day at Berwick was to visit Edinburgh, a city neither of us had previously visited. On Saturday we caught the train to Edinburgh and initially walked through Leigh to Ocean Terminal to visit the Royal Yacht Britannia. We couldn't get a good view from the outside but took the self guided tour which was interesting and not too expensive for the time we spent on the yacht.
In the afternoon we walked to along the Royal Mile between Holyrood Palace and Edinburgh Castle, although we didn't go into either - that will be for our next visit.
Holyrood Palace
Edinburgh Castle
On returning to Berwick we went for a meal at Foxtons Wine Bar before walking back to the site.
Coronation Park towards River Tweed
Pitch 22 Berwick Seaview
Our next site was the River Breamish Caravan Club Site at Powburn. This was a fabulous site and one of the best sites we've ever visited. The pitches were spacious and there were plenty of walks around the site and nearby nature reserve. The weather was glorious on the day we arrived so we made the most of it as the forecast wasn't good for the following day.
Pitch 50 River Breamish Site
Sadly the forecast was right and it was very wet on our first day. We spent the day on site, sheltering in Cali when the rain was torrential and going for short walks around the site when it eased. Luckily the weather was better on our second day and we had a lovely walk through the Brandon Nature Reserve and Ingham Valley to Brough Law, part of the Hillforts trail.
View from Brough Law down Ingram Valley
Our final site was the Dunstan Hill Camping and Caravan Club Site. Although our travel day started wet and we packed up in the rain, it soon changed to a hot and sunny day. On arrival we had a choice of pitches and chose one at the edge of the site. After setting up we took the woodland path from the site to the nearby golf course for a drink before returning to the site. When we returned the site had got much busier, thankfully we had chosen a pitch on the edge of the site as the middle section was very crowded - definitely one our least favourite sites but it was in a good location.
On our first day we combined two of the Northumberland trail walks. We walked inland to Craster and then to Howick before returning to the along the coast path. On the way back we visited Dunstanburgh Castle, although it's an English Heritage site members of the National Trust also get free entry. One of the towers has had some conservation work done so we could climb to the top for some photos.
From top of Dunstanburgh Castle
Pitch 7 Dunstan Hill Site
On our second day we caught the bus to Bamburgh and had breakfast at The Victoria Hotel before meeting my nephew and his family who were on holiday at Seahouses. As they live in Scotland and we live in Devon it's been ten years since we last saw my nephew and his wife and this was the first time we had seen their children.
After a couple of hours playing on the beach we walked along the coast path back to our site - a lovely end to the holiday.
It's been a lovely holiday staying on five different sites (River Breamish was our favourite and Dunstan Hill our least favourite) and plenty of different places visited. After 16 nights in Cali it was time for the long journey home but we'll definitely return to Northumberland again.
28 June-14 July 2019
1 comment:
Hio Kath, I do love reading and seeing your photos of where you have been. Looks like a lovely part of the country. Glad the weather was mainly kind for you.
How lovely to meet up with your nephew and his family.
Looking forward to hearing about your next outing in Cali. Sue
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