Up and at ‘em, this morning! And then jammy toast for breakfast for me because it tastes as good coming up as it down going down apparently. I’m not the most confident on boats but I do seem to be getting better at them, and that’s the plan for this afternoon – a boat trip to the Farnes!
But first, a return to Craster. Kippers are on our list of purchases and what better place to get them than Robsons Smokehouse on the harbourside.
We parked in the Quarry car park again (1h only this time) & so had a little walk up to the village. Most of which was spent picking up dog crap, as our lads seemed to be dirty protesting. Toby did his usual ‘spin and sh1t’ to one side of a roadway into the car park.
Whilst Jane was picking up, I’d like to thank the impatient driver & passengers that glared at us because we delayed their entry to the car park by 90 seconds. Is it just us that think there’s been a shift towards a self-centeredness to more people? Or are we just getting older and grumpier?
Having spent 15 minutes of our hour ‘turding’, we got to the village.
It is a lovely little place, and the little gallery on Haven Hill had some wonderful locally crafted jewellery, pottery & artwork.
We then headed back up the road to the Smokehouse shop. What a wonderful smell in my humble opinion! Although, I did see an owd lady wafting and mouthing “it’s disgusting” to her likely long-suffering partner. Ey well.
Everything in the Smokey-shop sounded fab, and really good value. I’d’ve spent a fortune (fish soup, lobster bisque, crab terrine etc) but thankfully we switched and Jane went in and made more sensible purchases. Traditionally Oak Smoked Craster kipper fillets, Craster Smoked Salmon Pate, and to spoon it into yer gob, fig, honey and virgin olive oil crackers. Heaven!
Having not walked the dogs as yet, we let them both go feral on the small beach (it was close to high tide). They once again loved going into the water, with Alfie being braver when Toby piles in.
Once wet, and knowing he was going to end up in an enclosed space Toby then pulled off another trademark move and rolled his damp body thoroughly with fermenting seaweed and rotting crustaceans. Perfect, as we head towards a boat trip that I think we were all secretly nervous about.
Back to the van and we headed up the coast road again to Seahorses [sic], where this time, I “grew a pair” and committed to pier parking and went all the way to the end. Where we had about 10 spaces to ourselves!
Mum had made us a ham sandwich each (on an oven bottom, so it’s the best), wrapped in tinfoil. It was a pinprick of memories from the ‘70s. This prompted a recollection of some of the ‘simple teas’ we used to have. Get this Jamie Oliver:
- bowl of chips from chip pan
- Pour over a tin of oxtail soup
- Eat
Gordon Blue memories over and over!
We checked in, got our boarding passes and when instructed, headed down to the gate that let you onto a floating pontoon.
We had booked because one of Jane’s friends had been up here a few weeks ago and had a great experience. Thank you for the recommendation for Serenity Boat Tours. We did also. Staff turned out to be brilliant!
Andrew (Skipper) & Andy took us out across a choppy-for-us North Sea for the next couple of hours and their commentary, boat-handling skills & enthusiasm were very much appreciated!
We saw loads. And I have to put a massive shout out to my wonderful wife Jane (and her Dad, who encouraged her) for her Birding knowledge, pointing out loads of species, their differences & how to identify them.
The high points were Jumplings (baby guillemots) and my mum trying (she didn’t) to give us a Temu version of Audrey Hepburn. The comedy sea parrots (Puffins) weren’t bad either!
I’ll just drop a few photos and let you decide how good our trip was.
But once you have, I’ll then ask you to review your choices based on how badly their rock faces full of guano (bird crap) stank. It was a full-on attack on the nostrils! Poor doggos must have been almost high on bird poo smell given their enhanced olfactory senses!
We docked at a low tide and just got off the boat before it would have been grounded. Perfect parking meant we got off, headed up the steps and straight into our van where we warmed up (that wind had been cutting).
We then headed around the harbour and up to the Black Swan Pub, which served incredible-sounding food but was a bit above our requirement after a queasy two hours on a boat.
We had a nice drink in there (and thank you to you lovely couple next to us who loved our doggos), but we moved on and grabbed a bit of ‘pub tea’ from a place down the road.
When we went through the menu though, Mum was a bit over-faced & didn’t want to order food she would leave (wasting food is a big thing for her).
I went to the bar to order food, and then I laid it on thick and asked if we could order a Kids Meal for my “elderly, infirm mum, who needs looking after”. It was a yes, and mum loved her Scampi, chips, mushy peas and fruit-shoot drink!
Jane went down her usual route and ordered two starters, the leek & pot soup with a fishy block of paste.
I went for king prawn, chilli, garlic linguine. It was definitely chilli!
With that done the evening took a more familiar course:home via the co-op and then trying to watch football but nodding off.
As I suspect you are now, reading this nonsense.
More stuff actually planned for tomorrow though. How’s that heatwave we’re missing out on?
x