As always, it astounds me the number of ‘hits’ & ‘reads’ these nonsense blogs get! Thank you for your comments & support!
I do always say this and the blogs help me be ‘present’ whilst on hols and also help me to unwind, which does mean I sleep better as the days progress!
Sleep wasn’t quite so relaxed last night though. At 03:21 someone awoke the mythical beast of Bamburgh, the Laidly Worm and she travelled down the coast in the form of a dragon to piss on my velux windows so heavily they seemed to want to break, and breathe fire across the sky!
I was ‘Thunderstruck’! It was brilliant! I went to the picture window and sat and watched the lighting show and listen to the thunder for a while. The rain (dragon piss?) was torrential! The lightning, thick and fast!
Eventually I retired and only awoke on my 8am alarm (given it was the “vacate by 10am” day).
It took all of about 45 minutes to get up, clear up, strip beds, pack and load the van. We did still manage to leave both of our doggos leads though. Whilst we did all of this, the Laidly Worm had returned, and it rained, thundered and all the while was as foggy as Farages brain when asked about that £5mil!
All packed (bar the two pesky dog leads) and we set off ‘home’ via lots of waypoints. We got to Cragside again before the sea mist started to lift. I wish I’d been able to get a photo of something we saw a bit further on though. Through the cloud, I could see 3 massive wind Turbines, none spinning, all with two propellers up around 10 to 2 if on a clock face.
But the mist obscured the third blade and the vertical support tower. They looked like giant, giant seabirds heading to and away from us!
From there we headed towards Black Carts Turret to keep us on backroads and the best bits of the area around the old Military Road. Then we hit the ‘road closed’ we remember we saw on the way up. Ah, sod it, let’s give it a go we thought, given the number of cars going in both directions. Nope! All the way back and then south to the roundabout onto the Military Road, famed for its links to that there Publius Aelius Hadrianus and his wall.
We skipped Vindaloolandia (may be an autocorrect in there) as it wasn’t dog-friendly, so headed towards Once, Twice, Three Times a Lady Brewed, or whatever they are calling themselves today!
We right turned and parked up the hill in Steel Rig car park, and when their ticketing machine ‘couldn’t find a signal’ we, like others, left notes rather than payment.
It’s the closest car park to the Sycamore Gap, where those two dickheads chopped the iconic tree down for no valid or useful reason. We set off, with makeshift leads, but on seeing the first climb, mum, Jane, Toby and Alfie all held up their hands and said “we’re out”!
I was determined. I was well prepped in a heavy black jersey teeshirt, jersey shorts & my posh crocs. And a fancy DSLR camera.
What a stupid decision! It was up, down, up, down, up, down, back up and then a treacherous final down to the memorial to the tree. It was 30ish C. I had no drink with me.
But eventually I got there. I know it’s a tree stump now, but it does still have meaning. It was great to see its re-growing and 100s of years from now may well look something like its original.
Absolutely no way I could have walked that same route back! I was exhausted! I ended up taking the lower, flatter, but ‘entirely in the glare of the sun’ route back to the road we had driven up. I called Jane. Thankfully she had signal and answered, and then came and picked me up on the way back to the Twice Brewed pub & Brewery.
Where we ate very well, were served very well & bought more beer very well!
From there, it’s a 100-mile slog across to and then down the M6 to Mums, up in Shevy. As we got on the M6 Southbound, the clouds in the wing mirror reflections we almost black. Forebodings of future.
We drove into and then out of a ridiculously heaving rain storm, where the road became flooded and standing water kicked up spray whilst the wipers struggled to keep up!
Finally and after a 20 minute delay due to heavy traffic, we dropped Mum & Alfie off, made sure she was all sorted and then headed home, where I now write this from. Sat in the sunset light, watching Les Bleus play the Vikings, sipping cold Twice Brewed, Sureshot and my own homebrew beer and pondering on when we can go back to that area.
Anyhoo, that’s definitely all for this hols. I once again thank you & bid you farewell!
“To the Regiment! I wish I was there!”
Much love!