BraziBays at Beadnell Bay

BraziBays at Beadnell Bay

After Edinburgh, we headed to Northumberland to visit our friends Tony and Penny, who work on the Camping and Caravan Club site at Beadnell Bay. They also happen to own a beautiful Brazilian T2c called, Lily.

Lovely Lily

The journey from Scotland was fine, although there were ominous signs along the road saying, “heavy rain expected” and they weren’t wrong. Before it arrived though, we stopped off in Berwick-upon-Tweed for a fish and chip lunch. We had a walk along the town walls and admired the views out to sea. I like Berwick but Alison has ruled it out as a retirement destination.

It’s only a short drive to Beadnell from Berwick, passing through the lovely village of Bamburgh on the way, with its magnificent castle dominating the skyline.

Bamburgh

By the time we got to the campite it was just starting to rain. It was great to see Tony and Penny again and we were soon pitched up. Other friends had already arrived, including Geoff and Dave in Skye, their VW California, and Daz and Claire, in Yoshi, their Brazilian.

They were followed not long after by Alan and Gill in their T2c, Voyager.

Yoshi

Voyager

Skye

Saturday night was spent catching up, in Tony and Penny’s awning – there was much laughter and quite a bit of drink too…

Sunday was a day for a walk – the sun had returned and the Northumbrian coast was looking at its best. We walked to Beadnell Harbour, then along the beach towards Low Newton and the Ship Inn. The tide was out, but at one point we had to walk barefoot, to cross a stream that cuts across the beach. I was in a very happy place – the scenery was stunning, the beach was quiet (they always are up here) and we were with friends.

The Beadnell Harbour choir?

Inside the Ship Inn

The Ship Inn has quite a reputation in the area. There’s no waitress service, you have to queue for food and drink, but it’s always busy. The food is exceptional and includes local seafood – the crab sandwiches are amazing.

We walked back to the site and chilled, before heading out again for dinner at Beadnell Towers. Once again the food was brilliant, very reasonably priced (including a 20% discount for C&CC members) and much better than average pub grub.

They have free WiFi – can you tell?

On Monday, Voyager and Yoshi left us to return home and the remaining six of us caught the bus from outside the campsite to Alnwick.

Waiting for the bus

Alnwick is a great little market town with a spectacular castle that you may have seen in a Harry Potter film.

We headed to the massive bookshop, Barter Books, to grab some food in the buffet area, but there weren’t any seats available, so, after a quick browse, we got back on a bus and travelled to Craster.

Barter Books

Barter Books

We had lunch in the Jolly Fisherman (more seafood, yum!) and a potter round the village before catching the bus back to Beadnell.

Craster

Monday night was time to gather at the vans to drink Prosecco and eat cheese…

We were rewarded with a beautiful sunset to round off the evening (not forgetting a bottle of Penny’s finest champagne in their awning to end the night…).

Geoff was up very early on Tuesday morning to catch the sunrise – here are two of his photos to prove it (we were still fast asleep).

Red sky and Skye

On Tuesday we said our goodbyes and drove to Alnwick to buy a vintage suitcase we’d spotted in Oxfam. We tried to have breakfast in a cafe but the waitress forgot to give our order to the cook, so we didn’t have time to eat it.

We drove back across country passed Kirkharle, where, 300 years ago, Lancelot Capability Brown was born. We took the old military road which runs parallel with Hadrian’s Wall – it’s bleak up there on a bad weather day, but today was bright sunshine and spectacular scenery.

Hadrian’s Wall

We met the M6 at Carlisle and Alison set a new Campervan record for the quickest journey back to Leyland. At least I think she did, I couldn’t quite see with my hands in front of my face…

A brilliant few days then, with good friends and beautiful scenery – here’s to our next trip.

There’s a full set of photos here: FLICKR