Day 2 – Warkworth to Embleton (15.5 / 16.5+ miles)
Since we would be ending Tuesday’s hike at Embleton, there was no need for the full “car shuffle” this day — we just drove in one car to Warkworth for the start (Allan and I would later have to drive down to pick that one up).
Tuesday was supposed to be a more pleasant day than Monday, weather-wise, which was one reason we had kept the Monday hike relatively short – unfortunately that’s not quite how it turned out. There was much more wind on Tuesday, which combined with a general dampness and light drizzle on and off during the day, it was a less enjoyable hike overall – however the mist made for some very dramatic ocean views, and the wind and rain would ease off periodically to give us some more pleasant stretches.
After walking north out of Warkworth, we walked through the dunes toward Alnmouth, where we again ran into some very confusing directions from the book, which caused us to make a fairly large detour, up to a mile, before we got back on the right path. However the detour did take us along the Aln estuary for a while, providing some lovely views as well as a visit to a small, disused chapel, so it was not a complete waste of time. A very long, meandering road finally got us into Alnmouth, where we had a very strange coffee break at an almost completely deserted inn, courtesy of a guy with an almost incomprehensible accent, consisting of “latte” (black coffee), “cappuccino” (black coffee), and big slabs of (admittedly delicious) caramel cake which he gave us “for free” (but the coffees cost £15!).
After snacks, we went on past two golf courses (getting our passports stamped at the clubhouse of the second) and then on to a windswept path which ran for many miles up the coast. The weather was fine for much of this, so it was quite enjoyable for the most part, with very distant views of Dunstanburgh castle through the mist at times, and the path led us past spots like Sugar Sands which were very memorable to us from childhood holidays and trips in later years with our own children. However the “mizzle” (mist/drizzle) descended fully on us as we came toward Craster, and by the time we reached the village we were very tired, damp and ready for a break at a tea shop. We even briefly discussed ending the hike early – I was willing to walk ahead and then bring the car to pick up the others – but this would have led to a very long day later in the week to make up lost distance. So after a very refreshing break, we pushed ahead as quickly as possible up past Dunstanburgh Castle to Embleton and home base at the cottage. It was a little bit of a shame not to be able to enjoy the spectacular approach to the castle more – but we have many memories of that walk on more pleasant days, so we didn’t feel we were missing too much.
