To Amble from Warkworth

This was such a short and easy walk (does it win the prize for the shortest walk written up on Jordanwalks?) that it feels ridiculous that we didn’t just walk on to Warkworth from Amble yesterday, rather than catching the bus. However, in the circumstances, I think our decision yesterday was the right one, and it gave us a pleasant little walk this morning before setting off on the long and rather complicated journey home. Had we been travelling home by train from Almouth Station (which, let me emphasise, would definitely been our preference, had there not been a train strike) we probably wouldn’t have had time to walk to Amble first, and we’d have been going in the wrong direction - but it would have been perfectly possible if we’d been booked on a later train.

We'd slept well at the Warkworth House Hotel and the day started with a very pleasant breakfast; one of the advantages of hotels over B&Bs and pubs is the likelihood of nice breakfasts that are not "full English" and today was no exception. I had smoked salmon and scrambled egg and Richard had an omelette. We checked out of the hotel shortly before 9am and started by turning left to Warkworth Bridge, which we had crossed on  4th August 2016 at the point at which we joined the Northumberland Coast Path and continued north on it. Having joined up to the coast path heading north, we now just needed to walk back to Amble to join up to the coast path from the south, where we had walked yesterday.

From Warkworth Bridge, we turned onto The Butts and followed along, close to the river. Eventually, Wellfield led us uphill to the main road near the Castle, which we passed before turning left onto Beal Bank. For the next mile, our path ran alongside the road that the bus had whizzed along yesterday, but the walk was much more pleasant than that would imply. On the other side, our path rang alongside the River Coquet and there were good views behind us to Warkworth Castle, and increasingly good views in front of us to the harbour area at Amble. As the road curved away from the river, we took a path that continued straight ahead to the marina. And that was just about the end of our walk. With the route of the England Coast Path we skirted around the marina then took a path across open land to the centre of the little town. Here we recognised some of the shops and a restaurant, so we knew we'd joined up with our route yesterday. Job done!

We made our way to the bus stop we had used last night, now confident that the X18 and X20, either of which would take us to Newcastle,  stopped here both on their northbound route (which is what we'd wanted yesterday) and their southbound route (which is what we wanted today). Our confidence was rather misplaced. A north-bound bus stopped at the bus stop, and a south-bound one passed on the opposite side of the road ... but it didn't come back! Some research revealed that the X18 heads into and out of Amble by the same route, but the X20 does not (or maybe it's the other way round!) so we'd missed one simply by being on the wrong side of the road. Thankfully, we weren't in a rush and we didn't have long to wait for the next southbound bus.