Saturday August 25th 2012 - A rainy day and a walk on Kip's beach

Well so much for me hoping I would be able to get out and about with the camera - I woke that morning to a miserable grey sky and fine but heavy rain which hardly stopped of all day. The morning dog walk was a very brief one and there was no sign of Janet and Aphra - with the kettle on for breakfast I went across to see if she wanted a brew and found her curled up in bed reading a book, and other than taking Aphra for a quick walk she had no intention of coming out while it was raining. I didn't blame her for that, it really was a miserable day, so I retreated back to the awning and spent the morning reading and watching tv. By 2pm though I was thoroughly fed up being cooped up inside so I decided to drive down to Asda in Ashington, get some supplies and have a look round the shops while I was there - Janet was quite happy to stay in her tent with Aphra so with my two in the back of the van I set off down the lane to see what Ashington had to offer.

As I got to the roundabout on the main road I decided to go straight on instead of right and see what was down there. A country lane and a couple of right hand bends took me past several fields to the local beach and from there the road followed the shoreline for several miles, first through the tiny village of Cresswell and then through the larger Lynemouth. The first part of the drive would have been quite pleasant in nice weather but the huge and sprawling power station at Lynemouth made that particular area look really ugly and desolate so I was glad when I got away from there and reached the outskirts of Ashington. Although I hadn't been into town before I had a rough idea of where Asda was and my good sense of direction led me straight to it with no trouble; by that time the rain had slackened to a reasonably bearable drizzle and as I could have two hours free parking I decided to look round town first before going into the store. Although Ashington isn't a big place there was more to it than I expected; much of the main street was pedestrianised and would have been quite a nice place in better weather. When I'd wandered up and down both sides of each street and seen everything there was to see I returned to Asda, left the dogs back in the van and went to do some shopping, picking up various food items for myself and Janet and a couple of new cd's to play in the van.

As I was driving back to the camp site the weather gods decided to turn off the perpetual tap and brighten the sky a bit, so as the dogs really needed a decent walk I went past the lane leading to the site and drove a couple of miles further on, turning down a lane which skirted the edge of Druridge Bay country park and took me down towards the beach - and though I didn't realise it at first, when I did reach the shore I found I was right by Kip's favourite part of the beach and where his ashes had been scattered almost a couple of months before. There was a small car park not too far along, which was free, so I left the van there and took Sophie and Sugar down onto the beach, walking for quite a distance towards Low Hauxley before turning round and heading back again. With the dogs happy for having had a good run and play I put them back in the van and returned to the camp site, though when I went across to Janet's tent I found there was no-one at home. I was just thinking that she'd taken advantage of the break in the rain to take Aphra for a walk when I heard her shouting me - she had met Sharon, the owner of the caravan on the corner, and was in there sharing a bottle of wine and having a chat. I was invited to join them and spent a very pleasant hour or so before going back to my awning for a brew and something to eat.

With nothing on tv worth watching I wandered over to Janet's tent later on and we spent a very pleasant evening chatting and putting the world to rights, then as the daylight began to fade I took Sophie and Sugar for their final walk of the day. With the two of them settled back in their bed for the night I made myself another brew, then with my latest book to read I took myself off to my own bed, mentally crossing my fingers that after all the rain that day the following one would turn out to be really nice.