Day 9 of Murray & David's Northern Frontier conquest: The Journey Home

Day 9: Bowness on Solway - Bere Alston

Weather: Sunny

Distance Traveled:  413 miles
New beers tasted: 0
Caffeine Consumed: Way too much!

Caveat & disclaimer: No laws [traffic or otherwise] were broken in the writing of this blog. I have exaggerated events for [hopefully] comic effect.

Tide Out

Tide In

Tuesday 10th September. Time to go home. Orla had kindly agreed to drive up [with Georgie] and collect us, but she wasn't arriving until about 11am, so David and I had time to explore the coastline of the Solway Firth. Apart from being spectacularly beautiful, it is

View towards Scotland
From abandoned docks at Port Carlisle

View Towards Port Carlisle
From abandoned docks at Port Carlisle

renowned for its plethora of bird  life. Neither of us are 'twitchers'  and couldn't tell a Coot from a Tern, but I can report there were lots & lots of pretty looking birds. Yesterday evening the tide was very much in. This morning it was right the way out, so we took the opportunity to stroll across the mud flats to the abandoned docks. this was the West coast [well, sort of] and we had walked from Tynemouth in the East, to Solway Firth in the West. It felt good. It was also very quiet and very beautiful. Worried / paranoid that we may be caught out by the notoriously quick in-coming tides, we darted back across the mud flats to the camp site and struck camp for the very last time on this expedition. As we did so, one man and his dog walked in to the camp site and started to talk to us about our journey. Very nice man he was too. Turned out he was Henry Stedman, author of Hadrians Wall Path. We had many tales to tell and were very enthusiastic. Top of our priority was the closure of the Centurian pub in Walton. Nearly ruined our trip! Promised us we would be mentioned in the next addition of his book [out February 2014]. Fame at last!  

Packed up and ready to go, my dear wife Orla and devoted Greyhound Georgie turned up. Time to go home. Yay! After a whistle stop tour and revisit of Bowness, we headed south. We stopped off for a quick, yet delightful lunch at the Drovers Arms, Monkhill. Food was delicious, good choice of beer- but  I was driving, so had coffee. So the coffee fiend was born. As we wound our way through the sleepy Cumbrian coastal areas back to Carlisle, we recounted our stories of the past week. Oh, what fun we had had. As we hit the M6  at Carlisle, it was Motorway all the way South back to Devon. Orla had driven up to collect us- I was driving back. I was tired after 7 days walking. So I needed coffee. Motorway services, after motorway services were stopped at so I could refuel. Caffeine was consumed in huge quantities. Americano's with extra shots. I was buzzing. More Caffeine. GIVE.ME.MORE.CAFFEINE. I was gibbering. I stopped making sense. My driving became erratic and way too fast . Other drivers were not being considerate. Scenery blurred due to warp speed. My hair was blowing in the wind and the window wasn't even open! [or that's how it seemed; see caveat & disclaimer above]. 

Within minutes we were back in Devon. Time stood still. Relax. Breath. Reality. The warp speed journey of the M6 / M5 was over. Heart rate returned to normal. I was banned from any more caffeine.  Maybe none of the above really happened. It was light when we started our journey. The sun was behind us. Now it was dark. Perhaps it had taken longer than minutes. Maybe I shouldn't drink so much coffee. It makes me nervous. And loose track of time. Maybe my memory of the drive home was compromised. Maybe I made it all up. But we all got home safely [Legally. Honestly].

David & Murray's Northern Frontier Conquest was now officially over. We were home.

THE END!