{"id":3458,"date":"2022-06-10T07:48:40","date_gmt":"2022-06-10T07:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=3458"},"modified":"2022-06-10T07:48:40","modified_gmt":"2022-06-10T07:48:40","slug":"5-the-running-foxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=3458","title":{"rendered":"5. THE RUNNING FOXES."},"content":{"rendered":"

We’ve almost collected the full set of Running Fox bakeries and coffee shops!\u00a0 Fabulous coffee & scones at Longframlington, coffee & Bakewell Tart (this needs to be made Lauren’s next mission!) on the tiny, sunny terrace outside the Felton branch and coffee & ginger, apricot and white chocolate flapjack at Longhoughton!\u00a0 Just need to visit the Shilbottle branch.\u00a0 However, each time we’ve passed there it’s been open as a pub!\u00a0 Weird.\u00a0 Two businesses in the same property.\u00a0 Coffee shop by day.\u00a0 Pub in the evening.\u00a0 On the second pass, it being 5.30pm, we decided at the last minute to divert to the Indian restaurant (Lal Khazana) we had stumbled on last year.<\/p>\n

It’s run by an elderly Indian gentleman (the head chef) and his two sons (front of house).\u00a0 And it’s really fascinating to hear them talking in broad Geordie accents!<\/p>\n

Anyway, we had a super meal and, as usual, we ordered one dish too many.\u00a0 The chicken rogan josh was surplus to reasonable requirements – and it turned out to be far too spicy.\u00a0 We were cajoled by the more enthusiastic son for not asking him to minimise the hotness factor.\u00a0 He was insistent that we should always get exactly what we wanted – even if we had no clue what it was that we exactly wanted!\u00a0 He then insisted on making us a new lower-chili-level version and packing it in a “box to go”.\u00a0 All FOC!\u00a0 (Incidentally, I don’t think “cajoled” is the right word above, but i can’t think of the right one!”)<\/p>\n

We are camping right beside the River Font.\u00a0 Apparently, it has been known to flood the entire campsite.\u00a0 Fortunately, only very infrequently!\u00a0 Campers have been airlifted out by helicopter on more than one occasion.\u00a0 With this in mind, we decided that it would be politic to go about a mile upstream to the Fontburn Reservoir and check the dam wall for cracks.\u00a0 OK.\u00a0 Done that.\u00a0 No cracks and no likelihood of massive overspill, although it was raining at the time.\u00a0 I’ll let Glenda get up a couple of times in the night to check water levels outside!<\/p>\n

Because there were no obvious footpaths from the reservoir (although my map says there are several criss crossing the area) and because it was raining we elected to go a couple more miles south and try again.\u00a0 The rain stopped but the path I’d chosen was blocked by several fierce looking bulls (well, cows actually, but they did have their calves with them) so back in the car to get past the herd.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We followed the (not insignificant) sign to the Greenleighton Walk but, having lost the path within the first two seconds as we passed to the left of the signpost, we ended up in some farmer’s front garden.\u00a0 I blame having to navigate AND hold the umbrella. (Men with two tasks issue!).\u00a0 The rain stopped again and, as we got almost back to the car, we found the sign we had “missed” (or, if you are being generous, the sign we had misinterpreted!).\u00a0 So we relaunched at 20 degrees off the original direction (this time going to the right of the sign!) and found ourselves in a flock of sheep with pointy looking horns …<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

… walking along a four metre high rocky wall.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We thought this might have been a fault line, but I have, today, discovered that it is known as Greenleighton Quarry.\u00a0 I guess there’s a clue in the name!\u00a0 It was getting wet underfoot because the grass was getting longer as we walked (in two ways, I suppose – extremely slowly with time, but quite quickly with distance).\u00a0 So we retreated to the lane and walked back almost to the “bull blockade”.\u00a0 We discovered later that the Greenleighton Walk goes to the Fontburn Reservoir and so it was the track I was trying to find earlier from the other end!<\/p>\n

Guess what we had for tea that evening.\u00a0 Yes, correct – chicken rogan josh.\u00a0 And it was so good we even rang the restaurant to thank them!<\/p>\n

I might be getting out of sequence here, but it is the Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend.\u00a0 We walked up the back lane from the campsite.\u00a0 It goes to Nunnykirk School for dyslectic children.\u00a0 It looked pretty deserted as we passed.\u00a0 Little evidence of any scholars!\u00a0 However, there were about a dozen signs saying “No access to the caravan site this way – DO NOT follow your satnav!”\u00a0 We learnt that, yesterday, a massive twin axle caravan had not obeyed the signs and got wedged in the ever-narrowing pathway.\u00a0 Apparently, the land-owner gave him a good ear-bashing before assisting him to extricate himself from the lane.\u00a0 Some of us caravanners just can’t read signs – or maybe we just don’t believe them!<\/p>\n

We pitched up back at the campsite just in time to join the Jubilee “party” organised by the wardens.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Prosecco and orange juice and BYO anything else.\u00a0 At least it helped us feel part of the celebrations and it was good to chat with some of our fellow incumbents!<\/p>\n

On the subject of the Jubilee, we have been trying to watch the main events on YouTube and i-player.\u00a0 And they have been variously, impressive (Trooping the Colour); hilarious (Prince Louis’ facial expressions and antics); grand (two and a half miles of pageant procession); worrying (Rod Stewart – dodgy lyrics, Diana Ross – miming? and Celeste’s singing – flat???); and magnificent (the illuminated Palace show and aerial drone display).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

400 Drones were deployed to show jumping horses, handbags, cups of tea and corgi dogs (not my photo).\u00a0 It got me looking – apparently the record number of illuminated drones flying together is an amazing 3281.\u00a0 And all controlled on separate trajectories by a single computer!<\/p>\n

Sitting at Rothbury golf course, we can see people walking along the skyline to the north of town.\u00a0 Looks exciting.\u00a0 It also looks a considerable climb – but it has to be done!\u00a0 (We found out later that the walk is known locally as the “Carriageway Walk”.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A total of 4.7 miles\u00a0 with 550 feet gain in elevation and 11,973 steps.\u00a0 As we reached the open hill top we had a “Sound of Music” moment…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

… the path was easy going across the open moorland …<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

… but as we got into the wooded section …<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

… we found ourselves on a different planet!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Unbelievable.\u00a0 Trees down everywhere.\u00a0 These were some of them lying across our path!\u00a0 But ar least the rhododendrons hadn’t been affected by Storm Arwen …<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Maybe there should have been a sign saying “Path closed, keep out.” Like there had been at Thrunton Woods.\u00a0 But I guess no one determined enough to do this walk would comply!<\/p>\n

On the subject of signage, we found a very useful road sign few miles up the road last year …<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This year it was even less helpful!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Very useful!<\/p>\n

Over the bank Holiday weekend, Rothbury was in celebratory mode.\u00a0 “Tea” parties were in full swing outside the Newcastle House Hotel and pub) and Bewicks (coffee house).\u00a0 And on the Sunday, on our way home from a second Sunday lunch at Thropton, the Rothbury Highland Band was in full swing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After all this excitement, Bruce and Angela came back to our place for a sedate cup of tea.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It should be noted that Glenda was Angela’s bridesmaid some 54 years ago.\u00a0 Angela remains one of Glenda’s longest standing friends with whom she is in regular touch.\u00a0 I nearly said oldest friend… !<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve almost collected the full set of Running Fox bakeries and coffee shops!\u00a0 Fabulous coffee & scones at Longframlington, coffee & Bakewell Tart (this needs to be made Lauren’s next mission!) on the tiny, sunny terrace outside the Felton branch… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-england","category-travels-in-2022"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3458"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3487,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3458\/revisions\/3487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}