Our final UK housesit was in Amble on the Northumberland coast. Once again, it was a place we had no knowledge of but the photos sent by our hosts looked promising. We were very happy to be greeted by our new friend Daisy and her parents, spending the evening with them before they headed off on their overseas adventure. Daisy was a lovely friend to us and we enjoyed exploring this beautiful area with her. Amble itself is a small port town with easy walks to the pier and short drives to a very expansive, dog friendly, beach where Daisy loved chasing balls. Nearby was the beautiful castle town of Warkworth, and a further short drive we enjoyed a coastal walk with Daisy to the ruins of Dunstanburgh Castle. Another drive to the National Trust property of Cragside with its interesting history and more walks with Daisy. We didn’t get to Alnwick, sadly, but certainly enjoyed the places we got to see and made the most of some sunshine to get out and about. Not very warm, as we discovered the day we headed to Cragside – we left Amble in warm 20 degree sunshine and as we headed inland watched the sun disappear and the temperature gauge on the car drop by 6 degrees. We were thankful to have our raincoats in the car as an additional layer, but for a few moments we were thinking we’d have to shorten our visit as we did not dress for the cold – we should know better by now!

We took an outing without Daisy up to Holy Island and Lindisfarne. Because of the tides, we were limited on times we could access the island by car, as the causeway is on tidal flats. We timed our drive perfectly, arriving just as the causeway opened to traffic. They advertise the island as “the island that isn’t an island, with a castle that isn’t a castle”. We carefully drove over the road with many others, passing those going the other way who had been stuck on the island until access was available to leave, and spying those who walked across the mudflats, wandering ourselves up to the “castle” built as a fort and converted to a “holiday home” in later years. Then down to the village to see the remains of the Lindisfarne Priory, founded by St Aiden in 635; the current ruins were built around 1150. It was an interesting wander and a good day out for us to see this place we had heard much about. Another very busy place with lots of tourists.

We had a wonderful time in Amble and the surrounding areas, but it was now time to farewell the delightful Daisy. We had really enjoyed her company, there are always some dogs that steal your heart, and I think we left a bit of ourselves behind here! It was now time for a very brief excursion into Scotland before heading back south again. Because it was a short trip north, we headed first of all to see the Kelpies and the Falkirk Wheel. The Kelpies were awesome to see close up, representing the horses that used to draw the canal boats along the paths, and then the Falkirk Wheel, a great piece of engineering developed to shorten the distance and lock times for canal boats.

We had not realised that our timing meant our stay coincided with the Edinburgh Fringe Festival AND the Edinburgh Tattoo, so our choices of accommodation were limited and expensive. Luckily, our B&B was near the tram line into the town centre so we tootled off for the afternoon once we arrived early. We headed to Leith for the afternoon, as one of our objectives was to visit the distillery where our favourite gin we buy in NZ is made. Sadly, it was a distilling day, so we couldn’t do a tour, but we did buy a couple of miniature bottles to consume later. We wandered down to the port where the Royal Yacht Britannia is moored, and then back along the river for dinner before catching the tram back – as we left in the sunshine we saw storm clouds in the distance, and the closer we got to our destination, the darker they became, with heavy rain spots hitting the front windows of the tram. We got to our stop and dashed inside the terminal as the heavens opened to an intense downpour, the noise was deafening! We had one umbrella we had thought to bring, so as the rain eased slightly we decided to head for home, still getting soaked in the process. The next day dawned fine, thankfully, so we headed into the city centre this time. We had not been in time to purchase tickets to access the castle, so had to make do with spying different views from the outside. The Royal Mile was packed with visitors, it was a very busy town. We skirted past Holyrood house and out to climb up to Arthur’s Seat, where you could get great views of the city. It was quite a climb up and there were once again huge numbers of people.

From Edinburgh, we skirted south, via Gretna Green and Hadrian’s Wall to the Lakes District, stopping first in Keswick for two nights. We arrived on a very busy Thursday afternoon – we couldn’t believe how many cars and people were there. The place was buzzing with a street market and many walkers and cyclists and cars. The following morning we headed down to the lake and bought a day trip ticket on the lake ferry, planning to walk parts of the lake and get a ride back at the end. We enjoyed a calm ride across the lake to the Lodore Falls, hoping to walk to a recommended spot, Surprise View. The surprise was that it was a lot further away than we had planned, so we gave that up and found the falls instead, before setting off on foot around the lake, hoping to catch the ferry again about half an hour away. We rounded the bottom of the lake to watch the ferry dock and depart, so decided to keep going to the lunch stop at Lingholm, a further half an hour onwards. This was a great walk and we passed, and were passed by, many other hikers and cyclists with and without dogs and families. We were happy to stop at Lingholm Gardens and cafe and catch our breath over lunch and have a wander around the garden before heading to the last listed ferry stop at Nichol End, another 20 minutes away. We arrived in plenty of time for the ferry, only to be told that the ferry doesn’t come here any more. Faced with a 40 minute walk back to the previous stop, or a 30 minute walk to Keswick, we opted to keep going, but muttered about the waste of money on a day trip ticket when we only got one leg. We were happy the weather stayed fine for us and were thankful to take a break on our return – it had been a much longer day than we planned.

It was a very short drive the next day towards Windermere, and we stopped a few times to enjoy the scenery and views. Grasmere was a lovely town to take a break in, and buy the famous gingerbread. Beatrix Potter’s Hilltop Farm was an enjoyable visit, and we took short stops at Sizergh Castle and Rufford House (both National Trust) the following day on our way to Manchester Airport, dropping off our rental car and catching a very delayed flight to Ireland, finishing off our time in the UK.

It had been a very full 3 months in the UK and we got to see a lot of England and a bit of Wales. We saw plenty of wonderful places with amazing history, part of heritage. Below shows an approximation of our UK travels starting and ending in Manchester.