Day 30: futuristic Victorian mansion

Tomorrow will be another driving day towards Dover so we decided to keep the driving to a minimum today and explore some nearby sites. After breakfast we get in the car and stop at the supermarket to get lunch, we forgot that it’s a Sunday today and the supermarket won’t open until 10.00.

This means that we’ll have to make do with some cashew nuts and have a late lunch. We arrive at Cragside at 10.00, this is a Victorian mansion and estate which is so huge that there is a 6 mile drive through the forest by car. The house won’t open until 11 and since it’s still quiet we start with the safari. There are some enormous pine trees, a lot of rhodendendrons and blossoming heather.

There are parking spots along the way, we use the first as a sanitary stop and the second has an enormous playground, the children get to climb and run wild. The next stop is a special treat for Olga as it’s a giant Labyrinth in the forest.

We make one more stop to marvel at the purple hills before we drive to the main parking to visit the main house. This was the house of an engineer and arms dealer who made a fortune designing modern arms and used it to build this house with state of the art experimental features. It was the first house with electric lightning, a dishwasher, a hydro powered elevator and much more. It’s designed by Richard Norman Shaw in the style of the arts and crafts movement.

Downstairs is a Turkish bathhouse and a shower with a huge shower head. The kitchen is enormous and has a hydropowered spit for roasting. Upstairs are beautiful bedrooms and a huge art gallery which misses the greatest pieces from the former collection as they were sold to cover the gambling debts of the last owner.

We get lunch and picknick overlooking the valleys and moors as the sun is shining.

We circle back home via Warkworth Castle. This huge castle was the home of the Percy family, the earls of Northumberland until they got into trouble with Henry IV in the early 1400s who besieged the castle. The remains are still huge and the main tower is still in relatively good state, providing great views of the lower town and the nearby coast.

Back at the holiday park we head for the beach, the children want to build a huge sand castle and we go for a dip in the cold North Sea. As Tim tries to swim he spots a young seal near the coast, it seems lost and we spot a bigger group further out. Olga also takes a dive as the children continue to expand their castle. Tim returns to get his drone to try and get a closer shot of the seals at sea.

The rest of the family return to the caravan as Tim tries to spot a needle in a heystack. Just when he is about to give up, he spots four dolphins jumping out of the water. It’s tricky to find them with the drone even as they swim by only some 20 meters from shore.

It was the perfect end to another wonderful day!