Bongo Fury

For the sixth year now we’ve disappeared between Christmas and New Year. There’s only so much turkey & mince pies you can eat, and it enables you to hone those wild-camping skills ready for the forthcoming year.

So, without further ado, Muzette and myself set off about 3am the other day and drifted north for a 1,000km magical mystery tour of the north-east of England and the south-east of bonnie Scotland.


How’s this for a spectacular start to our tour at Tynemouth


Tynemouth castle & Priory


Tynemouth castle & Priory


Tynemouth Priory


Tynemouth castle


Tynemouth Priory, with the old Coastguard Station in the background


Tynemouth Priory


Tynemouth Priory, with the Oratory of St Mary or Percy Chapel in the foreground


Inside the Percy Chapel


I do hope she doesn’t make a habit of this


A gun from 1859 when the castle was used as a fortress....


....then in WW2 the prominent position was used to defend the entrance to the Tyne


King Edward's Bay, Tyne & Wear


St Mary's Island (3 miles away) and Lynemouth power station in the distance (8 miles away)


Wallsend. It does what it says on the tin, the end of Hadrian’s Wall as it goes into Swan Hunter shipyard and into the Tyne


Or is it Walls-start?


Parts of Hadrian’s Wall still remain as it passes through downtown Newcastle


Denton Hall Turret alongside the A186

And so to Scotland to see if we can catch some haggis




There can’t be a more spectacular entrance to Caledonia than over the oldest suspension bridge in the world....


....still open to vehicular traffic – the Union Chain-Bridge across the river Tweed....


....from Horncliffe in Northumberland to Fishwick in the Scottish Borders.




The decking is timber and it doesn’t half wobble when you drive across


Only one vehicle on the bridge at any one time and 2 tons maximum weight








The supports are iron chains, the wire rope cables were added later.




Ayton castle, Berwickshire


Lunch at Giacopazzi's, Eyemouth. Looks like they had a special offer on


....a free haggis with every portion of fish & chips


After despatching the wrappers, Muzette didn’t waste the chance to get some ice cream


It’s never too cold


A cormorant pretending to be one of the Liver birds


Coldingham Priory, Berwickshire – I’m sure this is what they modelled the Bunny Suicide cartoon on





Coldingham Priory, Berwickshire


Coldingham Priory, Berwickshire


Coldingham Priory, Berwickshire


Pease Bay, Berwickshire....


....fording Pease Burn


Stolen from all over the place


Brave souls venturing out in the middle of winter. Dunbar, East Lothian


Oooh, I do believe this is our campsite for a couple of days then


Room with a view? – Wild-camp view of Eyemouth


Hume castle, Berwickshire


Hume castle, Berwickshire


Finally, an ideal opportunity to take care of some unfinished business from a previous tour, the Bear Gates at Traquair House, Peeblesshire, closed since 1745 and not to be reopened until Bonnie Prince Charlie returned, victorious.


Photographed in fading light to bring down the curtain on another fabulous year of Bongoing....


....but unlike The Young Pretender we will return next year


Oh, we did manage to restock our supply of Lorne sausage, fruit pudding and clootie dumpling. And Wee Willie Winkies

Wow nice! Not quite the same weather down here in Sussex
I wonder how many times you went thru the ford ?

More than once Five times I think

For the bridge shots I set Muzette up with a tripod so she couldn't go wrong. For the ford she was taking them properly as I went through several times, but what was really bizarre was that three bods were walking along the footbridge shouting her name, only turned out to be some geezer who lives down the road from us and their daughter is in Muzette's class at school

Great pictures, thanks for sharing. Only one complaint, yet another cross border raid (to within a couple of miles of our house) and still you have managed to avoid our hospitality...... advance warning next time please and we can send out the border rievers to intercept.

Have a great 2013. Please keep the pictures rolling in

All the best

David.

i heard you were out on a mission guys and were heading north, so i headed for one of your haunts, now i know why you were not at the chippy at Arnside.

David, Muz was not trying to avoid Scottish Hospitality. He texted me at 7.49am on the 29th from Traquair House in attempt to scrounge a cuppa. The only problem was I did not get out of bed until around 11.00am that day and did not check my phone until 2.15pm. Now if he had parked up outside the night before he could have shared the bottle of malt with me.

Tony

Better than Christmas.

That bridge looks almost as well worn as the Muzwagon. How many miles has it travelled now? Still, at least you treat it with respect and don't drive it through fords like a nutter.

Very best wishes to the Muz clan for Christmas and 2013.

It's over 325,000km now but it doesn't get used as much as it did, kind of semi-retired.

Well at least the ford was fresh water, doing similar across the Lindisfarne causeway last year wasn't a good idea at all But if you saw the state of the A708 as we hurtled down there in the middle of the night, vast lakes appeared out of nowhere in the road, so hitting one of them at 40-50mph threw more spray (and probably rocksalt) than the ford.

Oh, and anyone who complains about sleeping in a Bongo - Muzette slept for 15 hours the other night

Best wishes to all for the New Year, hopefully we'll see you in a field soon

Another fantastic pictorial tour ,always look forward to seeing your latest escapades.
A very happy new year to you and your family

Brilliant pictures and commentary, as always. Thank you for brightening up New Years' Eve.

Thanks for posting, Muzz, looks fantastic.

Check out the Union chain bridge shots about halfway through my report - get there quick before they close it

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-s ... d-23233904

It may have to close after some nutter drove a Bongo over it