Today our walk was to carry us not just through space but through time. Highlights were to include a mysterious cup-and-ring marked stone from the Neolithic or Bronze Age, and St Cuthbert's Cave where, in the ninth century, the monks of Lindisfarne brought St Cuthbert's body to shelter it from Viking raids.
We delayed setting off from Wooler as we were not supposed to check in at our B&B in Fenwick before 4pm. We explored the town and suddenly the view of the low hill beyond brought back to mind a magical holiday when our children had been much younger.
Although it was at Easter, snow had fallen deeply and we had trekked out into the hills admiring the way the wind had sculpted the snow, and had made a gigantic anowball which it took all of us to roll along. In the afternoon we had returned to the house and I had painted a watercolour of the low hillside opposite. It was this view that had reawakened the vivid memory.
Before leaving Wooler, we visited the stately Anglican church once more.
Simultaneously two memories gripped us. I recalled coming here for the Easter service that snowy holiday. Nigel remembered even further back, when his secondary school choir would come each Christmas to sing carols here.
Before we had ever set off, we had already made our own personal journey through time.
