We were all packed and ready to go before we went down for our last breakfast in the Courtyard Garden. During breakfast we realised that there had been a bit of a mix up over the number of nights that we were staying, our hosts were expecting us to stay another night. Before we set off on our travels I had thought we had booked the extra night but on reading the confirmation letter to see we had only booked four nights, so I cancelled my extra days leave.  I mentioned on several occasions to Mr C that perhaps we could book the extra night… But he said he needed to get back to work, he he had booked one less day than needed at the beginning of our holiday so that had to be sorted in favour of less days off at the end of our break.

Our hosts were sad to see us go and when I got home checked the booking acknowledgement letter I could see how the confusion had arisen and I regretted not noticing it before we went away.

After breakfast we loaded up the car with our luggage, paid our bill and chatted with our hosts before paying one last visit to Barter Books to see if we could locate the book on rock carvings that I had first seen when we arrived in Alnwick. After having a quick search for the book ourselves we took the details to the desk and a helpful young lady went into the back room to check the catalogue. The book was still listed and we were directed to the appropriate section where we found that the owner of the shop had followed us. He told me the author of the book and asked a lady to assist us. She found a version of the book within two minutes and went to check elsewhere if the other version of the book was still available. It was only the binding that was different but she thought the other book may have a better binding.  She couldn’t find the other copy but I didn’t mind, it was the content of the book that I was interested in. I thanked her for her help and went to purchase the elusive book.

After this brief diversion we headed to Ripon so that Mr C could explore the Royal Green Jackets museum. The museum was excellent although there was one off putting moment when we heard a building alarm going off and we didn’t know if we should evacuate the premises and the museum staff were unsure because the fire alarm panel wasn’t showing a problem. It turned out to be the lift alarm where two people were stuck in the lift. Eventually the museum staff were able to rescue the two people. We had been told on arrival that the lift was slow but that was taking it a bit far…

When we left the museum Mr C realised he had parked in the wrong zone so we decided not to leave our chances to fate and travelled on to Brough and a lovely tea shop situated next to the ruined castle there before continuing on our homeward journey.

We arrived at breakfast to find that we were seated next to the couple who dined next to us in Lilburns the previous evening. A coincidence that led us into easy conversation with each other. After breakfast we headed to Alnmouth where we  hoped to stop so that we could wander round the small town. There was no parking available in town and the beach parking meant quite a long walk. We thought this would take up too much time so we continued on our journey along the Heritage Coast towards Bamburgh and the Grace Darling museum, stopping for some photo opportunities along the way.

The museum was interesting but only required a brief visit leaving us to decide what we would do next. We deliberated on whether or not to carry on up the coast to Berwick or not.

In the end we decided to have another attempt at finding some rock carvings. We located one of the sites which is near to Doddington and climbed over a style where a signpost directed us to a track up a small slope. I negotiated the nettles which were overgrowing the pathway and we emerged in a field full of cows.

I stopped to draw breath and Mr C carried on up the hill. A cow followed him, then got bored as he disappeared over the brow of the hill. The cow stood across the pathway blocking my way.  Cows are normally timid but they can get aggressive if threatened so I waited for her to move out of the way. Whilst I had been walking up the hill a brown speckled cow had been watching me intently. Due to my inactivity she must have thought I was no threat so she strolled down the hillside and stood next to me. She snorted, then sniffed before proceeding first  to lick my handbag, then my arm and then my leg. I was covered in cow slobber… Eventually she too got bored and moved away.

I proceeded up the hill to find Mr C, who had explored the many rocks but couldn’t see any markings and, when I got there, neither could I. Either the light was wrong or we hadn’t gone far enough to find what we were looking for. We gave up and on the way back down the hill I forgot about avoiding the nettles…

This became another day when rock carvings were off the menu so we drove to Etal for lunch in the Post Office. I had a lavender scone which was delicious. We checked the time and decided that we had time to visit Manderston House which is just over the Scottish Border. Along the way we slowed down to check out a hotel that I have my eye on for a future visit to that part of the world.

Manderston is an excellent place to visit and we were lucky enough to be given additional information by the chief guide of the house. We noticed her photograph on one of the tables and were surprised to see it was a picture of her with the current owner of Manderston on the occasion of her 80th birthday. It was her age that was the surprise and it was obvious from newspaper clippings around the house that she is highly regarded by the family.

After the tour of the house we enjoyed a tour of the formal gardens and a cup of tea before heading back to our B&B to get ready for dinner at the White Swan Hotel. We dined in the Olympic Room, the walls of which are lined with wood panelling reclaimed from the Olympic, a sister ship of the Titanic. The food and service was good but it was not quite meal of the week. As we were paying the bill at the end of the evening and discussing the panelling and were given an information sheet about the Olympic. Before returning to our B&B we called in at the pub we had visited on our first evening in Alnwick.

First thing after breakfast we set off to visit Brinkburn Priory, which is a place neither of us have visited before. The Priory is in a lovely, tranquil, shady setting but I thought that the nearby dilapidated manor house detracted from the setting as did a group of photographers with tripods getting in the way of our outside shots. The priory had been booked for a wedding at 12pm and the bride was walking about the grounds in curlers and what looked like night clothes. As we were leaving we could hear sounds of organ music as a choir rehearsed for the wedding.

We headed off towards Rothbury where we hoped to find some prehistoric rock carving that were nearby. I think we must have been on the wrong road because we failed miserably to find their location. We carried on to Rothbury where I hoped to visit a nice clothes shop that I have frequented before. I was sad to see that it had closed down, although I did visit the nearby shoe shop and purchased a pair of shoes of a type I have been trying to find for some time.

We deliberated on where we should go for lunch. Cragside was nearby but we elected to go to Wallington instead as we had only been there on one previous occasion. After lunch in Wallington’s tea shop we visited the house so that we could enjoy the gardens at our leisure. We enjoyed the house with the sun lighting up the rooms; on our previous visit it was raining and this made the rooms rather dark.

We took the short walk to the walled garden where we noticed that many of the garden statues had gone and that there was scaffolding around the glass house. We meandered the garden in the sunshine making up for our last visit which had been cut short due to the rain. We sat outside for afternoon tea and a shared flapjack next to the garden’s seasonal cafe. After finishing our tour of the garden we headed back to Alnwick via the scenic route. I called in at Barter Books quickly to pick up the book on prehistoric rock carvings that I had seen when we called in briefly on our day of arrival only to find that it had gone! It seems that rock carvings were off the day’s menu.

We went back to the B&B to freshen up before dinner at Lilburns. The food was excellent and if we had been staying in Alnwick a little longer we would have returned for another visit. Mr C decided that he wanted to visit the nearby real ale pub before returning to the B&B for the evening. It was an interesting experience… We were greeted by the sight of a giant leek placed on a table near to the pub entrance. It transpired that the annual garden competition had taken place recently and that although large in proportion this leek was not the winning specimen!

DailyIndia reports that the proposed sight of the Basha-Diamer Dam in Pakistan, holds thousands of ancient rock carvings and inscriptions. If the construction of the dam goes ahead around 30,000 carvings on 5,000 rocks would be affected. Some would be totally submerged and some would be seasonably visible when water levels were low.

Professor Harald Hauptmann, head of a research project entitled “Rock Carvings and Inscriptions along the Karakorum Highway”, told Dawn.com that a total of 37,051 carvings on 5,928 boulders or rock faces would be inundated after the construction of the Diamer-Basha Dam.

The site hosts hundreds of inscriptions in Brahmi, Sogdian, middle Persian, Chinese, Tibetan and Hebrew languages. Some 80 per cent of the writings are in Brahmi language.

These writings not only provide insights into the religious and political situation but also show the name of the rulers and a rough date of the time. The earliest rock carvings in northern Pakistan dates back to the ninth millennium BC (roughly late Stone Age).

When asked about the importance of the rock carvings in one hand and the need of the dam on the other, Hauptmann said: “We (as an archaeologist) have to respect the decision (to build the dam), but it is very sad for us to lose one of the most rich and diverse rock art provinces of the world.”

According to Hauptmann, the Basha Dam will drown 32 villages and displace more than 25,000 people, and some 3,000 very important stupas and a similar number of drawings will be submerged after the construction of the dam.

The World Monuments Fund gives further background on the petroglyphs:

Meandering through gorges of the Indus River valley and across high mountain passes, ancient arteries of the fabled Silk Road cut through the Diamer District of Northern Pakistan. Along these pathways, thousands of petroglyphs cover cliffs, rock faces, and boulders, standing testament to the ancient cultures that once settled in this region and the merchants, pilgrims, and conquerors who later journeyed through it. Over 50,000 rock carvings and 5,000 inscriptions serve as a timeline from the Epipaleolithic period to the pre-Islamic “golden era” of Buddhism. The earliest petroglyphs, which depict wild animals such as ibex and sheep, were created by groups of hunter-gathers first drawn to the region in the early Holocene. By the first millennium B.C., Scytho-Saka tribal groups from Central Asia had introduced the Eurasian animal style of drawing. As this region developed into a dynamic Himalayan crossroads in the Silk Road era, more petroglyphs exhibited Buddhist iconography and architectural forms, most importantly associated with the building of stupas.

The full DailyIndia article can be viewed here and more information on the World Monuments Fund action plan can be found here.

Photos from the World Monuments Fund website.