Summer Walk, Amble & Coquet Estuary - Tuesday 14th August 2018.

        

On Tuesday 14th August 2018 club members met in the Marina & Braid picnic site car park at Amble for walk number
seven on the summer programme. This car park gives very easy access to the riverside public footpath that we intended
to follow to the mouth of the river and with many colourful boats moored in the estuary, the high tide and warm evening
light combined to make this a very good location for photography.

        

Our route took us through the boatyard, past the Amble Boat Club, the Coquet Yacht club and on to the Amble Marina
where over two hundred safe and secure moorings accommodate the many yachts, motor cruisers and fishing boats.
The skyline of Amble has changed dramatically in recent times with a new development called Coble Quay, here four
blocks of waterside apartments have been built giving stunning views over the river Coquet, with Warkworth Castle in
the distance to the west and the harbour and coastal outlook to the east.

     

Leaving Coble Quay, the new footpath took us out onto Radcliffe Quay next to the RNLI lifeboat station. Fishing boats in
the harbour, fish restaurants and the harbour village pods, the sea food centre and the beach huts were all explored and
photographed. A recent addition to the Little Shore area is a memorial to the crew of RAF Pinnace 1386, an RAF Search
and Rescue craft that overturned while approaching Amble harbour in severe weather on 29th September 1969. Three
crew members were lost in this tragic accident and it is a poignant reminder of the dangers of the sea. A short trip along
the pier saw us reach the river mouth and as the light faded, a few last images of the sea and Coquet Island were taken
before we headed back to the inner harbour and ended our visit with the now traditional Fish & Chip supper.

Davy Bolam.