The battered, isolated red phone box

Published 6 June 2021

Red telephone box at the turnoff for Tulloch railway station

All being willing, in a few weeks time I’ll be meeting with a friend in Newcastle. The next day we’ll start walking the Northumberland Coast Path. I’m not saying I’m a tad enthusiastic about this, but I’ve already printed out all the maps we’ll need, and am this close to packing my rucksack already.

We planned everything very quickly at the end of April not really knowing what the Covid scenario would be by the time we were able to walk. It’s a big reason why there’s just two of us going. Whilst things were looking good as we booked it, we decided to keep things simple. Yes. we could have invited some other friends along. But what if suddenly everything changed and we were restricted to meeting someone from one other household? Last year my plans to walk the Speyside Way were thwarted at the last minute by this very scenario. We know the Covid-19 situation can change fast, even if I have had both my vaccination shots, and my friend will have had his first two months earlier.

Said friend is a good one and has accompanied me on several walks already. Bits of the South Downs Way. The Yorkshire Wolds Way. And, our first really big adventure, the East Highland Way.

And to celebrate what is (hopefully) coming, I picked out a Sunday Photograph from that walk.

This photo is one of my favourites from that trip. It’s of a rather battered phone box, about half a kilometre from Tulloch station. We were staying the night at the station, whose buildings now house a hostel. We had an amazingly quiet night there, thanks to there being absolutely no facilities nearby. The station stands along. The nearest facility to it is the above phone box.

It was quite wonderful.

Northumberland won’t be anywhere near as quiet, but it should still be quite spectacular. And I really can’t wait. Here’s hoping nothing goes wrong this year!

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