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Seaham - Sunderland
Well todays walk occurred when we had the snow blizzard here. So the walk today was pretty bleak.
I was being battered by the snow and wind, the path was tarmacked for about 2 miles then it went onto grass, at this point the path became impassable due to the massive quantity of water covering a large area of the path I needed to walk, so I took a detour and ventured onto the path that followed the road and walked this on to Sunderland, via Ryhope, Grangetown, Hendon and through to the town centre.
Unfortunately there is no photos available to show for todays walk.
Sunderland - North shields
Today, the weather has turned out to be a cold but beautiful day, a perfect walking day. My journey is a long one today some 12.5 miles or so...
We leave Sunderland and cross over the Wearmouth Bridge and down onto its footpath following the River Wear down to the mouth of the sea. I tuned Northwards from there and walked passed Seaburn, Whitburn. At Whitburn I veered east towards the headland on a rougher path than I was walking and continued on this path taking me into South Shields.
On this path you pass several landmarks to guide you, you will come across Souter Lighthouse (no photo opportunity on today’s journey it’s under repair), then on the opposite side of the road you will see the Old Marsden lime kiln’s. You will pass Marsden and Frenchman’s bay as you continue northwards. Dotted along the way are old Military gun placements left over from WWII, you will see one shortly before you reach the beach at South Shields.
Today the tide was out and I was able to walk on the hard compact sand on the beach all the way up to the Tyne, her I followed the Paths and roads inland, making my way to the Tyne Ferry service my journey was almost over. Just waiting for the ferry. Finally on the shores of North Shields, linking another part of the North Sea Trail up!!!!
Royal Quays - Whitley Bay
This walk was a result of a previous day’s long walk from Seaham to Hartlepool, my partners legs weren’t up for a long walk so we just had a stroll along the Tyne and coast up to Whitley bay. It starts at Royal Quay’s marina and follows the river passing through fish market, and out towards the mouth of the Tyne, you have to climb up the bank to continue the walk and you are hit with the vision of Tynemouth priory with its medieval roots to the 20th Century gun placement from WWII.
This remains in view for some time as a prominent feature of the coastline, the journey heads north passing Cullercoats and its lifeboat station, continuing on to Whitley bay, this is where I leave the walk and head to the metro Station and head home!!!!.
Ellington - Amble
Today was the start of several days of solo walking as I had some time off from work, so I looked to cover more of the North Sea Trail.
Starting where I left off in Ellington from New Year’s Day walk!! I picked up the trail and continued further into the village before I turned off down to Cresswell. As I took the turning you will notice that they have a nature park there with hides for the bird watchers among you. Although I spotted none today. At the village the road goes left and the path I needed to follow is just to the left of the house, this takes you onto the stretch where the path walks on the beach itself, from here if you have timed it right, you can walk nearly all the way to amble on the beach. As it happens I walked only as far as the turning of the World War 2 shelter (which in the guide is described as “a gap with a scattering of dragons teeth”) here you head inland, at this point I headed for the mediaeval preceptor. However I was foiled by a field of water and had to turn back!!!!
This was something I was looking forward to seeing, so I will have to come back another day to see this! so I pressed on and just followed the track toward druridge bay going through the nature reserves along the way, Today I was very lucky I chatted to a wildlife photographer and spotted a short eared owl hunting (I was rather amazed), he also told me that I could see marsh harrier's and Barn Owl's hunting here too.. Didn’t see any of those today though, I continued on and stopped at druruidge bay for a spot of lunch.
After lunch I headed down to the beach for a while heading to up to amble, I came across a drainage pipe with a large amount of water spilling out of which required me to head up and around it. I entered a village called Low Hauxley with its caravan park and houses, apparently it was built in rivalry to high hauxley, there is an information plaque in the village which explains much more
Following the road we eventually hit Amble and you will see the cemetery where there is a monument there, the chapels have been knocked down and the tower remains? I cut across the green and headed to the Jetty and walked around the harbour on it? The jetty in the harbour has a strange shape to it, it goes straight out and then cuts back inland at a right angle, creating a lagoon type area? Makes for a pleasant stroll especially when the sea crashes against the rock/concrete jetty and create massive splashes!!!!
The harbour itself was full of the usual types of feathered friends, but I saw for the first time some Eider ducks, I have to say they are quite beautiful and make a peculiar “ah-whoo” sound too
https://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/e/eider/ This particular walk for me was mainly about the preceptor that I never saw, and in the end became about the endless amount of beach that you could walk, it was pretty breath taking, spotting the owl hunting and the Eider Duck and its calls!! A first for me!! This was a real bonus too!!
Amble to Alnmouth
I picked the walk up from where I left it yesterday, and joined it at the harbour and followed it toward warkworth, passing the sailing club! This path joined up with the road, which wound into Warkworth. The castle stands prominent like a sentinel guarding the river and coastline..
You can go two ways when you get under the shadows of the castle, down the high street and around the shops and follow it down to the bridge, or down the path next to the pub which joins the road just by the bridge.
From here you can often spot a heron lurking around, you cross the bridge and take a right and follow down to the beach. Just before the beach is a finger post and I took the path running alongside the golf course.
As we leave the golf course we come to a caravan site, I just passed through this and continued on my way, at the end of the park a path descends and about half way it cross a stream and I took this and followed this path around the sand dunes and came out at Buston Links, as you go through this, it is used as a car park area and there’s a derelict farm building on your left. This path took me to the main road.
Here a new path has been created as a joint cycle/footpath and guides you into Alnmouth, however in times of heavy rain (as this was) the footpath at NU239107 was totally waterlogged and was particularly deep to about several inches of water. You can skirt around this if you wish too. After this it was just a case of following the path to the road, taking the road over to the bridge, here there is a gate to descend and follow the path around the river to the village itself.
The village as you approach has a look similar to Portree on the Isle of Skye with its coloured houses!!!!
Here’s where the journey ended with a pint in nice coal fire pub, waiting for my bus home!!!!
Here is a link to where some of the photo's from the walk can be seen.
https://shanerobinsonwalks.wordpress.com/