Day: 239 24 & 25/7/01 South Sheilds to Whitley Bay

Weather:  warm / humid.

Distance:  17 km (10.6 miles)    Total Distance:   3063 miles

I’ve been doing pretty well with being able to combine work-related trips and walking over the past couple of years.  I was in the area today visiting one of our customers so an ideal opportunity for a bit of coastal walking.  

I went up the evening before the meeting, leaving Derby at normal time and getting to South Shields by about 8.00pm.  I had found the B&B advertised on the Internet and was guaranteed a warm welcome by the male owner and his dog.  It wasn’t till half way up that I began to think this rather a peculiar phrase in an advert – with no mention of a landlady.  When I got there I was proved correct – there was no sign of a landlady but there was another friendly man around.  Anyway,  the place was very spacious, friendly and well worth the £25.  Had I not been happy the place was crawling with B&Bs and the streets of South Shields pretty busy too.   I quickly changed and went to find the place I left off last time. 

I postponed having any tea till after the walk otherwise the light would go.  I walked through the streets of South Shields. Close to the docklands of the Tyne.  There were mixed signs of run down areas and areas that had managed to maintain their character just before dereliction took over and before new prosperity arrived in the form of a multiplex cinema. 

An old row of buildings housing around five pubs in a row looked very inviting indeed but that would waste the light so I pressed on through industrial estate lrea before having to divert inland around the Tyne Dock.  Another mile along the main road bought me to a convenient place to stop i.e. the place where our meeting was on the Jarrow industrial Estate tomorrow.  I walked up onto the industrial estate and caught the Newcastle Metro back to South Shields.  

As had eaten at lunchtime and the chip shops did not look too inviting so I got a can of pop and some crisps etc from an off licence and ate them in the park opposite the B&B and overlooking the mouth of the Tyne with the sun going down behind and the gulls squawking overhead – perfect!

I took an early breakfast, paid the bill and beat the rush hour traffic by being parked up on the Jarrow industrial estate by half eight.  I would try to walk under the Tyne by the foot tunnel marked on the map and then return. That would mean that after my meeting I could drive to the north bank and continue my walk.  The first part went well, After a spell on the road I cut off into the grounds of St Bede’s monastery and down the side of a river towards the River Tyne. 

The path then took a left past an oil storage area and then an industrial estate and I could see the foot tunnel ahead – praying almost that it was not closed for maintenance or some other obscure rule – e.g. no Welshman born in Wolverhampton etc.  I was in luck.  The tunnel was indeed open. I read the history and went down the escalator, feeling somewhat guilty as this slightly broke my rules but there were no steps down. 

The tunnel was pretty deserted. It was obviously not a commuter route. Indeed there was no sign of anywhere to park on the far side which sort of didn't help my plans for later in the day.  The mouth of the tunnel emptied onto a busy road and industrial area. I decided to press on a bit to get to somewhere convenient to park the car.  

I entered a little area of three or four rows of terraces houses and thought that was as good a place as any to turn back and retrace my steps as I had not done any homework to look up bus timetables etc.  The only tricky bit back at the industrial estate was changing back into my working gear for the meeting! 

The meeting went well, pretty laid back followed by lunch in new hotel on the outskirts of South Shields which I had walked through at the end of the walk from Seaham to South Shields.  I was offered a factory tour which I felt obliged to go on so it was 3 o’clock before I was away again and parking the car somewhere quiet to change back into my walking gear.   

I drove under the Tyne Tunnel and paid but then did something stupid – went all around the roundabout and came back again and paid again!!  Not wanting to pay a third and fourth time I parked on the south side and walked under the tunnel again.  This time the escalators had stopped, they only worked at peak times,  so I was able to walk down and under the river thereby keeping to by rules!

The sewage works and docklands of the North Tyne forced me a little inland, walking over wasteland hoping that there was a way out on the other side.  I veered off down to a retail centre and then into another residential redevelopment area designed especially without paths along the seafront! So frustrating and sad. 

Another half mile bought me into the old area of North Shields with first more industrial estates and then down onto the quay famed for its fish and chip shops, a working area with lots of atmosphere that a colleague told me about. 

I hit a promenade that took me to Tynemouth and around the corner past a pretty impressive castle and onto the holiday area of Whitley Bay.  I stopped near where I thought it would be easy to catch the Metro back to the North side of the tunnel but got a little lost and ended up at the next station North which was an old converted  train station with excellent architecture.  After getting off the train I had to walk through the depressing area of Wilmington Quay.  It sort of explained why nobody left their car here to go to work on the south side of the Tyne.