Friday 15th September 2023

Sunderland to Horden

Stinging nettles and the wearing of shorts is not a great combination … I can categorically confirm that! Especially when the environment seems to have stopped producing dock leaves – always a life-saver when we were kids.

Today’s walk started in the rain … and it ended in the rain, in fact it was wet and misty pretty much all day. As you may tell, it was overall not the best of days … and I’m allowed to grumble because I lived through it.

Started off well with an early bus to Sunderland, made our way to the bridge and down to the opposite side of the docks from yesterday, so we could head south on the coastal path. There was a steep descent of slippery cobble stoned path to the dockside – this turned out to be the start of a slip sliding day.

The first couple of miles was not as glam as yesterday’s beginning although Steve was excited to see the homage to footballer Raich Carter. But the coastal path route was signposted well (always a bonus) and we soon found ourselves at Hendon Beach. Looking ahead it was clearly not going to be a promenade day, very much cliff top walking. We got chatting to some Local Council workers who were there to cut grass and, when asked, we told them that the path we’d experienced so far was well maintained and clearly signposted. All good … they were chuffed.

It was shortly after this, round about the County of Durham sign, that things went seriously wrong – lack of coastal path signs found us taking wrong turnings, walking round in circles and through all sorts of tricky terrain. A number of these errors meant that we endured even more steep ascents and descents than we needed to do … oh how we laughed!!! Between that and finding some paths completely overgrown, so getting scratched and stung to pieces – in the rain – things were not shaping up well. But of course we soldiered on – we were not far off Seaham where breakfast awaited.

After eight miles we had reached Seaham which this year won an award for the ‘Resort of the Year.’ Also famous for it’s mole sanctuary. But for us it provided a place for sustenance and the chance to sit down and reassess our mission. Do we call it a day … or do we walk on, knowing that it would be another 7 or 8 miles to the next public transport linked destination? Well, after tuna melt toasted panini and restorative mugs of cappuccino of course you’re ready to ‘bring it on’ and so we wrapped up warm and headed on our merry way.

I have to say, there were some incredibly scenic parts to the next leg of the walk, albeit largely shrouded in mist and we were never far away from the sea, which we love. Also some touching memorials to the area’s mining history. However, this section of coastline was one of the worst paths we’d encountered … it was tough. In summary, it was massively overgrown, slippery underfoot, narrow paths that literally just about fitted in the width of your foot, so many steep inclines with difficult steps and of course the same going downhill each time … again and again and again. We continued to get lost and found ourselves retracing our steps, we had to wade though water and sinking mud. At one point we had to scramble up a hellishly steep, stone uphill path that was so overgrown we could see nothing beneath our knees – we just had to step and hope for the best with all sorts of tripping and slipping hazards. I lost my balance for a moment and grabbed out … onto a piece of gorse (not great). This particular scramble will forever be imprinted on my brain and the echoes of “this is ridiculous” and “I hate Coastal Walking” will surely be remembered!!? And … why oh why did I wear shorts?

So, 16 more miles to add to the collection … and yes, you know it, we’ll be back for more. But for this section at least – trousers definitely recommended.

Saturday 16th September 2023

No rest for the wicked – another early morning as we had volunteered to be ‘Park Walkers’ at the South Shields parkrun. Boy was it cold and windy. But there were over 200 turned out in this harsh weather to run the beautiful route. A Full English Breakfast at the Sand Dancer pub afterwards seemed utterly justified.