IT WAS not for the first time that, on the Saturday of the August Bank Holiday weekend, I found myself in the situation of being in a place to which I had yet to arrive at on foot. Having cut the previous day’s walk short on account of slow progress, I now had to first complete that endeavour before I could start upon the next. Thus, skipping breakfast, I was out bright and early to catch the first bus from Whitby to Staithes…
Tag: memorial
CCLXVIII – Redcar to Staithes
I HAD what I thought was an excellent plan to return to North Yorkshire on the August Bank Holiday weekend and squeeze more walking into the gap between the summer’s blistering heatwaves and the cold wet weather brought by autumn. The weather, wilful as always, immediately tried to disrupt my plan by developing a forecast for mostly rain right after I’d made all my bookings. And then, when that failed to dissuade me, it tried another sneaky tack…
CCLXVI – Sunderland to Hartlepool
DAY three of my March 2026 trip saw me return bright and early to Sunderland. Although in practice my brightness was slightly dimmed by the earliness, which was more extreme than originally planned. This last-minute change – or should that be first-minute? – allowed me to double back along the north bank of the River Wear and take several photos that my rain-soaked phone had been too sulky to manage the day before.
By the time that little errand was complete, the clock had ticked onwards to reach my planned start time. I was, for the moment, exactly on schedule…
Continue reading “CCLXVI – Sunderland to Hartlepool”CCLXV – Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Sunderland
ON THE second day of my March 2026 trip, rain was forecast to arrive around lunchtime and then hang around for most of the afternoon. Now, I’ve squelched, dripped and plodded through many a deluge but I’d just as soon not, if given the choice.
Accordingly, I hatched a cunning plan to be up and about at the crack of dawn, getting most of my walk done before the wet weather arrived. It was a good plan. A sensible plan. And it might even have worked, had I not slept right through my alarm…
Continue reading “CCLXV – Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Sunderland”CCLXIII – Newbiggin-by-the-Sea to Tynemouth
THE final morning of my August 2025 trip saw me stagger bleary-eyed from my overnight accommodation to the end of Newbiggin-by-the-Sea’s High Street, ready – for a particular and very approximate value of ‘ready’ – to start the day’s trek, which would end in Tynemouth. Well, hopefully not actually in the mouth of the River Tyne, but in the town situated next to it.
CCLXII – Alnmouth to Newbiggin-by-the-Sea
AS HAS become my autumnal tradition, I was distracted from the write-up of my summer walking trip and thus it’s now a quarter year since the actual walks took place. That being so, I suppose I had better get on with it.
The fourth day of my August 2025 trip found me up and about at an early hour wandering the streets of Alnmouth. Well, one of them, at least…
Continue reading “CCLXII – Alnmouth to Newbiggin-by-the-Sea”CCLXI – Bamburgh to Alnmouth
ON THE third morning of my August 2025 walking trip, I met my good friend Simkin for breakfast in Bamburgh’s Victoria Hotel and discussed our respective plans for the day. I would be continuing to Alnmouth, while he would be visiting Bamburgh Castle and then heading home to attend to other commitments. Assuming, that is, that rural Northumberland’s public transport would permit him, which it did with obstructive reluctance. Fortunately, I had only to rely on my feet and they were considerably more reliable, with a timetable of my own choosing…
CCLIX – Berwick-upon-Tweed to Lindisfarne
FOR my return north to Berwick-upon-Tweed I had two would-be companions, one being my good friend Simkin, who had long proclaimed his wish to join me when my walks drew close to Lindisfarne (also known as Holy Island). Having now got to that stretch of Northumberland coast, I had planned that one of my walks would end upon the island and the next start from it – can’t really get much closer than that!
The second, uninvited party was Storm Floris, which initially made its own arrangements to await us in the north. Then, perhaps belatedly realising that it was unwelcome, it opted to skulk out of sight and spitefully cancelled all our trains. After all, if it couldn’t come, then why should it let us go?
Continue reading “CCLIX – Berwick-upon-Tweed to Lindisfarne”CCLVII – Dunbar to St Abb’s Head
THE Sun was lurking just below the horizon when I returned to the vicinity of Dunbar railway station at the beginning of April 2025. I had an ambitious walking day planned and was going to need all the daylight if I were to reach my planned end point in Eyemouth. Or, as it actually turned out, I would still need all the daylight if I weren’t…
CCLVI – North Berwick to Dunbar
IT WOULD have been nicely synchronous if the last day of my August 2024 trip had also been the last day of that month but, alas, it wasn’t quite. Instead, the Lemming and I found ourselves alighting onto the platform of North Berwick station at some ungodly hour on the morning of the 29th, like the devil-may-care, unconstrained hikers we were inside our own heads, synchronicity be damned! And then, in a manner more befitting of two blokes now both inexplicably in their fifties and whose previous day’s walk had been quite tiring, we struggled to find the energy to get going…