My phone flashes — 7:30 am — 13 hours asleep! Sometimes you have to listen to your body.
I take the train to Saltburn-by-the-Sea and part company with the Cleveland Way, which sensibly chooses the open moors over the Teesside industry. What a beautiful morning.
It’s Sunday, so the huge beach is already dotted with dog walkers, surfers and morning strollers.
Some views are less attractive than others. I’m not sure what to make of the Redcar Beacon, a “vertical pier”. It looks like a cross between a steamship funnel and an uncomfortable helter-skelter.
The Teesdale Way is a 92-mile path, following the River Tees from its source in Cumbria to the sea at Redcar. A four-mile section, The Black Path, burrows through the industrial heritage. The cinder track was used by sailors to reach their ships and by steel and ironworkers, travelling to and from work.
There are some heavily waterlogged sections, difficult to cross without wet feet.
It’s intruiging if a little unnerving. There is absolutely no one else around, and the path is hemmed in by high stone walls and metal fences that allow no escape. You go forward or back. It reminds me of my encounter with a certain black bear in the Rockies.
At the end of the path is “Notes On The Black Path”, a public artwork of poster designs placed round the lyrics of “Photographic Memory” by the local folk singer Vin Garbutt.
The lyrics are faded and hard to read, but I’m curious enough to look him up.
I would’ve liked the “Teesside Troubadour” (1947-2017).
The Teeside Way has wonderful cast iron signposts. Don’t try crossing the marshes in those boots.
I relax a little on reaching the open docklands. Temonos is a giant sculpture by sculptor Anish Kapoor and structural engineer Cecil Balmond. Approaching it from one elongated end, it morphs as I walk round the docks, finally revealing itself like a floating webbed tunnel.
This may be an industrial section but the walk is never dull, full of wonderful images, including another transporter bridge, sadly no longer working.
I make it to the Isaac Wilson pub just as the temperature is dropping. A fascinating walk.
Next day
The walks are shorter now, allowing me plenty of time to enjoy a lie-in, before setting off for a roadside trek through more industrial estates.
The Newport Bridge is the first possible river crossing.
Marshland and recycling plants. Reminds me of North Kent.
The weather turns harsh, with the open landscape offering little shelter from the driving wind, rain and sleet.
A rainbow is always welcome, more so on a grim day.
The path finally leaves the main road and follows a country lane up to North Gare Sands. A police car pulls up, the window goes down, and the officer peers at me through the rain.
“Do you have a car parked round here?”
“I wish! I’m hiking round the coast of Britain.”
They laugh and wish me good luck. There’s another nuclear power station nearby. Would you trust a chap hiking in this weather carrying a large pack?
Arriving in Hartlepool, I dive into the M&S cafe for hot soup, leaving a trail of water across the floor.
Having warmed up, I want to push on to the old headland to capture some street art, but after a few hundred yards into the cold wind, I turn round and retreat to my Travelodge. A hot shower and The Greatest Showman, for the third time, sounds like heaven after a rough day.
Walk distance: 30 miles.
Total distance: 3,573 miles.
I had heard some mixed reviews of that part of the Teesdale so I had mixed views about doing it. As it happened when I got there it was closed off and knowing it is a long way to be able to get off the path at the other end for once I didn’t risk climbing over the fence and going on anyway but stuck to the roads (often busy with no pavement) around them which wasn’t much fun. Probably one of the few coastal walks I wouldn’t be happy to do again.
That Transporter Bridge was also not working when I was there. It was supposed to be (I had booked train tickets a couple of months earlier and the bridge was scheduled to re-open between when I booked the tickets and when I travelled). However it wasn’t so when I got there the local Council were actually running a bridge replacement bus service! So I used that rather than walk to the other bridge you used. There is another transporter bridge in Newport and that one you are actually able to walk right over the top which I did. Quite a fun experience, but you certainly need a head for heights as you are walking on just “mesh metal” where you can see straight down to the ground the whole way up and across!
Glad you didn’t get too much bother from the police. I actually quite liked Hartlepool though most people don’t seem to.
Sadly the Newport one was closed for refurbishment when I was there, so you are lucky to have experienced that. I also thought Hartlepool was quite nice, at least the parts I passed on the seafront. Perhaps my North East bias. 🙂
Very interesting piece Tony….and very apt and useful as I have just spent today planning some walks in the North East for next Spring. Thank you….. But can’t say that I’m looking forward to that part of the coast. Cheers Mike
You pass the Riverside Stadium if that’s an incentive. 😉
Always liked my trips to the Riverside….it’s the supporters coach trip back home after a 1 nil loss that’s the pain 😂