A Circular Walk From Monkseaton

With just 5 weeks to go before our three day walking challenge from Bamburgh to Tynemouth in order to raise funds for Maggies in Newcastle, we set off on our latest training walk.

It is hard to believe that you can walk for 23 miles in North Tyneside and South East Northumberland without walking past a Greggs shop but we managed to achieve that today.

A small but dedicated group of athletes met at the car park at Churchill Playing Fields at 8.00 am and we set off heading north on the waggonways.

We were without the speedy Welsh winger our usual pace setter, however on a completely unrelated point the walking group seemed much calmer and quieter than usual. Ben and Athena led out from the front but in keeping with tradition the navigator walked at the back randomly shouting instructions to anyone who cared to listen.

After a mile we headed east towards St Mary’s Lighthouse, carrying along the coastal path towards Seaton Sluice, we paused to look out over Collywell Bay, we admired the views and the sea which was as “Clear as Gin”.

It was at about this point that Lesley announced that her arms were longer than her legs, we were shocked but not necessarily surprised by that, but less sure about her assertion that if her legs were in proportion to her arms, she would be “really quite tall”.

After a while we walked inland and back to Holywell Dene before heading south to the Royal Quays and the river Tyne. We walked past North Shields fish quay to the mouth of the Tyne passing under the stoney gaze of Admiral Lord Collingwood before heading up the coast past Cullercoats and back to Monkseaton.

On the walk we covered over 23 miles at a very acceptable pace of under 20 minutes a mile. After the walk we had an enjoyable team social at the Monkseaton Arms before heading home.

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