I kept telling my friends, Jorgen and Zoe, that it might be a bit wet on the West Coast but it doesn't rain as much in the East so not to worry too much when we get to Newcastle. You guessed it! It was tipping it down on the final day!
The deal was that Dan and Jorgen would come with me and Zoe and small do would stay in the nice warm hotel and perhaps potter a bit. We set off for brekky at a cafe just a few hundred yards along he quayside, we got as far as the hotel door where the dog refused to go outside, he's a very sensible dog!
Having coaxed the dog out we probably shouldn't have bothered as the cafe would not let him in, Jorgen walked him a little then put him back in the room whilst we ate a big brekky - don't worry he did join us! Great coffee in the 'great coffe' cafe - very large sizes!
I had hatched a plan on seeing the weather when I woke, and revealed it to the team - to save us getting very wet then sitting shivering all the way home on the metro we would take a short walk to the station then get the metro to the coast and walk back. Same distance, reverse direction. Dan was not keen as felt it would be disingenuous but seeing as the point was to walk the path we were still doing what we had talked about.
Dan decided to go and get an extra pair of shorts as he'd borrowed a pair from Jorgen for the past two days and we'd not managed to wash them last night (we did the night before). Any excuse to go to the LD Mountain Centre! Plus he was looking for another pair of, more comfortable, Salomon shoes. I asked him to get me a cheap 'boil in the bag' waterproof as my lightweight shells were simply going to wet-out in the deluge. He got me a small but it was still huge - cue detour to LD for an XS on way to metro station.
Alighting a Tynemouth we looked at a few stall on the weekend market then headed off for the beach (a bit of confusion about which way to go but only 30 secs worth). On the beach we took some photos and got the lifeguard to take some too. There were some guys training on the stairs that go up and down to the beach - my H&S hat came out as some of them had shoes that were sooooo unsuitable for wet concrete! Quick loo-break and we were off on the last leg.
We took a few more piccies a the end marker of the path (I changed waterproof to the thicker one by now so when I get the photo's loaded it is the same day honest! We knew that today was to be the shortest day but the weather made it very unpleasant. Quick snack stop at a coffee shop in the Royal Quays outlet centre (dripped all over their seats and floor).
We're on home turf now and are really excited about giving Jorgen an industrial tour of the areas, starting with the Tyne Tunnel pedestrian tunnel complete with wooden escalators and separate cycle tunnel. Next was the location of the old steel works (gone!) and the weather, as we remarked, was improving.
Oh, yes we spoke too soon! If I was a little damp of foot before in the next 5 minutes my running shoes were squelching! The planned - 'this is where we used to live' detours became a 'it's up there' arm pointing. The rain was so bad the roads were flooding - I had to take a long detour up one street as my legs were too short to jump the puddles at the bottom and unlike Dan my shoes had not even the semblance of waterproofing.
Next came the Riverside park and Keelman's Way - more industrial tourism here. The weather was really improving now and we were able to stop to look at the Kittiwake tower and read the info. Quick text from Zoe came now and I let her know I though we were a few miles way only - strange how even if you know the area when you can't see many landmarks you lose certainty!
I had been explaining that the Tyne winds such a lot that it was not easy to follow it from the air- heck we werent' sure where we were and we were alongside it on foot! We could see St James Park but it looked like it was on the South side from where we were.
Around the next bend we would see the bridges again (well I got it wrong twice but third time lucky!). I called Zoe and let her know that we would be there in a few mins and she got ready to come over the Millennium Bridge to meet us at the Baltic.
Sitting eating cake and drinking a beer (hey, I deserved it!) I realised that we'd done it (well almost). Bath, bubbles, dinner with bubbles, comfortable bed!
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