Best bits: spending time with Emma, being a proud Aunt at the Riverside, beach walk
Worst bits: smelly industrial area, f*estuary!
Distance: 21.7 miles
Today started with a return trip to the Riverside Stadium, this time with Emma my niece who plays for Middlesbrough Women. We were lucky enough to meet Lee in reception who took us down to the pitch to take some photos with the trophy that Emma‘s team won this season as league champions.
Lucy from the Media team let us into the press room where I interviewed Emma.
As we were leaving the stadium, one of the staff said she had heard me on the news yesterday and asked where I had lived in Great Ayton. It turns out that her cousin was my neighbour and her other cousin now lives in the house that Angela and I lived in! Crazy coincidences.
The iconic Tees Transporter Bridge between Middlesbrough and Port Clarence opened in 1911. It supports a gondola which is intended to carry vehicles and pedestrians across the River Tees. The bridge has been closed since 2019 due to safety concerns.
Just by chance Amy my niece, Emma‘s sister, was also in Middlesbrough this morning. We managed a few minutes together just as we passed by the college she was visiting before we had to keep on walking.
We crossed the river Tees on the Newport Bridge, which is a vertical lift bridge but is now permanently in the down position. 
After a lot of road walking through industrial areas, we arrived at RSPB Saltholme for a little bit of peace and tranquility and a cup of tea and a sandwich. The staff they were keen to show us some barn owls through a powerful monocular. The staff were very generous in their donations too.
Another amazing coincidence today was when Julie and Dave came up to me asking if I remembered them from a training walk I did last year in Scarborough. I did remember them they were walking the Cleveland Way and were sitting on a bench. I even managed to find the photograph from that day. They had seen me on the news yesterday and we’re hoping that they might meet up with me at some point, and so they did in the cafe.
Refreshed Emma and I sat off again on quite varied terrain including overgrown paths, embankments, and pavements. We were lucky enough to see a number of seals at the side of the river. This one had its eye on us.
There were many examples of the old industries on Teesside and this photo shows an old oil rig being dismantled alongside the latest technology of offshore wind turbines.
The route took us past a landfill site which smelled really badly on this warm day and the wind wasn’t in our favour.
At one point I decided we should take what I thought was going to be a slight shortcut through a field. In reality we ended up being unable to keep to a path and wandered around the field. Then we came across a ditch filled with water and mud around it. We were fortunate enough to find this bridge, but the bridge had seen much better times. We had to negotiate our way across wetlands to get onto the bridge and then jump across onto what we hoped was more solid ground at the other side. Emma was a little unsure that I would be able to make the leap without getting my feet wet or hurting my painful foot. I just made it. Emma was more concerned about not getting her new trainers dirty!
Eventually, we arrived in Seaton Carew, now known locally as ‘Seaton canoe’ following the ITV drama ‘The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe’ based on the disappearance of back-from-the-dead fraudster, John Darwin. Emma and I looked but we never saw any canoes so we just treated ourselves to an ice cream instead. 
Our next stop was Hartlepool where Angela worked for a number of years. We walked around the marina and tried to take a look at HMS Trincomalee. Unfortunately, it was behind a ‘paywall’ of the National Museum of the Royal Navy.
My foot was by now very sore and I was in desperate need of a sit down and another cup of tea. Emma on the other hand didn’t like sitting down as she became more stiff as a result. What a pair we are. 
We finally made it to the beach and could see our destination for the day quite far in the distance.
I was lagging behind because I was enjoying taking some photographs. Here is Emma walking in front of me on the beach.
Mark and Fearn were waiting for us at Crimdon Dene car park. Angela and I once lived in a caravan for six months at Crimdon Dene while we were waiting for our house in Liverpool to sell. It was in this caravan that I discovered I was pregnant with Will. Emma and I talked about some of these and other shared memories of Angela.
Meanwhile Steve bless him had gone to retrieve Priscilla from the service center. Apparently the leak has been fixed, three joints had blown off by the boiler probably due to frost damage. These have now been replaced. Hurrah after 24 weeks we now have running water for a shower!
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