Best bits: sharing the walk with Mark and Emma, meeting up with Lynn, Harb and all the family.
Worst bits: walking along a junglelike path, very sore foot 
Distance: 19.7 miles
Emma and Mark joined me today and Steve dropped us off where we finished yesterday. The weather forecast was reasonable however the skies seemed to say something different. There were many dark clouds moving very quickly and some were clearly carrying a lot of rain. 

We stayed dry all day apart from a few flurries of rain which actually were quite pleasant as we were very hot and sweaty, especially after climbing up a hill.

Our route was mainly on the cliff tops today which at times gave rise to fabulous views of the coast. they were typically many examples of coastal erosion and occasionally the path went quite close to the edge.

Denemouth Viaduct, also known as Horden Viaduct, is situated between Blackhall Colliery and Horden and trains still run across it. 

We were walking on the  Durham Heritage Coast path which included a number of sculptures such as this one ‘The Little Tern Sculpture” located at Cotsford Fields near Horden.

Today we dropped down and then climbed out of a number of small valleys known locally as denes. This one was particularly interesting as it had a cave and quite dramatic looking walls.

Lynn was visiting her sister Karen who lives in Sunderland and it was a great opportunity for us all to meet up and have a quick bite to eat at a fish and chip shop. Lynn was kind enough to give my feet a bit of manipulation.

‘Tommy’ a 9 foot high statue of a First World War soldier by artist Ray Lonsdale, dominates the seafront at Seaham.

There were many sections on the path today that were overgrown and full of brambles and nettles however one section was particularly bad with the foliage sometimes above head height. We had to go quite slowly through this section because it was on the top of a valley and sometimes the path went very close to steep downhill sections. When we finally finished this part and entered onto a pavement by the side of the road Mark announced that that was ‘Absolutely horrific’.

It wasn’t long before we could see the docks of Sunderland ahead of us. The waves were crashing up against the seawall as the wind had got up.

The final section today involved walking through the city and then over the Wearmouth Bridge. There was some sort of incident happening as one side was closed and had several fire engines, police cars, police incident unit and the Coast Guard. As we crossed on the opposite side an ambulance also arrived.

We arrived at our destination earlier than Steve and so decided to take the opportunity to grab a pint in a pub. The pub was a very old-fashioned type and had seen much better days, especially the toilet facilities.

Then it was time for me to pack Priscilla, moving the contents from Steve’s garage. Fortunately before I did this I checked the water situation and the hot water. To my dismay I couldn’t get any hot water and an error message kept appearing. After a number of checks I reset the boiler which seemed to do the trick. Phew! Time will tell. 





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