Getting There

Day 0 – Monday 8th July 2024 – Bolton to Tynemouth, 172 miles

Day 0 was the necessary but boring drive from Bolton via the M61, M6 to Carlisle and the A69 to Tynemouth and The Grand Hotel – our “digs” for the night. I’d originally intended starting the walk from there to make it a “coast to coast”, but the following day’s weather and a potentially dodgy right knee made me wimp out.

We’d stayed at the Grand a couple of years ago (in January!) and it was wonderfully “olde worlde”, so not much persuasion was necessary for a return visit and the kind woman on reception even upgraded us to a nicer room with a sea view.

We had a walk along the promenade and the beach, watching (though not joining!) the hardy souls who were swimming and surfing in the North Sea, had a pint of very nice Duchess IPA in Copperfields (the pub attached to the Grand Hotel) and then got prepared for the following day’s first walk, uncertain if that would be from the hotel or 6 miles further along at the official start in Wallsend.

We ate at Riley’s Fish Shack on the beach at nearby King Edward’s Bay – a quirky local institution serving, as the name implies, locally caught fish.  We’d eaten there before and I’d booked a table and deckchairs with parasol on the beach – eek! Luckily, as it was rather “cool and blustery”, we managed to get a seat on the verandah. Riley’s Fish Shack is very good and worth a visit but it’s very over-priced and £38 for a bottle of pretty standard South African Sauvignon Blanc was way over the top. We enjoyed it nonetheless.

Then it was back to The Grand for an early night in anticipation of a “bit of a slog” in the morning.