Day 104 – Hartlepool to Redcar

The first two walking days of 2018 are in mid-April due, among other things, to Ben having secured some work at Roehampton University during its Spring Term. However, given that we’ve only just entered the first relatively settled period of an otherwise very wet so called spring, this is probably a blessing. Ben and Gary travel to Hartlepool on a direct train from London and en route meet up at York with John (who spent the night with his son in Birmingham) and also Mike Jopson who lives just outside York and is joining us for these two days and possibly for some future days in the area. We arrive in Hartlepool at 11:10 and are back at our 2017 end point by 11:30. Mike hasn’t chosen the most scenic of sections to start his walking experience with us. We get about an hour of beach action between Hartlepool and Seaton Carew, but then need to move away from the sea in order to get through industrial Teesside. Initially, this involves crossing some dunes and Seaton Carew Golf Course, and then around five miles alongside the A178 to Middlesbrough. Apart from crossing the road on several occasions (and John taking two or three interesting diversions along unofficial and rather damp grass paths) in order to keep as far away as possible, but not very far, from haulage traffic, the only point of any note is the sighting of several seals in and alongside Greatham Creek which we cross about half way along the road. Subsequent study of a local map reveals that this is not a million miles away from an area called Seal Sands (eat your heart out Chris Packham) which, despite its name, still seems to be in the middle of a huge industrial estate. Anyway, at long last – i.e. shortly after 2:15 – we turn off the A178 to reach the Tees Transporter Bridge. This is a gondola suspended by cables from the main beam which can carry about six cars plus pedestrians across the Tees in 2 or 3 minutes. For us pedestrians, this comes at a cost of a mere 60p each, so we decide not to bother asking about concessions. On the south side, we go around a small dock leading off the river and pass the Riverside Stadium which we think might be the first professional football ground which we’ve seen, whilst walking, since we left Poole Harbour 7 years ago. A couple of hundred yards after the stadium we turn right, cross the Middlesbrough to Saltburn railway line, and then turn left – resisting any temptations of the Navigation Inn – onto a narrow track. However, although we are now thankfully away from roadsides and on what is the start of a section of the England Coast Path, our surroundings still aren’t particularly picturesque. To our left is the railway with what look like disused steelworks beyond, and the coast even further beyond. To our right are a series of storage depots, with fuel pipes running outside them, and a particularly malodorous biofuels plant. But after 90 minutes or so, we’re on the outskirts of Redcar and, having crossed some fields, we reach the Cleveland Golf Links and our first view of the sea since leaving Seaton Carew over 4 hours ago. Unfortunately, the tide is in (can’t have everything I suppose) so there’s little opportunity for any evening beach action before we reach our overnight stop, O’Grady’s, a pub with rooms 200 yards from the sea front, at about 6 o’clock. We’ve walked almost 19 miles in around six and a half hours so it’s perhaps not entirely surprising that, in a break with tradition, we have two pints before freshening up. For £35 per night B&B, the rooms are incredibly good value. Supper is also excellent, particularly the cod – which may or may not be from Whitby – and is washed down with a couple of bottles. Ben retires before stickies, and the rest of us have just the one double Talisker each before climbing the wooden hill at 9:30.