The 7 Mile Itch (another Strictly Local ride)
Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2021 11:04 pm
Inspired by JoseMcTavish's Strictly Local thread I plotted a route round my own local authority (North Tyneside) boundary, and then, having wasted a couple of hours when I should have been working, felt duty bound to follow it.
It's actually not as bad a route as you might expect from an arbitrary administrative line around a largely suburban area on the edge of an old industrial city. Maybe I have learned to love where I live... or maybe I've just forgotten what riding is supposed to be like.
Anyway, having ridden it once clockwise, but not really with enough time to explore alternatives and take photos, I went and rode it again in the opposite (marginally less favourable) direction. This was last Saturday, at the peak of Fool's Spring, so I set off early and took my time, and lots of photos. The initial clockwise ride took me less than 3 hours for 37 miles. This ride took me 5 and half, and ended up 42 miles
I live just a few hundred yards from the boundary, and here it goes through some fairly densely populated areas. It's interesting to see where there are streets where half the houses are in Newcastle and half in North Tyneside.
Home territory. No more pictures of signs, promise.
A Metro train crossing the boundary at warp speed. I promise I won't bore you with "the tree on the left is in North Tyneside, but..." photos either. Well, not too many.
The boundary actually runs down the middle of the Tyne. Despite what I said in the other thread, I'm going to have to packraft it at some point
This is taken near the site of the old Swan Hunter shipyard where some ruddy great ships were built.
The next stop on the magical mystery tour is a UNESCO World Heritage Site don'tcha know: Segedunum, the end of Hadrian's Wall. Embarrassingly, despite living less than a mile away, I've never actually been round it (though to be fair it's been shut most of the time we've been here and there's not actually much to see).
The bit of the route down the Tyne follows the Hadrian's Wall/Coast to Coast Sustrans route.
A short bit what passes for singletrack round here, which I didn't know existed before (I may have gone a bit off piste here).
Ship happens
In the spirit of purism, I descended the wooden escalator (stationary) in to the Tyne Perdestrian and Cycle Tunnel...
...to reach the only point where you can get to the border in the middle of the Tyne without a boat.
Took the lift back up because I've carried up those steps before, and believe me, it's not easy. Should have included it for token hike-a-bike really
The route goes past the ferry port and through the marina at Royal Quays. The Amsterdam ferry was just arriving, dwarfed by this massive cruise ship currently docked.
The old wooden dolly on North Shields fish quay (actually not even as old as me: https://www.fish-quay.com/wooden-dolly/)
Fiddler's Green, a memorial to North Shields fishermen lost at sea, looking out to the mouth of the Tyne
Tynemouth Priory, sneakily cropped to omit the adjacent less attractive, but arguably equally interesting, WWII gun emplacement
The recently refurbished Spanish City at Whitley Bay
The landmarks keep coming: St. Mary's lighthouse
Oh go on, one more.
I met the border with Northumberland at Seaton Sluice, where it turns inland and follows Holywell Dene, which is a lovely little valley, and the best part of the ride, particularly if going down, which I was wasn't.
The local "bike park"
I had to deviate from the boundary a bit here, using one of the many old "waggonways" - track beds from old mineral lines.
I felt I'd had it a bit easy, so detoured from the actually rights of way to follow the boundary along this field margin.
A bit of unexpected wetland next to a little lane I'd not been down before, which parallels the A19 dual carriageway and the actual boundary.
This corner of the route has quite a bit of road, but nothing too unpleasant.
I channelled the ITT vibe by calling in at the Greggs at Seaton Burn services off the A1
After skirting two nature reserves, with a bit of road in between, I pass the source of my "pizza" (though no doubt it goes via a distribution centre in Northhampton in a part-baked state).
The boundary follows the Metro line for a little bit - I realised riding parallel to it that if I was really committed I probably could have got the train 1 stop, but I'm not that quick-thinking... or that committed.
We then cut across to the East Coast Mainline via Newcastle United's training grounds.
Last one.
And home. I might even do it again.
It's actually not as bad a route as you might expect from an arbitrary administrative line around a largely suburban area on the edge of an old industrial city. Maybe I have learned to love where I live... or maybe I've just forgotten what riding is supposed to be like.
Anyway, having ridden it once clockwise, but not really with enough time to explore alternatives and take photos, I went and rode it again in the opposite (marginally less favourable) direction. This was last Saturday, at the peak of Fool's Spring, so I set off early and took my time, and lots of photos. The initial clockwise ride took me less than 3 hours for 37 miles. This ride took me 5 and half, and ended up 42 miles
I live just a few hundred yards from the boundary, and here it goes through some fairly densely populated areas. It's interesting to see where there are streets where half the houses are in Newcastle and half in North Tyneside.
Home territory. No more pictures of signs, promise.
A Metro train crossing the boundary at warp speed. I promise I won't bore you with "the tree on the left is in North Tyneside, but..." photos either. Well, not too many.
The boundary actually runs down the middle of the Tyne. Despite what I said in the other thread, I'm going to have to packraft it at some point
This is taken near the site of the old Swan Hunter shipyard where some ruddy great ships were built.
The next stop on the magical mystery tour is a UNESCO World Heritage Site don'tcha know: Segedunum, the end of Hadrian's Wall. Embarrassingly, despite living less than a mile away, I've never actually been round it (though to be fair it's been shut most of the time we've been here and there's not actually much to see).
The bit of the route down the Tyne follows the Hadrian's Wall/Coast to Coast Sustrans route.
A short bit what passes for singletrack round here, which I didn't know existed before (I may have gone a bit off piste here).
Ship happens
In the spirit of purism, I descended the wooden escalator (stationary) in to the Tyne Perdestrian and Cycle Tunnel...
...to reach the only point where you can get to the border in the middle of the Tyne without a boat.
Took the lift back up because I've carried up those steps before, and believe me, it's not easy. Should have included it for token hike-a-bike really
The route goes past the ferry port and through the marina at Royal Quays. The Amsterdam ferry was just arriving, dwarfed by this massive cruise ship currently docked.
The old wooden dolly on North Shields fish quay (actually not even as old as me: https://www.fish-quay.com/wooden-dolly/)
Fiddler's Green, a memorial to North Shields fishermen lost at sea, looking out to the mouth of the Tyne
Tynemouth Priory, sneakily cropped to omit the adjacent less attractive, but arguably equally interesting, WWII gun emplacement
The recently refurbished Spanish City at Whitley Bay
The landmarks keep coming: St. Mary's lighthouse
Oh go on, one more.
I met the border with Northumberland at Seaton Sluice, where it turns inland and follows Holywell Dene, which is a lovely little valley, and the best part of the ride, particularly if going down, which I was wasn't.
The local "bike park"
I had to deviate from the boundary a bit here, using one of the many old "waggonways" - track beds from old mineral lines.
I felt I'd had it a bit easy, so detoured from the actually rights of way to follow the boundary along this field margin.
A bit of unexpected wetland next to a little lane I'd not been down before, which parallels the A19 dual carriageway and the actual boundary.
This corner of the route has quite a bit of road, but nothing too unpleasant.
I channelled the ITT vibe by calling in at the Greggs at Seaton Burn services off the A1
After skirting two nature reserves, with a bit of road in between, I pass the source of my "pizza" (though no doubt it goes via a distribution centre in Northhampton in a part-baked state).
The boundary follows the Metro line for a little bit - I realised riding parallel to it that if I was really committed I probably could have got the train 1 stop, but I'm not that quick-thinking... or that committed.
We then cut across to the East Coast Mainline via Newcastle United's training grounds.
Last one.
And home. I might even do it again.