We left Scotland on Sunday afternoon after a quick visit to Dee’s aunty and uncle in Hamilton.
We had no set plan but decided to do the east coast as we had come up from The Lakes so good to see something else.
We weren’t entirely sure where we would stop for our first night back in England. We actually need up at a place called Tynemouth.
Tynemouth
I didn’t know anything about Tynemouth. It was about 5.30pm and after parking up by a green which was another great spot on park 4 the night we went for a walk.
We headed to the beach and the first thing I noticed was the place was heaving with swimmers! I hadn’t seen so many dry robes since last winter in Brighton. I immediately went and spoke to one of them. She invited me to the full moon swim. I had about 15 minutes to go back to the van and grab my kit and get back again, so would have been a bit of a mad rush and Dee was hungry! I arranged to meet them in the morning instead. Here’s the beach.
We headed further round to find the other beach mentioned by the swimmers I spoke to. It was where they were going to be swimming in the morning.
It was only about 5 minutes away and there was loads more swimmers. There was a also a bar/restaurant right on the beach. We thought that would be a perfect place top get some food and watch the swimmers and the sunset.
The location of this restaurant was excellent sadly the food was quite expensive and nothing special but I guess it was worth it just for the ambiance of being on the beach.
In the morning I went back, once again there were swimmers and dry robes everywhere. Here’s a photo of the beach.
The restaurant where we ate the night before is tucked away in the part of the photo that you can’t see.
I waited but didn’t see the woman I’d spoken to the night before so decided just to go in. There were others swimming and I did have a quick chat with someone whilst I was in there.
Once I was out and almost changed she arrived with a friend. They apologised that they were a bit late. They went in but didn’t actually stay in long so we did get to have a good chat and a couple of photos after.
This beach was so full of swimmers at 8.30am onwards and probably earlier than that too. It reminded me so much of my beloved King Alfred (KA) beach back in Hove, it was the same early morning buzz.
After my swim we had a walk round Tynemouth before heading off.
The Angel of the North and Seaham
We decided to head to Gateshead and visit ‘The Angel of The North’. It’s a contemporary statue designed by architect Andrew Gormley and it’s been there since 1998. It is quite famous.
From here we drove onto Seaham.
Seaham is famous for it’s sea glass, it would have been nice to go and have a wander on the beach and see if we could find any but we couldn’t see anywhere to park so we ended up just stopping at a shopping centre and getting fish and chips
Whitby
Our next stop was Whitby, we arrived late afternoon/early evening and parked just on the outskirts of the town centre. We decided to wait until the morning to go and explore properly. We were parked near the beach quite high up. Here’s our view when we arrived .
We were quite intrigued about Whitby. The night we stayed in Manchester with Dee’s Aunty Sue there was a program on TV about Whitby and how lots of properties are being bought for holiday rentals as so many people come and stay in Whitby. The locals weren’t really happy about this as it was pricing them out of the market both for buying and renting. Most of the landlords I believe were actually locals though! I suppose as with everything there are two sides to every story.
In the morning we had a walk into town. It was quite big and very vibrant. I called it a ‘Brighton’ of the north. It even had it’s own version of ‘The Lanes’. Lots of quirky independent shops. I could understand why Whitby was such a popular place.
Here’s a photo of Whitby beach taken from our walk into town.
Dora Walker was the famous for being the first female fishing boat skipper on the North East Coast, so I suppose it’s only right that she has a statue on the coast at Whitby. Here is a photo of me with her and some info about her too.
It was a bit of a dark day really. It even looked a bit stormy from the photos although it wasn’t but it did mean some of our photos were very dark! Here’s a few that were ok
During our wander around town we also stopped and had lunch. We decided to move on a bit further to Filey. It meant I didn’t actually get to swim in Whitby but it also meant we would get a little bit further to Brighton. By now we knew we just had to get back and get everything done that we needed to, so our heads were in the right place for getting back and dealing with it all.
Filey
We decided to head for Filey and stop there overnight before heading inland to York then back to Brighton. I had been to Filey with a group of friends back in 1985 when I was just 20! We hired chalets on a holiday park for the Easter weekend. I don’t remember that much about it except that it was a bit crazy and we did have a good laugh. Seems such a long time ago now!
Whilst we were on the way to Filey I managed to find a group of Filey swimmers on Facebook. It turned out there was a swim at 6pm that evening. I really wanted to go, mainly because I realised that it would probably be my last chance before arriving back in Brighton.
We soon realised that sadly there were no motorhome friendly park ups in Filey! We ended up in a lay-by just outside of Filey.
It was a 30 minute walk back into Filey, I was still keen to go but Dee didn’t particularly want to, and I didn’t really fancy trying to find my way back on my own in the dark. Luckily one of the ladies kindly offered to pick me up. Hooray! Cinderella shall go to the ball!
It turned out to be a ‘very organised’ swim! Everyone had to have a tow float, and we all had to swim to the sailing club and back! I met a couple of really nice people but overall I didn’t find them to be particularly friendly. There was actually only 2 of us not in a wetsuits, which surprised me a bit!
Can you spot me in the last photo?
I told the organiser if I didn’t make it to the sailing club I would just get out when ready. Well I did make it and was in for 30 mins! I think it was about a kilometre. I think the swim I’d done at Loch Lomond a few days earlier with Chiara must have prepared me!
Back home in Brighton, a big part of the swim is the hot drink and chats and laughs we have after the swim. I just assumed this would be the same. After all it had been in other places so far.
Well not only was I probably the only one with a flask and a hot drink, I was also the only one who bothered to get changed afterwards. Most of them just threw their dry robes on top of their wet suits and went! Once I realised this I actually felt guilty for holding the lady up who was going to drop me back to the van! Well as they say it takes all sorts!
So overall I think Filey was an interesting experience and not how I remembered it at all. 😂
York
The following morning we headed into York. I’d never actually been to York before but I’d heard it was a nice city so worth taking the opportunity to visit whilst we were there.
We managed to park for free about 35 minutes outside of the city. It was a nice day and also a nice walk along the river to get there. Here I am on the walk in.
We had a walk round and it was a nice city. Here is York Cathedral.
Here is a couple more showing some of the old buildings in York.
The Shambles is quite famous. It’s a historic street in York, featuring some very well preserved medieval buildings some of which date back to the fourteenth century.
After looking round we decided it was time to move on, we continued south and stayed at a park that was in Cambridgeshire somewhere. It was really just a pit stop before continuing our journey back to Brighton.
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