shewhomust | A walk along the Tyne

Sunday's walk was an old friend: west of Newcastle, along one bank of the Tyne and back along the other. There's a pub at either end, and a degree of choice about which end you start, how far you go, how closely you follow the river.

This time we started in Ryton (which has some interesting old buildings - and a pinfold - and might be worth nosing around in its own right), and followed a path steeply down across the golf course to the Tyne. This took us to Clara Vale, and then on more familiar paths to Wylam.

We might have crossed the Tyne at Wylam, but we decided to carry on to the Hagg Bridge, and make that our turning point. We'd woken early, and set off early, and why not? (The reason why not was that we had reached the end of the previous week's walk completely exhausted, feeling that the last quarter mile had really not been fun; but you have to stretch yourself a little, don't you?). It was a pleasant day, mild and sunny, and we exercised a little discretion when we reached the north bank of the Tyne, and followed the old waggonway, which is both easier going and a bit shorter than the riverside path.

It was the first day of spring, and the National Trust was starting to open its properties. The advantage of being members is that we can decide on the spur of the moment to make a short visit, even if we don't have much time - although this isn't really an issue at George Stephenson's birthplace, since the Stephenson family, mother, father and five children, lived in one room of the cottage (and three other families occupied the other three rooms). Since our last visit, the Trust has opened a tea-room in the garden, and we thought we might have a late morning coffee, and then were tempted by a bowl of broth instead, a sort of detached first course of lunch (very tasty, rather expensive).

Refreshed in mind and body, we slipped onto the riverside path (not as tricky as I remember it, I suspect because the really precipitous bit has now been closed) and back to Newburn for lunch proper at THe Keelman (very busy, interesting beer, food OK).

After lunch it was a short walk across the bridge at Newburn, across the open ground of Ryton Willows, up past the Curling Pond and then - I don't know why we did this - back down to the Willows, and up again past the golf course to the car. The friendly man outside whose house we had parked had been busy in the garden, and was bagging up the garden waste for disposal; he welcomed us back, and his cat tried to stow away in our car, but we said goodbye to them both and came home.