I did this one on a sunny Sunday afternoon. The company I'd hoped to have wasn't able to make it - hopefully another time! So, under the benign and watchful eye of Charles Mark Palmer, I left Jarrow Town Hall and struck out for the river.
Soon the pavements were left behind and I was on a pedestrian/cycle path that took me down behind Bede's World and St Pauls church and along the river Don. Nature was in its best autumn glory. There were huge glossy rosehips, blackberries, nuts. The trees have started to turn and there were crisp, dry leaves to rustle through along the sides of the paths. The whole scene just seemed to say 'enjoy me now!'.
The River Don path was familiar to me from the Bede's Way walk I did last year but once out onto the main road, I got well and truly lost! Either, the walk leaflet is wrong and I needed to walk much further than 100 metres before turning off, or the new looking secondary school has been built since the leaflet was published and the path no longer exists, or I can't read simple instructions. Any of these is possible.
So I missed the tennis courts and rose garden of the park I was supposed to walk through but managed to find the trail again after a detour via a housing estate. Then it was through Monkton and a couple more green spaces. The heritage board mentioned a healing well - but I didn't manage to find this.
There was another moment of lostness, and then there I was, back at the Town Hall. I enjoyed my march, but I dread to think where I would have ended up if I'd had to try and walk from Jarrow to London.
I would just like to add that I took photos. They're on my phone. One day I will work out how to get them on here - along with the original post I made on blogger mobile. It seems I haven't kept pace with technology either.
