Long Sands to Tyne Bridges 06 08 24

This was a reflective paddle trolleying my kayak down the ramp at the North End of the Long Sands as I did back in the late 60s with a very different kayak on a trolley made of fish crates and old pram wheels. the beautiful old wooden Lifeguard's hut long since gone replaced by a slab of a building maybe a cafe. It is a nice paddle along the beach and round to King Edwards bay then past the ruined priory and out along the north pier that guards the mouth of the Tyne.I hadn't meant to go any further but ended up passing the Black Middens and heading off up the river. So much industry has gone and been replaced by housing. A lot of old bombed out land left bare since the slum clearances of the 60s now has housing on it. There was always a great sense of community hopefully that is still how it is. There were plenty of remnants of the shipbuilding days, the dry docks of Swan Hunter where my grandad spent all of his working life - silence where once was an all pervasive pulsing noise of ships being built. Further up river bits of the off shore wind farm on Dogger Bank were being built and huge reels of undersea cables lined the docks. A bit of a headwind at times and I barely recognised Newcastle Quayside. The Tyne Bridges are as iconic as ever but there are more of them and less industry it all seemed much quieter than years ago. The tide turned not long after I did and the trip back down was an easy one with a few runs on the chop. For me a trip that triggered hundreds of memories but even if you don't know the area I think it would be a cracking way of spending a few hours.