The Actual Trip: Day 10

Hello from Scarborough! I'm very pleased to say I only took one wrong turn on the route today, though got very lost once I got to Scarborough and had to firstly find the Travelodge and secondly find somewhere to park near it. Bit of a grey day as well, wasn't too bad in places but got very wet this afternoon.

Three Bridges across the Tweed in Berwick.

Started the day by heading back down the M90 and into Edinburgh where I met up with a couple of very good friends who live there. Was lovely to see them, could have stayed in Edinburgh all day but unfortunately I had the small matter of another 230 miles to drive. Edinburgh was surprisingly easy to drive around, though I did forget which floor I had parked on at Ocean Terminal and therefore got lost in the car park. Still appearing to be in Golf Course Land I did a lot of hopping on and off of the A1 through various villages before heading back in to England and stopping for lunch in Berwick.

After lunch it was an easy drive down the A1 and then the A1068 towards the towns and cities of the north-east. This all started off quite gently, though the traffic was quite busy in places as I was going through a lot of seaside towns and despite the weather people were still doggedly going to the beach. Found my way to the Tyne Tunnel ok and then headed off towards South Shields. It was around here that I got in the wrong lane at some traffic lights and had to turn around to get back on the route, but with all the twists and turns of the route today I'm pleased that was the only wrong turn.

I then had a break just outside Whitburn at a place called Souter Point. This was one of those gems of a place that I've found on my travels; lots of parkland above the cliffs, a lighthouse, lots of wildlife (well, sea birds of some sort) right between two big cities. Was lovely, if a bit damp still. It was then into and through Sunderland which was yet another place with a roundabout fetish. A short blast along the A19 and then if was back towards the coast and Hartlepool.

Souter Lighthouse north of Sunderland.
Very bright even with the light off.

The weather had taken a turn for constantly raining by now, rather than just the showers of earlier in the day. Seemed to go through a lot of housing estates in Hartlepool and then a large area of heavy industry. I decided at this point that as it was getting on a bit and the weather wasn't brilliant that I would skip the Transporter Bridge at Middlesbrough, even if it was open which I'm not sure it was. So I bundled my way back onto the A19 across the Tees and then onto the A66 towards Redcar.

One of the great things I have found about this journey, and I would guess therefore a great thing about Britain, is how you don't have to travel very far to get a complete change of scenery. So not long after the industry of Middlesbrough and the housing estates of Redcar it was back to little nestled villages and the stunning views of the North Yorkshire Moors National Park. A right old rollercoaster of a road too, though in a good way. Through Whitby and it was then onto Scarborough, with its many one way streets and Travelodge with no nearby parking (that was available anyway). But I made it nonetheless.

One thing I have realised is, despite one of the main aims of my journey to be to visit lots of places I had never been before, that so far every day I've been through at least one place I have been before. I was going to claim that Day 11 was going to be the only day where I had never been to any of the places I was going and then remembered that I had once been to Hull...