Exploring Newcastle Upon Tyne

Yesterdays half term activity involved just me and Looby, I was determined that I would smash my step target and that we'd also walk to somewhere we hadn't been before, I wasn't quite sure where we'd end up if I'm honest but I love to just go out and I love being an explorer in my own city, start walking and then keep walking and of course Holly never complains.

So we walked down through the Ouseburn Valley, past the farm and seven stories and then made our way along the quayside where we stopped for a quick backpack picnic and then we turned around and walked all the way along the quayside to St Peters Basin, somewhere I had never been!  Who knew that there's a beautiful marina less than 20 minutes walk from my house!  On a summers day I'm going to go and sit down there, have lunch at The Bascule and pretend I am somewhere overseas and cosmopolitan.

My only wonder about it is that it was so quiet, how can that be, why aren't there thriving little boutiques, coffee shops, tourists, surely somewhere so pretty deserves to have that?  All I can think of is that it's such a walk out of the city and you would never know about it unless you know where it is. I do sort of feel that more should be done to sell it and then maybe it could become a thriving tourist destination, it reminded me a lot of the marina at Hull and Looby said it reminded her of the Albert dock in Liverpool.

From there we walked along the Byker Link, again something I didn't even know existed, basically it goes from just behind Shields Road right down to the banks of the Tyne and again it's been a bit neglected and is very overgrown, goes through some slightly salubrious parts and I wouldn't fancy walking down there after dark.

I'd like to see more tourist developments in the East of the city, I know we have the Ouseburn Valley but even that is a bit neglected in parts, I love that I live in the artists area of my city but i'd love to see it become even more thriving than it is currently!

Here's some photos from our epic walk.

So 14,000 steps after we left the house we were back home again feeling healthy, happy and a little tired, I love being an explorer in my own city and if you don't have any plans for today why not go and be an explorer in your city and don't forget to tell me what you find.