September 1 - 3, 2006

The English Sea to Sea Ride

Day 3

Sunderland

We caught up with the rest of our breakfast group having a coffee at the Washington Wildlife and Wetlands Centre (good cake…), which was conveniently placed to allowed us to dodge inside to avoid a short shower.

 

The route joins the river Wear a mile or so after the Wetlands Centre for the final few miles to the coast at Sunderland. Again, this was very pleasant. There are many signs of Sunderland’s industrial past along the riverbank, but also of more recent riverside development towards the sea. The route passes underneath the Stadium of Light, which looks very impressive from the riverbank, perched on its cliff high above the river near the (I believe grade 2) listed Wear Bridge.

Once the bikes had been packed away on the Discovery trailer and the group photos taken, we had time for a couple of (well OK, three) cold beers at the Queen Vic pub (no, not that one) behind the lifeboat station before the minibus arrived to pick us up and take us back to York.

In Sunderland, they grow metal trees

Wheeldippers part two

We caught up with the others at Sunderland marina, where we stopped at the C2C office for a final, superfluous passport stamp (you only need six if you want to send of for a t-shirt – although one shopkeeper said one would do as long as you sent the money with it!)

There was quite a crowd of relatives waiting to greet us and take pictures. The final 500 yards took us from the marina to the beach in front of the lifeboat station, the official end point of the C2C.

 

The earlier finishers had had a chance to grab a shower (at the C2C office), a change of clothes and best of all, a beer. We didn’t have time – the Discovery guys were there to pick up their bikes, and there remained the matters of dipping front wheels into the North Sea (tradition, y’see) and taking group photos. Fortunately, no-one had a camera out when I fell over pushing the bike onto the soft sand of the beach by the lifeboat house!