Having identified a carpark roughly eleven miles up the road from Cambois, we start our walk from Druridge Links, an area of grasslands and sand dunes which form part of Druridge Country Park. The weather looks promising….

The route is clearly marked, which has been the case for the last three days of walking, wish it was always so….

Down on the beach a wide lane of damp sand makes the going easier – I’m hoping it’s going to last all the way down to Cresswell,

Half buried in the sand is a familiar piece of flotsam – or is it jetsam? We will never know since flotsam is debris that floats after a shipwreck or accident, while jetsam is rubbish deliberately thrown overboard to lighten a ship’s load. Apart from that somewhat useless piece of information, this is probably a mindless piece of littering. And before I move on I must just add that Irn Bru is a fizzy soft drink famous for its unique sweet flavour and bright orange colour. It is widely regarded as Scotland’s second national drink……

The beach, fringed by sand dunes seems endless and empty……..this is what people think we do all the time when we say we’re walking the coast – little do they know.

A surprise is when we walk through a patch of what looks like coal dust, and when I look it up later I discover that that’s exactly what it is. Sea coal is either a product of erosion of a nearby coal seam close to the coast, or historic dumping of waste from coal mines – take your pick.

At Creswell we join a cycle path for a short while and then it’s back to the beach until we reach Lynmouth, where cyclists turn inland and we carry on following a gravel track past the power station. Lynmouth Power Station, built in 1972, was originally designed to burn coal but over the years interventions from first the EU and later the UK government, it now runs fully on wood biomass.

Two miles now to Newbiggin by the Sea, where we hope to stop for lunch.

Hidden in the dunes are the ruins of military defences………….

………….and then a wary walk through a golf course.

Creamy sandstone cliffs glow in the sunshine…….

Tints of rose pink in the rocks on the beach.

We soon reach Newbiggin by the Sea, nestled around its bay – it also has a decent beach.

……………and benches along the seafront – we stop for lunch.

Out to sea, but too far away for a decent photograph, a plinth has been mounted on a man made breakwater. And here two figures, a man and a woman, stand looking out to sea.

And just around the corner we discover a replica of the sculpture on dry land.

“The Couple” is the work of sculptor Sean Henry, who completed the figures in the bay in August 2007. Three months later the “Land Couple” arrived, an exact replica of the original work but on a much smaller scale. The figures are made of steel and bronze and great care has been taken to make them as lifelike as possible – the creases in the clothes are totally convincing. There is also something so endearing about their gaze – the woman seems to be looking inward as if lost in thought, while her partner stares intently at something happening out at sea. I love them.

Here is a link to Sean Henry’s website…….

https://www.seanhenry.com/sculpture/

A little later we reach the north bank of the River Wansbeck which we have to cross.

Luckily, we do not have to use the road bridge but instead walk under it, crossing instead at the pedestrian bridge a little further upstream.

Our walk finishes on Cambois beach, just outside Charltons Bar and Restaurant. The place is now run by the son of the football legend Jackie Charlton. We are not tempted………..

Distance: 12 miles