After a walk round the Stadium of Light and a filling breakfast at Roker End Café I made my way out of Sunderland. I passed by Hendon which provided me with no trouble but a gable end mural of a Sunderland hero Raich Carter.
The wind picked up, and as the waves crashed in you could see why coastal erosion is happening here. The sands settled to a black colour along this part of the coast.
As I got to Seaham I could see people scouring the beach obviously searching for something. Being nosy I trotted down and asked. It turns out they were looking for “sea glass”. In the nineteenth century the local glassworks used to tip all their rubbish into the sea. After a century of being washed around by the sea this bits of glass are now much prized for handicrafts and jewellery making. Seaham also had three collieries where one explosion killed 164 miners and 181 pit ponies.
After Seaham it was a pleasant walk down the coast to my camp site near the top of a cliff giving a splendid view of my days walk.