Biking South Tyneside 24-7-09

Friday and I thought it was time I cycled through the Tyne Tunnel to Souter lighthouse,drove up in the car parked nearby and cycled down to the entrance which is just west of the road tunnel, escalators and lifts are available the lift was working going down but not up, so I had to put the bike on the stairs, which are very ,very slow, from here I cycled down to the ferry landing so I could go around the coast way , stopped at the red lighthouse and checked the beach area for terns etc, but too busy with people .
Its a good run around to Souter the scenery is fantastic, I stopped by an old gun emplacement for my coffee and it was here I could see what I counted 12 -15 but there could have been more ,as they came up in groups, looked to me like Common Dolphins showing a lot of white on the sides but they where at some distance and me no expert, they hung around beside the piers for awhile ,giving those that where there what must have been good views,still plenty of Kittiwakes etc. on the pillars of rock further south ended up at Souter Lighthouse, and thats as far as I went, it would be easy to get to Marsden Quarry this way , but next time its the ferry for me , the run from the Pedestrian tunnel is just industry including going over the new tunnel in the making , but it only took me 1hr 5 mins to get back to the car from Souter which I thought not bad going (till I saw that guy on the TV who cycled for 2years to get from Alaska to the tip of Argentina ) I also asked my other half to guess how long I had taken ,30mins was the answer , woman what do they know !!!!!
these are much longer than the photo shows , and as I say very slow.

They have a separate tunnel for walkers and one for cyclists, but you are supposedly not allowed to cycle, what a weird country this is at times, actually you can fly down here , but it is a bit eerie in a way.

You can see this on even very very old photos

Lunch stop with Tynemouth in the background

looking south

and back north again, great bit of coastline

and Souter, an aircraft was testing out its display overhead ready for the airshow.