5 Common Mistakes When Paddling the Tyne Through Newcastle (and How to Avoid Them)

Newcastle's riverfront is one of the best urban paddles in Britain. The bridges stack up overhead, the quayside lights come on, and the tide carries you past it all without you touching your paddle. Then the tide turns, or a trip boat appears, or you find yourself aiming at the wrong arch, and suddenly the river is doing the steering. Most bad days on the Tyne through Newcastle come down to a handful of predictable mistakes. Here are the ones that catch paddlers out most often, and what to do instead.

1. Treating the Tide as Background

The Tyne is tidal right through the city, and it stays tidal up to Wylam. All of that water rises and falls through a fairly narrow channel between Newcastle and Gateshead, so the stream can run strongly on the ebb and push back with real force on the flood. The same trip can be a gentle float or an hour of grinding into moving water, depending on when you launch. Two paddlers setting off from the Quayside an hour apart can have completely different days.

Plan with a tide table for the Tyne — North Shields is the standard reference point — rather than with optimism:

• Note the time of high and low water, and whether the day is springs or neaps. The difference in range is significant, and it changes how much water sits above the mud and how much headroom you have under the bridges.
• Work out where you will be at each stage of the tide, not just where you start. If you are landing two hours after high water, you need to know what the river will look like then.
• Let the tide do the work. Upstream on the flood, downstream on the ebb, and use the slack for anything fiddly such as crossing the channel or landing on steps.
• Add wind to the picture. The Newcastle reach runs roughly east–west, so a decent westerly or easterly can cancel out the help the tide was giving you, and wind against tide makes short, steep chop between the quay walls.

Do not ignore the direction of travel. If your plan only works going one way, you have no plan when the wind gets up or when someone in your group gets tired.

2. Assuming the River Is Empty

It is a working river, and on the lower stretches it is a busy one. Port traffic and pilotage happen further downstream around North and South Shields, where the Shields Ferry crosses. Up at Newcastle you have trip boats and party boats working from the quayside pontoons, rowing boats training along the edges, and other paddlers, anglers and paddleboarders doing exactly what you are doing.

A few habits keep you out of trouble:

• Keep to the edge of the channel rather than the middle. Give yourself room to be passed.
• Cross the channel briskly and at a right angle. Do not drift across on a diagonal while you admire the Tyne Bridge.
• Look behind you more than you think you need to. Wash, ferries and larger craft close the gap quickly.
• Assume a skipper has not seen you, and cannot stop or turn quickly even if they have. Give way early; it costs you nothing.

Reflected wash off quay walls can be surprisingly lumpy in a kayak or canoe, especially when it meets an ebb tide running the other way.

3. Picking the Wrong Bridge Arch

Between Redheugh and the Millennium Bridge you pass beneath the King Edward VII, the Queen Elizabeth II Metro Bridge, the High Level, the Swing Bridge and the Tyne Bridge. The navigable span is normally marked with lights or signage, and it is usually where the deepest water sits — but “usually” is doing a lot of work there. The ebb tends to funnel through one arch, the flood through another, and on springs the picture changes.

Before you go under

Read a local pilot or guide for the reach, look at the navigation marks, and watch which arch other craft use. Then check the headroom, because at high water on a spring tide it is far less generous than it looks from the bank. The High Level Bridge is the one that makes people sit up and think about their timing.

Pass decisively and keep moving. Piers and bollards create eddies and boils at their downstream side, and the water accelerates as it squeezes between them. Aiming slightly upstream on the flood and slightly downstream on the ebb keeps you tracking straight. Whatever you do, do not stop for photographs in the middle of an arch.

4. Getting the Access Points Wrong

Launching and landing are where most of the faff — and most of the injury risk — lives. The quayside steps, the Ouseburn area, Newburn and the Tyne Riverside Country Park all behave differently depending on the state of the tide. Steps that are dry and easy at high water can be slippery, algae-covered and above a strip of mud an hour later.

Do the boring bits properly:

1. Recce your launch and exit at the tide you actually intend to use, not at whatever state it happened to be when you drove past.
2. Arrange a shuttle or park close to your exit. Landing upstream of the car park is much easier than dragging a boat up the quayside against the flow.
3. Ask the local clubs about launching etiquette and anything you should know about works, regattas or temporary restrictions.
4. Take a trolley if you are carrying kit any distance. Quayside paving is unforgiving on the shoulders.

Wear footwear with grip you trust on wet stone and metal, and carry your boat rather than dragging it down steps.

5. Skipping the Safety Gear You Will Wish You Had

The Tyne is cold, even in high summer, and it is deep and fast in places. Dress for immersion rather than for the weather on the bank, and make sure your buoyancy aid is worn and properly fastened — not stowed behind your seat.

For a city reach, a sensible load-out looks like this: a dry bag with your phone in a waterproof pouch, a means of calling for help, a throwline, a spare layer, water and something to eat, a whistle, and a working light if there is any chance you will still be on the water at dusk. Tell someone where you are launching, where you intend to finish, and when you expect to be off the river.

If you are new to tidal water, paddle with a club or a qualified coach before tackling the Quayside reach on your own. Nobody is born knowing how a spring tide behaves in a narrow urban channel, and a couple of guided sessions will teach you more than a season of guesswork.

6. Leaving the Weather and the Light to Chance

Bridges funnel wind and create gusts and dead patches in quick succession. Buildings on both banks do the same. Check the forecast for wind speed and, just as importantly, direction, and think about where it will hit you on the reach you have chosen. Short winter days catch people out as well: the quayside is beautiful