The anticipation was huge; the meeting point a closely-guarded secret. More than a hundred Brexiters had gathered in biting winds on a seaside car park, hoping for a glimpse of Nigel Farage.

The former Ukip leader was the star attraction when he marched in the driving rain from Sunderland to Hartlepool on the first leg of his 270-mile “March for Leave” on Saturday.

Those hoping to see him on the second day of the two-week slog were left disappointed. “He braved the weather yesterday,” said Richard Tice, the property tycoon and co-founder of Leave Means Leave.

“We showed true grit. You softies in the Guardian would’ve delayed it a day but we pushed on, we had hundreds out, it was amazing.”

About 150 hardy protesters marched 12 miles from Hartlepool to Middlesbrough on Sunday, guided by police escort through empty industrial estates, past water treatment plants and deep-water ports, before arriving five hours later at a pub near the river Tees.

Organised by Leave Means Leave, the march will descend on Brexit-voting constituencies throughout England before arriving in Westminster on 29 March – fronted, presumably, by Farage.

Along the way it will tour seats led by MPs accused of thwarting Brexit, including the Conservative Dominic Grieve, ex-Tory Anna Soubry, and the chief whip Julian Smith – though organisers deny they’re targeting these politicians by design.

“It was designed principally as a route that we could break into the right number of legs and will be visually impressive,” claimed Harry Todd, one of the organisers. “It just happened that a lot of these constituencies were along the way.”

Roger Gambrell, a 72-year-old army veteran, was among those walking Todd’s “scenic” route through miles of barren industrial land. “My main reason for doing this is we’ve got a democracy and parliament is overthrowing democracy,” he said, on his first ever political rally. “I don’t want my grandchildren being conscripted by an EU army likely led by the Germans.”

Protesters were cheered by the occasional honk from passing cars. Locals came out of their houses as the march approached Middlesbrough. “They’re selling us down the bloody river!” shouted one man from his front door. “We’re going to sort out those treacherous dogs!” came the reply.

“I love Europe. I love Europeans. I just hate Brussels,” said David Rivers, a factory manager from Sedgefield, in County Durham. The 54-year-old lifelong Labour voter said he was “never political until Brexit” and that he was now torn between Ukip and Farage’s new Brexit party. “We’ve got the weakest government we’ve had in history and the opposition should be flying. I think no one wants to take charge.”

Arthur Granville, 69, from Sunderland, said he did not buy the analysis that the north-east will be the hardest hit of any UK region if Britain leaves without a deal.

“Damage the north-east? I’ve lived here 70 years,” said the former prison officer. “My father worked in the mines, my brother worked in the mines, the north-east has been left behind forever. We’re not living in utopia while we’re in Europe.”

Some protestors paid £50 to walk every day of the march, many wearing bright blue Leave Means Leave jackets and wooly hats. Organisers said it was costing “hundreds of thousands” of pounds to stage, including the cost of hotels and buses. Tice, whose firm owns a property portfolio worth £500m, said the march was funded by “true British patriots” who had donated tens of thousands of pounds to the cause.

Shadowing the march were giant billboards showing old tweets from leading Brexiters, including one from Farage in May 2016: “In a 52-48 referendum this would be unfinished business by a long way”.

As protestors marched through biting winds along the River Tees, one organiser, Mandy Childs, said the rally summoned the spirit of Theodore Roosevelt in his 1910 speech, the Man in the Arena, about victory belonging to those who take action. “For every person here,” she said, “we’ve got a million people marching with us. I can feel that presence.” Another, an army veteran, beamed at the Union Jacks overhead: “It’s like walking in the Falklands, following the flag again.”