DAY 7

Sunday May 29^th   2016                                                           

Kingston Upon Hull to Redcar                                              Miles 150

Well I must say that Hull has improved enormously since I last came here, about 20 years ago. Then it was dreary and decaying.  There is clearly a huge effort to make Hull a liveable city and congratulations to the Council for what they have achieved.  We obviously have not seen everything, but the area around the Quay, although still under development, felt exciting.  We also found an excellent Indian restaurant, the Cinnamon, just a two minute walk from the Ibis Hotel, so we had a good evening.

Hull Quay

Despite being assured by the BBC that today would be sunshine everywhere, Hull and the North Yorkshire coast is presumably not included when one talks about everywhere. We did get breaks of sun during the day, which was glorious, but much of the day was under damp sea mist and there was a cold wind.  However, we found the Yorkshire coast to be an excellent part of the country.

Our first destination today was to the outer edge of the Yorkshire coast at Spurn Head.  We passed a sign to the unbelievably named village of Thorngumball before taking the long road to Spurn Head.  This would mean a return journey, but we had to do it to be true to the principle of a full coastal trip. We came across a surprising monument in a field near to Partington.  It was a metal cut out of four of the gunpowder plotters.  Guy Fawkes, Robert Catesby (who was the leader, not Guy) and two brothers, John and Christopher Wright, who lived locally at Plowlands Farm.  Apparently this was erected in July 2011 as a celebration of the fact that the plot failed and Parliament continued.  It was not as we first thought a comment on David Cameron’s upcoming referendum on the EU.

There is not a lot to see when you get to Spurn Head, but the twitchers, all with long lenses, certainly seemed to think so.  You can tour the lighthouse, which was not open, and anyway quite a walk from the car park.  We had to go to Spurn Head as it has to be part of the coastal route, but left without taking any photographs.  At Hedon we drove past the gas and energy plants, interestingly fenced by double rows of razor wire.  The word Stalagluft was spoken in the car and we expected to see Alsatians running between the fences.

We continued on to the small seaside town of Withernsea. Thank goodness for Tesco. They were open and we were able to purchase some cinnamon buns and pork pies for lunch later. I am sure from what I have experienced so far that it would be possible to do this journey and purchase fresh food every day from one or other “superstore” at a handy junction.  We went to the sea front, had a brew and ate our buns.  We watched the RNLI in-shore lifeboat go out, but probably only for training. They practiced running the boat at speed through the waves, but it looked very cold.  No doubt they were the weekend duty crew as this was after all a Bank Holiday weekend.  We continue to notice the caravan and chalet parks.  Some chalets here in Withernsea were brown wooden affairs, old and tired.  One or two had windows covered with newspaper, others had fresh flowers and wisteria growing up the front. At another camp down the road, new static caravans were on offer for sale at £9,500.  A bargain if you intended to use it regularly and wanted to only go to Withernsea for your holidays.

Further along the main road and ahead of the traffic, we came across some road signs warning of road resurfacing and loose chippings and asking drivers to slow down.  There were also signs advising caution that there were no white line road markings, however, the lines were present and beautifully painted.  It would seem that the white line painters did not see it as there job to remove the signs and another group of workmen were to remove them.  No doubt they were not scheduled until after the holiday weekend.

We also noticed a strange pole with unusual equipment and aerials close the road.  The sign attached to it said, “these are weather instruments and not speed cameras”.  I don’t know why they would feel it necessary to advise that they were not speed cameras. Perhaps it was to prevent them being vandalised or, maybe just to stop unnecessarily raising the anxiety of passing motorists who might feel the need to reduce their speed.

In Aldburgh the roadside verges were beautifully cut and the Hawthorn hedges rounded.  We could have been in Surrey in the south of England.  They are obviously so regular in cutting the verges that there was a Mrs. Mowers Mower Shop advertising mowing machine (and motorcycle) repairs.

Driving on to Mappleton, a very nice place, where we could see the sea, there were more cabins, but this time upmarket ones, built in the Canadian log cabin style.  There are so many caravan, chalet and cabin parks that competition is encouraging the provision of more upmarket properties.  The only way to differentiate yourself in a crowded market is to increase the quality of your product.

Thank goodness for Tesco.  I woke up this morning with a stye in my right eye (the one nearest the sea!).  The only pharmacy open on Sundays in this area is at Tesco and Hornsea had one.  The Pharmacist helpfully sold me some antibiotic eye drops and said that it would be better in the morning.  Hopefully he is right, as Jim is not able to drive my hire car, so it is down to me.  I tried driving with my right eye closed, but my depth of field was severely impacted.

The sun was now shining again and we drove into the very pretty village of Atwick with its lovely village green.  But on leaving to head towards Scarborough we came across a horrendous traffic jam.  The traffic was stationary as far as the eye could see, so rather than sit it out, we diverted in-land along some very narrow roads.  This proved to be a good decision and it was an extremely pleasant drive, with, even though away from main roads, the verges again beautifully manicured.  The fields were glorious with yellow oil seed rape and green shoots of wheat.  To cap it all we came out ahead of the traffic jam. 

Scarborough

We passed Filey with its Butlins Holiday Camp and continued on to Scarborough.  This proved to be a glorious, stylish and bustling town.  Perhaps the best description of it is “Harrogate on Sea”, for those who know Harrogate.  There are both south and north beaches, which on a bright and sunny holiday Sunday were both very busy.  There is a high road that joins both halves of the town spanning across a gorge.  The bridge has attractive inward curving high barriers that are presumably to prevent people jumping off the bridge, but actually improve the look of the bridge and the environs, rather than make it ugly or a depressing sight.  (Vancouver take note for the Lions Gate Bridge).  The bridge offers dramatic views down into park gardens with the sea behind.  The buildings around are striking and smart Victorian architecture.  This is certainly a place that I would love to come back and visit.  The English seaside town is certainly alive and very healthy in Scarborough.  We both agreed that this was the best town on the coast since Sheringham.  The only down side to Scarborough was the thirty minute queue into the town, all due to some temporary road work traffic lights and bollards.  The bollards appeared to be surrounding nothing, no holes in the road nothing.  No doubt it was the same crew who were due to remove the other signage who did not remove them.  You would have thought that on a busy holiday weekend someone would have recognised the chaos that would ensue by leaving such impediments to free flow of traffic.

From superb Scarborough the road took us up onto the North Yorkshire Moors National Park.  The views were magnificent and it reminded me a lot of Dartmoor in Devon.  Our next destination was Robin Hood’s Bay.  We drove to it, saw it (it’s lovely) but did not stay, indeed could not stay, as there were no parking places at all in the town and drivers were getting frustrated.

For most of my life I have wanted to visit Whitby.  You see it so often in photos showing the best places in Britain.  It also features regularly in TV programs.  This was planned to be the highlight of my day and I was excited to be going there.  Our first stop was the ruins of Whitby Abbey that sits high up overlooking the town providing lovely views down into Whitby and the River Esk running into the harbor and out to sea.  Next to the Abbey, but we did not visit it, is the Church that featured in the story of Dracula (which was written here).  It is a mecca for “Goths” but we only saw one on her way there.  How is it that both the stories of Dracula and Frankenstein were written in lovely English towns far from any dark and demonic surroundings.  (Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelley in the lovely Thames side town of Marlow in Buckinghamshire).

Whitby Abbey

We had not chosen the best day to visit Whitby.  It was heaving with people.  I think that almost one half of Yorkshire was in Scarborough and almost another half was in Whitby, with those left over being in Robin Hoods Bay.  After an incident of car park rage with a women being prepared to lie down in a car space rather than let us park in it, we got lucky and found another car departing.   Jim’s charm got them to give us their parking ticket, which still had two hours left on it.  The “savings” meant that our afternoon tea was free!

I had one bizarre moment when walking along the street. I noticed a “twin” of the Nissan Qashqai that we are driving and not just the twin but its registration plate was the next one in the series!  Unfortunately I did not see the occupants but it would have been very interesting to find out where they had hired their vehicle from, probably not Exeter where mine came from, or perhaps it was.

Whitby Harbour (River Esk)

Whitby has an unusual swinging bridge in the centre of the town, which turns outward to allow vessels to pass.  It was built in 1906 by the same company that built the famous Blackpool Tower.

Because of the rush of people we felt that we did not want to stay any longer in Whitby and drove on to the small fishing village of Staithes.  We had to park up and walk down the hill to reach the village.  It was absolutely charming and built within a steep gorge leading down to the sea.  Though a small place now, it has a big history.  At one time it had the largest herring fleet in England.  It is also where Captain Cook grew up as a child.  Close by, to the north of the village, is Boulby Head, which is the highest point (at 666 feet) on the east coast of England.  Of particular significance today though is Boulby potash mine, which is the deepest mine in England and extends right out under the North Sea.  We decided to have dinner here and found the Crab and Lobster on the beach.  The steak and ale pie was both delicious and huge.  It was cooked in proper short crust pastry, not the awful cap of flaky pastry on top of a reheated, pre-prepared dish of meat that so many pubs now serve.

 Staithes

We had ignored Samantha so much today.  Samantha is the lady who gives us our GPS directions.  She decided therefore to get her own back on us.  Our journey to Redcar, our destination for tonight, via Saltburn-by-the-Sea, should have been straightforward along the sea front.  We decided we ought to listen to her as we did not know exactly where our hotel was.  She directed us off the sea front, backwards and forwards (and a complete circle at one time) through lots of housing areas, until we reached the hotel - on the seafront!

The hotel is the most disappointing (but cheapest) so far.  It has heavy red patterned carpets, dark wood panels and rose wallpaper.  Parking at the back was only achieved by my pushing the large garbage container to one side to make a space.  Though I was disappointed with the quality of the bedding, when I mentioned it the receptionist and the manager, they pulled out all of the stops to satisfy me.  All credit to them.

Tomorrow we expect to reach the borders of Scotland and the land of my Fathers.