Towards the east coast

Travelling by road in the UK is easier than people think it will be. The network of dual carriage A roads is a real boon and it does appear that they have been sympathetically planted so that you can see the views and it also goes some way  to protecting local residents from the road noise; although probably not far enough, if our experience of the caravan park at Cromwell is anything to go by.

All this is to explain that getting from one place to another that is quite far away is reasonably straightforward. So our journey from Cromwell to Robin Hood's Bay was simple - apart from when the GPS took us through some very narrow roads that it had deemed were shorter/faster than A roads. And of course the descent into the top of the bluff that the main town/village of Robin Hood's Bay sits on - aaarrrggghhh!!! 

Very steep, very narrow, very winding therefore very nerve-wracking given it's a tourist destination with potential for lots of traffic of the big kind: motorhomes, caravans. We were safe from lots of traffic because we are not yet in the high season ...

We found the Middlewood Caravan Park courtesy of said GPS - and then proceeded to faff about finding a site that was level. The first one we were directed to was most unlevel and covered with large gravel which was too skid-inducing to be able to get up on to the levellers. So we moved to a grass site. A good move as it transpired because on the former we would have lost the sun by about 6pm instead of keeping it until it eventually set at about 9.45pm. And we had full sun all day from early morning. Result!

I made a curry for dinner - David says it was from nothing, i.e. I performed magic. But no I didn't. I just used what was available: some of Irene's spices, a can of coconut milk, tomato paste, tomatoes, onion, potatoes, capsicum, peas - whose bag had to be prised carefully off the bottom of the freezer compartment after thawing and refreezing down at Eastaway Manor when the fridge was on gas in the sunshine ... Still and all it was yummy with enough left over for David's dinner the next night (I had breakfast for dinner instead...)

After brunch (beans and egg on toast plus a very naughty but yummy slice of bacon for me) the next morning we set off to walk to the beach. 

Out through the back of the caravan site and then along a former railway track, out to the road and then along to the steep bit.

Bucolic scene, two of these are small draft horses.

Business owners and rich people's houses at the top of the hill.

The North Sea!!

 

The south part of the bay from the end of the old rail track walk

It was the quintessential village at the bottom of the cliff - all the workers' tiny cottages cheek by jowl down the hill and the business owners in spacious homes up the top on the flat. Robin Hood's Bay was a fishing village and a smugglers' haven.

Approaching the end of the upper level of the village - David still has his stick...

If we thought the road to the campsite was steep and narrow, this revised our opinion. I could have got the motorhome down and I could have turned around at the bottom (3 point turn) but why!
 

At the top of the steep descent

If the buildings aren't connected, there are ginnels between them, and all buildings are built on the slope. Steps and the street are available for walking - I found the slope easier both down and up.

A gargoyle above a garage door - nowhere near wide enough for a car, but probably fitted a cart years ago.

Low tide at the beach which definitely doesn't look like a beach. But the icecream van is there...

 

A superfluity of photos of David and me follows...

David had finished his icecream - did he have his stick in hand?

Apparently the tide covers all of this right up to where David and I were standing for the photos.

Cliff erosion is a real thing here - although we had thought it wouldn't be for some reason. The walls here are being reconstructed and reinforced. Where David is standing is within 5 feet of the back of a house.

Part of the reconstruction zone. I wonder how the diggers get off the beach as the tide comes in? Do they come along to the bottom of the street, or is there a specially created digger path up the cliff higher up the hill?

He didn't have 50p to move the binoculars. Does he have his stick?

On the way back, we explored an alternative path off the rail track. It took us into the village, so we decided to find the shop - it's through this ford and up the hill. Cool little shop where we bought what Marta and Olek tell us are the best brand of ready made pizza - strictly by accident of course ...

 

Now it is a tourist destination and well worth a visit and an explore. Many people stay a week there in B&Bs or holiday cottages. A few pubs to visit and quite a lot of interesting history and sights close by: walking, biking, driving.

However we have decided we are very poor tourists so a week would be 5 days too long for us. 

But we did want to see Whitby Abbey, so as we left Robin Hood's Bay, that's where we headed - with a slight detour back closer to RHB town so David could go and see if he could find the walking pole that he left behind somewhere the day before...

Success - he'd left it in the shop where he'd surreptitiously gone to pay for a sweatshirt that I bought. So the on line purchase of another matching pair the evening before was accomplished but unnecessary ...😆😜