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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 2889 |
8th July 2017 Hiking - Walking: Lealholm and Wheeldale Roman Road. Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: Sunny and hot :) Max Speed: Distance Covered: Friday 7th July - Sightseeing and travel – cloudy but with nice sun rise and sunset! Mag woke early and got to see a sun rise!! It clouded over pretty quickly after that but hey! We had a good night in our lovely lay by right on the cliff top at Howick. The road was really quiet and we only had one toot! After breakfast, we made our way down the tiny steep (and quite slippery with mud!) path down to the beach to explore the great rock plateaus and pools. I wanted to show Mag the nesting Kittiwakes and Fulmars which were only just below the van but from above you were completely unaware of. We have now seen literally millions of kittiwakes, babies and smelly nests but they are something quite special to see. After a good look, round we made our way back up the path and drove off to explore the coast road but to also make quite a dent into the miles south. We also managed to find our first Lidl of the trip so stopped to stock up. Our first detour was around the mouth of the river Aln at amazingly Alnmouth. It was really pretty with a small harbour, brightly coloured boats and a sandy beach stretching away in the distance to Amble which was our next detour. This is all ‘Vera’ country and the tv series is set all along this stretch of coast. Amble is the small town nearest to Coquet Island and we stopped to take some photos of the island which is not far off shore. Again, another lovely sandy beach with free car parks all along the top of the dunes. Back in the van we made for Seaton Sluice – not a very charming name but quite a quaint village and also somewhere where we had been told (by a lady at the standing stones we visited last week) the cast and crew of Vera were filming. We had our lunch – the most amazing walnut and fig bread from Lidl. Basically, we demolished the whole loaf (it wasn’t that big honest!). We went for a walk around the small and quaint harbour and ventured under the road bridge which took the river into what looked like a canal. We met a lovely old lady out for a walk who told us that Vera and her gang had been here for 4 days last week but were definitely gone now :( Back to the van again we carried on, on a strip of coast which starts with Seaton Sluice but is quickly followed by Whitley Bay (very built up and not very inspiring), Cullercoats (the posh end) and ending with Tynemouth which was very nice and had a castle ruin on the last headland before the Tyne river mouth. The whole place had been taken over by a music festival taking place over this weekend - starting with Elbow last night. A sound check for a woman singer (who we had never heard of) was taking place as we paid for an hours parking and walked down to the beach and out along the very long North Pier head. We really enjoyed it but were exhausted from covering such a lot in the allotted hour!! Back in the van Mag suggested we headed for Saltburn by the Sea where we stopped 10 nights ago – one because it is really nice and two we know we can definitely park there. The third draw was the fish and chip shop which we had heard was excellent and we haven’t as yet treated ourselves with the £20 note my Dad gave us ‘for our holiday’ bless him :) I thought it was too far and was keen to head for something closer but as she pointed out to get anywhere closer entailed driving through several metropolises including Sunderland and that wasn’t a pleasant prospect at rush hour on a Friday!! We stuck to the A19 (including going through the Tyne Tunnel for a £1.70 toll – well worth it) and couldn’t believe that we were at beautiful Saltburn within the hour and parked up on the cliffs with outstanding views over the sea and looking down on the old pier. We had a cuppa and relaxed for a while then set off down the cliff path, past the old Saltburn cliff railway and to the famous chip shop. We were expecting it to be super extortionate prices but were pleasantly surprised when the delicious, hot and tasty cod and chips came to £12.70. We sat on the prom on a seat (with no death flowers – hoorah) and ate them watching kids at football practice on the beach. It was low tide but they were still getting wet feet collecting the ball :) Tiny children in wellies playing near the pier and a photography club waiting for the sun to do its thing – going down behind the pier with the wet sand making an added dimension. I was very sceptical because from where we sat it didn’t look like much but when one man took his shoes and socks off and set his tripod up in the sea I thought I should go and take a look. It was actually brilliant and I joined in and managed to get one shot which included the photography club equally spaced against the struts of the pier!!! Met another photographer who doesn’t live too far away from here and we ended up walking up onto the pier with him and his wife. I had a little lens envy as he had all the gear but it does look like a lot of messing around – he must have changed the lenses over around 10 times. We waited for the glorious sunset and watched as some men tried to retrieve a tractor which had broken down on the beach late last night. They had gone out to bring in a fishing boat whose engine also then failed!! Apparently, the RNLI had to rescue the men because they tried to get it all sorted for just a bit too long on the incoming tide! Around 2 hours later and life stories exchanged we vowed to become Facebook friends and headed back to the van!! It was a really lovely evening and very different from our usual routine :) Photo Gallery here Saturday 8th July - Sightseeing ang travel – Walks **** Lealholm and Wheeldale Roman Road. Sunny and hot :) Top night on the cliff top at Seaburn-by the- Sea and were joined by a few other campers including a German couple right next door. Woke to clear blue skies with the tide low, not even reaching the end of the pier! Although awake early we didn’t have breakfast on a seat on the prom until 10.15 after watching our neighbours doing synchronised yoga! We had yet another nice chat with a couple walking a friend’s dog who originally came from Essex and my tea went cold! We are now going to make a bit of a detour on the way home to visit the lovely Arlo George in Surrey but don’t want to travel too far on a weekend so we headed inland to the North York Moors National Park. We soon came to our first cattle grid as the moors stretched out in front of us with loads of silly sheep laying right by the side of the road! This section of moor didn’t last long as we entered beautiful green rolling countryside following the River Esk through some pretty little villages. First stop Lealholm with a free carpark and map of a short walk around the village which we followed. It had some nice old drinking water pumps, sadly not working as we are getting low of water, past a quaint plant nursey, a tea room with knitted stuff in the trees etc to a small chapel that lead to some cool stepping stones across the Esk:) The narrow road undulated up and down past more nice stone villages by the river with loads of railway bridges. We then came to a sign for a Roman Road so followed that and were soon back on the wild open moors with the purple heather making a good show especially by the roadside. We stopped by a line of round stone sheep shelters then dropped down to a ford popular with the kids for a paddle. The sign to the Roman Road at Wheeldale appeared and having read the information board it appears they are not sure if it is a Roman Road or not but it is definitely an ancient rock paved road slightly raised above ground level in the middle of nowhere! Just down the road we met the stream again with its bubbling brown water and this would have been a good spot to stop but for some reason we carried on. We arrived at the busy Pickering after passing the stream train station and kept going to look at Danby Forest Drive which is a toll road through the wood. I was intrigued so went to have a look and were shocked to find it cost £8!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To get through the barrier which lead to a tea room, a Go Ape and marked cycle routes so we gave that a big miss because there are hundreds of free forests around here. We were now turning away from the nice countryside towards York and as it was such a lovely hot sunny day we decided to return to the ford in the moor for a picnic by the stream:) Lucky for us just past Pickering the level crossing gates shut so we stopped the van and got out to see the Stream train come past – it was strangely named ‘John’s 70th Birthday Special’ we can only assume that it was Johns Birthday treat? A car had parked where we wanted to go but we found a better spot right near the stream with fantastic moor views. Mag made lovely beef sandwiches which we ate by the water then spent the afternoon enjoying the warm sunshine, reading and dozing. I was disturbed by a couple with three dogs going bonkers in the water so I returned to the van for a cuppa and muffin. Then the dog owner spoke to us for ages and for the second time today my cuppa went cold! We then went for long walk along the Roman road which was a bit boggy in places and four cars had parked up and erected 5 tents by the stream ignoring the no camping sign, so that made us feel better about staying the night! On returning to the van we had to wash our feet in the stream before Mag cut up whatever she could find in the fridge for tea and we ate it outside. The sun finally disappeared behind the moor at 9.30 and we had a nice sunset and there hasn’t been a car for ages, should be a quiet night:) – haha they have just let fireworks off!!! Morons!!! Poor old sheep :( |
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