Coast to Coast recovery

The past few days have been recovery days. We both were tired by the 13 days of walking/slogging across England. Moors and associated bogs, along with long days and many climbs, had taken their toll. The odd ache and pain didn't help, either.

We did have a bit of a sleep in on Saturday morning as we didn't get up until 7 o'clock. Normally we were up by 6:30 and sometimes earlier.

Even so, we were filling in time before we could respectively present ourselves for breakfast so went for a short stoll along relatively level roads. The day was sunny, a change from what we had experienced on our final walking day.

Breakfast was at 8:00 and Yrevor and I were the first to present ourselves. After cereal and yoghurt we had coffee, toast and a cooked breakfast. I had my usual scrambled eggs while Trevor had scrambled eggs with smoked salmon. The rest of our group who were staying at The Villa drifted in. Part way through breakfast Dave, our guide, accompanied by Ray turned up to say their farewells.

We still had some serious packing to do. Our room looked like it had been hit by a cyclone. we did manage to get everything sorted out and packed before 10 o'clock in between farewells from our walking companions.

Our car hire people were going to pick us up sometime between 10 and 11 and they arrived about 10:20. The first challenge was fitting us into the car with our luggage. There were four of us: Trev or and I and two from the car hire place. Add 3 cases and 2 packs and a relatively small car ... not nearly as bad as our departure from Lima in 1986 when there were a driver, 4 Wuths and all our luggage crammed into a VW Beetle but getting close.

The drive up from Robin Hoods Bay to Scarborough was pleasant and the helpful staff at Enterprise made the car collection process easy. We were soon off and heading our of Scarborough towards our home for the next couple of weeks. Whizzing along the country roads clearly demonstrated just how close each of the villages are. We were no sooner through one than the next appeared. I think the longest stretch of road without a village was after we turned off the A170 down the lane to our cottage. This was a narrow, no through country lane with almost no houses. We are almost 1 1/2 miles from the A170.

We arrived a little earlier than the time I was told the cottage would be available. It was being cleaned however everyone was very helpful directing us to the nearest small super market so that we could stock up on supplies.

Suitably supplied and with some lunch consumed we returned to the cottage and started re-organising our goods and chattles. Our highest priority was cleaning our dirty clothes. I'm not sure how many loads of wasking we ended up doing but it was quite a few.

By mid afternoon we decided that a slow, shortish walk would be in order and we set out with the aim of walking to Snaiton which should have been about 2kms away. Somehow we missed a turn and ended up walking past a pheasant nursery. Continuing on we decided that nothing looked right so turned around and retraced our steps. Oops, that fence we had climbed over had a sign "Private Property". As we had no idea where we were we figured that it was sensible to continue back the way we knew we had come. Passing all the pheasant shelters, which we recognised, we were in a quandary as we could not recognise any other features. We were pleased to see someone else walking, albeit with a couple of dogs (at least he wasn't carrying a loaded shotgun!) and as we approached him he greeted us with "Do you have the permission of the landowner to walk over this land?" He seemed to be preclated by our response of "We have managed to get ourselves horribly lost. We were intending to walk to Snainton but got off track and now are totally confused". He pointed us in the right direction and kept an eye on us until we left the very "Private Property" which may well have been his!

We will try to avoid irritating the local land owners over the coming few weeks!

To make up for our failure on foot we headed down to Snainton by car. Finding a place to park was a challenge and in the end we discovered quite a sizable car park adjacent to the church, but hidden from the road. We failed to find any relevant graves at Snainton for all our effort.


On Sunday morning Trevor woke up early, as usual. I had hoped to sleep in. That was not to be. After breakfast we headed into Scarborough to find the tourist information centre so that we could sort out activities to do during our stay. Suitably armed with information and then maps and Yorkshire walking guides, the latter purchased from a local bookshop, we headed back "home", stopping at one of the villages en route for a sunday lunch.

After lunch we decided to go for a walk and I opted not to go to Snainton as I did not want to risk running into "him" gain. instead we headed for Sawdon, a pleasant enough walk except when we tracked across a field full of sheep who produce more droppings than any other animal on earth. The weather started to turn unpleasant as we headed back. The wind was very gusty and we were pleased to eanter the shelter of a woodland only to realise that we had overshoot the end of our lane and were heading for you know where. We backtracked until we picked up a track leading to our lane and were very pleased to arrive back at our cottage without any further drama.

On Monday I managed to sleep in. I really had felt tired and I obviously needed the rest. It was almost midday before we ventured out. Trevor had selected a walk for the day: along the cliffs at Filey. Filey has a special significance at it is supposedly the place where the Malings lived when they first arrived from france before they moved up to Scarborough. We did visit the well occupied churchyard. The scenery was quite dramatic. The wind really challenged us as it was very strong making walking quite hard work. I will add photos although I don't expect them to be able to show just how dramatic this section of coastline really is.

Looking down on the bay and the tourist traps on the seafront

Looking across the bay to Filey Brigg

Trevor on one of the steps heading down towards the bay. Note the erosion on the cliffs up the top of the photo

And I am sure that the cliffs really are dangerous!

Looking back towards the posh part of Filey

Filey Brigg

Looking across the bay to the south

It must have been fun getting these yatchs up to their storage site

St Oswald's Church, Filey

On our return to Brompton by Sawdon, the nearest village to our cottage, we visited the local church as there are quite a number of my ancestor buried in the churchyard. We were surprised to find the church open. We spent some time looking around the interior before going out to hunt for my ancestors.

All Saints Chruch, Brompton by Sawdon

The 14th century font which would have been used to baptise a number of my ancestors

The font lid

The interior of All Saints

This door dates from the 12th century

It took quite some time for us to locate the graves but we eventually did. Working through the graves, removing ivy that was covering the inscriptions and transcribing the monumental inscriptions filled in the rest of the afternoon.

Tonight we headed off to the village of Wykeham for dinner and had a lovely meal in very pleasant surroundings.