Tag: terns

South from our base at Cayton Bay

Bessy decided she wanted a trip to the East Coast, to see if the wind off the North sea was any warmer than off the Irish Sea. After a week, there is no clear winner, both are as freezing as the other! Benny was happier, several days were sunny so he was able to put the roof down and cruise the country lanes, some days it was just too windy!!

Filey

Our first day trip out was south to Filey, a quaint small seaside town, with traditional accommodation on a hillside village, with very little of the hustle and bustle of bigger coastal towns. We visited on a Sunday afternoon when the brass band was performing on the bandstand to a green full of people in deckchairs and on benches. Several coffee shops were open so we had to indulge in tea and cake!

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Bridlington

Further down the coast from Filey was this small town, nicknamed the “Lobster Capital of Europe”.

This place is a working fishing village but more famously known for its stunning beaches, child heaven!! We briefly stopped here, just to admire the coastline.

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Flamborough Head – Seal Spotting!!

No trip to this side of the coast is complete without a stop at Flamborough Head, well worth the small parking fee to blow away any cobwebs, spot the basking seals and admire the fabulous coastal scenery.

Flamborough Head is a high point of land that juts out into the sea, 8 miles long on the Yorkshire coast, it is a chalk headland with sheer white cliffs. The cliff top has two standing lighthouse towers, the oldest dating from 1669-74, making it the oldest lighthouse in England. It was made from chalk but it was NEVER lit! Flamborough Head Lighthouse (no 2) is a working structure and was finished in 1806. You can still see it working today.

The scenery here was amazing, this formation is called “the drinking dragon” – when the tide is in and at the right angle it looks like a dragon drinking from the sea. Its “tail” has steep paths down to the beach but no-one was heading down there as there were seals nearby!

Just beyond the dragon’s spine, we were lucky enough to spot a large “family” of basking seals, some grey babies, mainly adults. A ‘knowledgeable’ man passing by suggested there was a pod of over 100, they come up onto the rocks to digest their food. The odd barking sounds were different to anything we have ever heard before.

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We were lucky enough to see several birds wheeling around, puffins nest here until the end of September and sea terns were diving into the shallow waters to scoop up small fish.

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Heading North to Scarborough

Scarborough is a typical seaside town, an old fishing village that still has a lively daily fish market but also has lots of arcades, takeaway food shops and sweet shops! We walked down to the harbour and got a lift up to the town on the tram railway, all for the sum of £2.20!

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We went to the theatre one evening, sadly most of the decent restaurants closed on a Monday and/or Tuesday night so we had to make do with Wetherspoons!

Robin Hood’s Bay

Visited here one chilly Sunday, didn’t realise how steep a road could be! Just as we were about to head into a cafe for lunch, a Morris dance group arrived and performed their first dance for 18 months, you could tell – some of the men were a bit stiff and had forgotten the moves!

Robin Hood’s Bay is spectacular, amazingly small narrow streets that run up and down a very steep hill, ideal for olde worlde smugglers in years gone by…..would I like to live there? No thanks, far too much pressure on the calf muscles!!

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And finally, Whitby!

We visited Whitby twice, once to get on a steam train, the second time to do the tourist visit. We were a little disappointed with the beach, grey and full of debris, perhaps the grey weather didn’t help. The narrow streets were heaving with scantily clad people, despite it being chilly that day.

Whitby is another town split by the estuary entrance, one side is the main town, railway station and tourist centre, the other is the Abbey and Whitby House remains with a smaller village below, 199 steps up to the Abbey!

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