D23: English Coastal Path

D23:  WHITBY   to   ROBIN HOODS BAY

 Sunday 24th March 2019

   Today’s walk: 8.2    Total miles:  315.8

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   It’s now been six weeks since I last had the chance to walk along the coastal path. I’ve been focused on a few local walks near the coast and around the Cheviot hills, but now I’m looking forward to a few days walking from Whitby to Scarborough, in decent weather too. It seems the further down the coast I travel the more difficult it is to plan these walks. It’s not the walking, I always enjoy the walking, regardless of the weather. It’s actually the effort of getting back to the starting point and relying on public transport, that’s the hard part. This weekend includes several short bus journeys and a lot of faffing around. To start with I dropped Gemma off in Whitby. Then after a short drive South I parked the car a short distance from Boggle Hole youth hostel.

I then walked approximately 3/4 of a mile to the bus stop for the twenty minute journey back to Whitby. Bloody hell, all that effort just to get to the start of day one. Anyhoo after finally getting back to Gemma we set off through Whitby crossing the road bridge over the River Esk, before then climbing steeply up towards Whitby Abbey. Looking back down towards the town centre the streets are filled with people. It’s only a few minutes later and the town centre and the hoards are left behind. There’s several more of those shallow ravines that Gemma loves (not) to deal with. I quite like them, there’s usually a small stream or water feature running through, there very picturesque and a nice place to take a short break. We arrived in Robin Hoods Bay for a late lunch at ‘The Laurel Inn’. Robin Hoods Bay is yet another of those picture postcard fishing villages located along the North Yorkshire coastline. There’s a small sandy beach, lots of amenities and enough watering holes for a decent pub crawl, if that’s your thing. The name of the village is linked to the Bronze Age burial grounds dug on the North Yorkshire Moors, called Robin Hoods butts. The name has absolutely nothing to do with the Prince of Thieves. Soon after leaving Robin Hoods Bay via a steep cobbled embankment we continued along the Cleveland Way. I could see the cliffs heading further along the coast and the small cut in the cliffs which I believe leads into Boggle Hole. It’s only about a mile from Robin Hoods Bay to the Boggle Hole Youth Hostel. The ravine leading into Boggle Hole is fairly wide and there’s a much appreciated set of wooden steps leading right down to the front of the hostel.

The youth hostel is an amazing place, it’s quirky and located in an amazing location. After booking into the hostel Gemma sat in the lounge with an obligatory large glass of red whilst I walked the additional half mile to the car to recover our bags. The rest of the evening was sat in the lounge, drinking a few beers and chatting.

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