D28: English Coastal Path

D28:  WITHERNSEA   to   KILNSEA

  Saturday 27th April 2019

Todays walk:  15.3        Total miles:  413.3

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    Another 6.30am start today. I left my camping spot and as usual my immediate thoughts were with getting something to eat. The low level eroded cliffs that I’ve followed for the last few days continued. In the distance I can see several wind turbines and even further away there’s the enormous Natural gas terminal near Easington. Initially the weather is light cloud but within the first hour it started to rain and this continued for most of the day. Not that heavy type of rain but more a light and persistent rain. When I reached the Northern boundary of the gas terminal I had to considered my options. I couldn’t see any way of dropping onto the beach and wasn’t sure if that was a safe option. The high fence around the terminal was very close to the edge of the cliffs and I didn’t want to risk going by that route either. So, although it wasn’t going to be visually interesting I decided to head towards the town of Easington. A few minutes later, around 7.30am as I skirted the terminal fence I caught sight of a security man headed in my direction. I checked my map quickly and made sure I hadn’t inadvertently stepped onto private property. I continued along happy that I was walking legally. When we eventually met he just looked me over and gave me a quick ‘Hello’ so I responded in kind.

    I don’t think I’m being paranoid but why would a security guard wander around at 7.30 in the morning in the crappy rain. There’s cameras all over the site and I think he was checking me out to ensure I wasn’t a security threat. I sat down at a bus shelter in Easington glad to get out of the rain for a short while. I really needed something to eat but couldn’t find anything in Easington. I continued walking along the road through Easington and then forwards towards Kilnsea. On arriving at Kilnsea I happened to stumble across the Spurn Discovery Centre, which importantly for me has a large cafe. It’s situated on the edge of Spurn Head which is a narrow spit of land heading out into the mouth of the Humber Estuary. It’s one of the most important locations for immigrating birds in the UK. The cafe had recently opened for the day and the two staff couldn’t have been more helpful. A wonderful full English breakfast.

    I had a long time ago decided that I was going to include Spurn Head in my walk, not entirely sure how it’s fits in with other coastal walkers plans but I decided to complete the additional 7 miles.

    I crossed the thinnest section of the spit which is sometimes cut off by the high tide and was then quickly walking along a nice flat tarmac road which I hadn’t expected. This leads all the way to the end of the spit where I passed the Spurn lighthouse and then the Humber pilot station. I spent some time walking around Spurn Head, it has an amazing history and I was enjoying myself just wandering around. I noticed on the path there were thousands of small caterpillars on a seven hundred metre section and I hopped between them as best as I could. I arrived back in Kilnsea and returned to the Discovery centre for another mug of coffee.

I had originally planned on camping again but the constant rain was putting me off. I noticed the Spurn bird observatory on my way here and it offers hostel type accommodation. A quick telephone call and I was booked in for one night. It wasn’t too far away and I arrived late afternoon. On arrival I was met by a couple of other men who seemed to be very excited and were running around in the grounds of the hostel. It turns out that the hostel is a hub for bird watchers and twitchers.

I later made the amateur mistake of calling a bird watcher a twitcher, it turns out there two different things and calling a serious bird watcher a twitcher is actually an insult. I’ve been duly educated. After making myself an evening meal I retired to bed reasonably early. There was lots of chatter in the hostel lounge and I’d usually have joined in, unfortunately it was all about birds and I had little to add to the conversation.

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