The North East Coast.

Hornsea is a town that time forgot.  There are no chains! Heaven! It a gem of a seaside town and where our friend Mike grew up. It’s full of nice restaurants and coffee shops and of course hundreds of chippys, where we had the children’s menu Battered Veggie sausages and chips. Why don’t they do a adult portion? Who knows ….

We had a great time with Mike and 3 days off in his lovely new house despite the seagulls pebble dashing Mikes car each day in a very strange Welcome to Hornsea move.

We left Mike reluctantly and tried to stop for food on route at Burton Agnes Hall, a grand stately home, but for some unknown reason you have to pay an entrance fee to get to the cafe shop and garden centre. What? Is this the new Crapitalism, where we have to pay an entrance fee before we can actually buy something?

Linda did the ‘This is the only place to get food all day and we are cycle touring, don’t be a dickhead” routine, well she may not have said the last part, but I guarantee she thought it! and then the receptionist asked for proof we were cycling touring. So I was summoned from the car park and would you know it, a tandem with panniers will get you into the cafe for free but with a stern warning not to venture anywhere else. What a strange experience.  Nice soup though… 

Bridlington was next the stop for a lovely catch up with Karen, a old work colleague and her husband Rob in Bridlingtons old town, which was a street full of old fashioned shops and really cute.   The new town was not so nice and we didn’t really like the seafront much either, we’d been spoilt by Hornsea!

This is a fabulous coast but we left our rather poor Airbnb in wet mist.  We headed to Flamborough Head where we could barely see our cup of tea let alone the lighthouse but the sun crept through for a few minutes to allow us a brief glimpse of the sea and the lighthouse before the mist returned, which given Linda’s fear of edges was probably not a bad thing.

This route is more on the road, not big  A roads, but it’s very touristy here so even small roads have ejits in huge SUV’s everywhere and we had more close passes on a 2km section of road than we’ve had all trip – even with our flag out. Simply appalling driving.

But we legged it in double quick time and managed to get onto the tiny lanes again where we adopt the policy of take the lane else the SUV will squeeze past you and take the skin off your elbow.  We do pull over to let them past, but the amount of time we make them wait depends on the type of driver behind.  Most are really patient and sit well back, so we stop quickly, some are right up your pannier rack and they have to wait much longer for us to find a suitable spot to pull over.

We stopped for lunch in Filey on the sea front which was excellent and the cafe was ‘Cash Only’. We’ve seen that an awful lot up here, so much so we’ve had to get some cash out! I bet the VAT man doesn’t like it!

Filey was another lovely seafront town and we really will have to come back up here again for a longer visit. It’s actually in two levels, a promenade by the sea and cliff top promenade above. As the cycle route was on the top we didn’t venture down to the seafront, but the gardens at the top were gorgeous, even if the weather was still overcast and murky.

From there we headed into Scarborough. We’ve never been here before and it really impressed us! So many bridges and hills, but a gorgeous sea front and lovely buildings. But the weather was closing in after a brief flirtation with summer and we headed on to our campsite (hiding from a shower along the way) and managed to set up tent in a field on our own before the drizzle returned.

One thing we hate about camping is having to go to the loo ovenight, but we read recently that we should think about this night time call of nature as an opportunity to behold natures wonders, namely the night sky. So as I stood in the field, hoping I was missing my feet, I gazed up at the stars which were so bright being in the countryside and with little light pollution. Neat trick.

The next days cycle had barely gone 250m before the Yorkshire Numpty for the day award was claimed by the SUV driver who patiently waited behind us for the requisit 3 seconds and for the double white lines, the blind bend and the crest of the hill to all align in perfect symmetry and then decided to overtake, ironically giving us plenty of room but forcing  the car coming the other way to screech to halt and blare their horn in disbelief as the lady driver past wide and didn’t even bother getting back into our lane until I really thought she would hit the other car. She had miles of room to get back, but ignored everything and just did what she wanted to. The oncoming car driver and passenger looked aghast at me and we both exchanged looks of disbelief.  Normal driving for Yorkshire we’re beginning to think.

We’ve had some amazing Airbnbs this trip but have started to encounter properties that have embraced Crapitalism fully.  No towels, but we’ll still ask £100 a night. A damage deposit fee paid direct to our bank accounts of £500 before they’ll accept your booking and if you can’t stump up the cash then you can buy insurance for £35. For one night. And to top it all they charge an admin fee for refunding you the deposit of £10. What next? Are we heading back to the days when you had to put 50p in the meter to get electricity?

But this is a general spread of Crapitalism throughout the west, charge you more offer you less, downsize it but keep the packet the same size, you’ll soon be buying a family packet of Maltesers with one Malteser in!

And we’ve seen the ‘tins’ of quality street and Heroes etc making an early appearance for Christmas up here.  When these first appeared they were 1.2kg’s, now they are 550grams.  Stop it Jon..a JOO in the making!

I digress… After our close pass we headed a few hundred meters to the Scarborough to Whitby railway cycle path – it’s called the Cinder Track.  This is a picturesque coastal route with some amazing views, but the 20km to Robin Hoods Bay took us over 2 hours.

The track is in places excellent, but being cinder, whenever there’s an incline – and there are some serious inclines on this stretch- the cinder tends to get washed away exposing rocks and cricket ball sized stone. Presumably the hardcore from the railway.  It’s then dodgy to cycle on Tilly so lots of walking ensued, surprisingly more downhill than up!

The trains here had to take a run up to crest the climbs and sometimes had to have more than one go – it’s over 3% in places which is steep for a train.

It is a wonderful route and the view of Robin Hoods Bay was amazing. Slow, but well worth it. Linda wasn’t feeling well that day so we didn’t venture down into the village as that involved a very steep walk both ways and carried on to Whitby, leaving the Cinder trail and headed to the Abbey, perhced on top of the hill overlooking the river, the town and the sea.

The ruins are very imposing and visible for miles around and the route down into the town, the old Donkey Trail, is cobbled and so steep we couldn’t even roll down it and had to hop off and walk but it took us right into the narrow lanes and old world charm of Dickensian Whitby. And the heaving masses too.  I’d hate to see it on a Saturday in August!

We loved it, and found a chippy (well you have to don’t you) that did cocktails and veggie sausages and who were happy to invite Tilly inside whilst we ate in their restaurant. Result.

Our Airbnb was another gem and we left refreshed but dreading our next day, which for Hillphobics like us was ridiculously hilly.

In fact it was so hilly the Tour De Britain were doing 2 of our climbs themselves for King of the Mountain trophies, and one of them they took the main road which was actually less steep and climbed less than our cycle route 1.. Bloomin Wimps!

Forgetting the hills, it’s a fabulous cycle with some gorgeous scenery and we wound our way through small lanes and bits of railway track, through Cornish like villages tucked away on the coast and up into the moors. By the end of the day we’d climbed nearly 700m in 40km, which for us is ludicrous and about what we hope to do in a week!

Despite leaving Whitby about 2 hours before the Tour, we arrived at Redcar 2 hours after they did. I’m blaming route 1’s big hill and our stop for lunch to watch them crawl past on the way up the hill. I reckon our tandem friends Matilda’s crew would have had them on that incline, no probs.

We’d had pretty decent weather until we neared Redcar and the weather closed in and the world seemed to switch to black and white.  By the time we arrived in Redcar the only people outside were smoking pot in doorways before rushing inside to the dry.

It really was a scene from a bleak January evening, with the rain going sideways and the wind turbines offshore getting some serious turns in.

Redcar doesn’t look a gem of a seaside town, but had very nice restaurant on the prom where we downed a pint and a pizza, before retiring to our hotel. 

The morning was another seriously windy and wet day – for all our American viewers Climate Change isn’t a conspiracy dreamed up by Bill Gates, this is the effect of it and we’ve  really noticed that this year we’ve had far more windy days than we can ever rember on a cycle trip before – and we are big Windy day moaners as you know!

Anyway, the wind was  behind us all the way and we blew into Middlesbrough – which has some amazingly grand buildings and the Transporter bridge located on the National Cycle route.

This bridge is like a flying carpet suspended from gantry and you get on and the carpet flies across to the other side, saving you and cars an 18km detour. Naturally it was closed. And had been for many years whilst they decided how to repair it. No diversions signs in evidence anywhere, but as it was a few hundred meters from our hotel this wasn’t a problem.

After heading in land we trudged back towards the sea and stopped at a cafe that was closed, but open according to Mr Google, with a group for people sitting on a wall outside. The northerners really are a friendly bunch and they immediately struck up a conversation and the cafe owner was there too. I think they were redecorating or something, but she asked us if we wanted coffees and then went inside and brought us out some lovely coffee and wouldn’t take anything for them.  That was so nice and very welcome.

So onto Seaton Carew for a day off next and a plan of where we head onto.  We’re so cheesed off with all the barriers and the constant on and off the bike on the supposed cycle routes, we’re thinking about another  change of plans….