Heading North for a 'Little' 36 Night 'Holiday' Day 10 - 14

Heading North for a 'Little' 36 Night 'Holiday' Day 10 - 14

Friday 25th🌧️🌧️🌧️🌧️🌧️🌧️ and Saturday 26th June ⛅⛅⛅⛅🌞🌞

Well, there's absolutely nothing to say about Friday except maybe to comment about the atrocious weather!  The rain hammered down all day, the wind howled as if it was winter and it was cold🥶, so it really wasn't worth doing anything except to stay warm in the van and have a duvet day.

Dead boots with
soul departing!

But Saturday was a lot better weather wise and for that day we had a bit of a mission!  If you read our last post you'll know my hiking boots died while we were out walking, so today's task was to replace them but when we investigated we found that there were very few shops in the area where this was likely to be possible!  Our choice was either Whitby or Scarborough, and we chose the latter but 'boy oh boy' was it busy when we got there!  We parked on the Marine Drive which divides the North and South Shore, and  passed by the old Toll House and we later learnt that both have quite an interesting history!

The Drive was constructed mainly as a sea defence but nothing really went to plan and the building of it had constant setbacks as the sea attacked the site on more than one occasion.  The work on it's construction started on March 30th 1897 and was carried out by hundreds of men along with steam-powered cranes, and the initial expected end date should have been 3 years later but in actual fact it took 10 years, 10 months and 10 days to complete!

The 'last' stone was laid on October 1st 1904 but the following January much of the work was undone as a huge storm washed away most of the North Pier, and after that the repairs weren't completed until January 1908. More damage befell the Drive a few days later when a 400 foot section of the wall moved seaward by about 16 inches leaving a huge crack that prevented it from being fully opened to the public until the following April and by then the total cost had doubled to £124,700!  And even the tolls didn't really help to recoup any of the overspend because between 1908 and 1909 they only amounted to £1,892.  Tolls were one penny for each person walking, riding a horse or bicycle, travelling in a carriage, motor car or bath-chair, but if you were on a motor cycle the price rose to two pence plus one penny for each person riding or wheeling the machine.  It seems the tolls were suspended during the Second World War and the pedestrian toll was never resumed, and later, the vehicle toll was abolished in December 1950!  However, the Drive still makes lots of money for Scarborough Town Council in the form of Rob 🐕parking charges that are quite extortionate!

Eventually we managed to fight our way through the 'madding crowd' and into the towns shopping precinct but initially we thought we'd had a wasted journey!  Mountain warehouse had nothing but tat and one of the other shops we'd planned to visit had closed down completely😭.  But then we spied Millet's, and it wasn't much longer after that that we were leaving with a very nice pair of Gortex Merrell Walking Boots which were a lot of 'Wonga 💰' but that was offset slightly by the fact that the very nice young man who assisted us told us that we were entitled to a  15% discount for being CCC members.  

After all that it was lunch time but rather than joining the masses down by the sea front we found a bench high up on the cliffs overlooking the North Shore while we enjoyed our picnic in the very warm sunshine. 

Sunday 27th June 2021  ⛅⛅⛅⛅⛅⛅🌞⛅

Well now I'd got my new boots I needed to try them out and to do so we decided to drive the short distance down to Boggle Hole and then walk along the Cleveland Way to Ravenscar (we could have walked from the campsite but that would have added an extra mile and a half and we'd have had to risk being eaten alive by the marauding horse flies who've already managed to catch me more than once😫).  Added to that I really didn't fancy the cure for said bites - John informed me that Ammonia is supposed to help relieve the itching so he volunteered  his 'pee' but I didn't need long to think about that before I hurriedly😧😂 declined

And the boots? Just about perfect and so far I think worth every penny - but my final verdict will have to be postponed until I've tried them in inclement weather!

Our walk took us over undulating coastal path with constant stunning views of the coastline and Ravenscar itself always loomed in front of us but sometimes hidden by low clouds that initially shrouded it.

But before we reached our goal we also had the opportunity to learn about the old Alum Works that lie on the coast about a mile from Ravenscar. I hadn't really got the foggiest idea what Alum was or what it was used for but the info boards soon informed us that it's a crystal containing aluminium sulphate produced by a chemical process.  However, the process by which it was extracted was long and arduous and required 'shale' to be quarried from rock and then burned in brushwood heaps that towered 100 foot high and 200 foot long and these fires had to be kept going for nearly a year!  This produced an acid which converted the aluminium sulphate into a soluble form and after several more processes crystals were produced which were then ground into a 'flour' that was used as a fixing agent in the textile dyeing industry and as a preservative for tanning leather.  Alum was one of Britain's first chemical industries and in the 17th and 18th centuries there were over 30 alum producing sites that produced 5,000 tons of alum a year!  

After a couple of hours walking we reached Ravenscar and initially we'd planned to go on a bit further to the old RAF Radio station but as a very convenient picnic bench presented itself we took advantage of that instead!  And we also took advantage of the Ravenscar National Trust Visitor's Centre which sold exceedingly nice ice cream!

The history of Ravenscar describes how in the early 1900s plans were made to turn the village into a tourist resort to rival nearby Scarborough.  Apparently roads were made, foundations were laid and sewers were dug, but the expansion of the village never happened and that seemed to be because it lacked popularity due to the long trek down  it's rocky beach.  

In the fullness of time the plans were abandoned and the company responsible for the development went bankrupt but today parts of the unfinished village remain in the form of eerily quiet streets in which nobody has ever lived!

Monday 28th June 2021🌞🌞🌞⛅⛅⛅🌞🌞🌞

This morning chores had to be completed in preparation for moving on to our next destination tomorrow but that was all done by about 11am so that left plenty of time for another walk up up and up on Filingdale Moor.  However, this time we took the car and drove the short distance (about a mile and a half) to the start point of our walk because that meant we could walk further once we actually got up onto the moor.  

You can just see the ascending path that we would need to climb on our way back
and this pic hides the huge climb we'd just made!

Some of our walk covered familiar ground as we headed down to Jugger Howe Beck where spectacularly coloured dragon flies buzzed and frogs hopped but after that we climbed steeply up for a very long way and that took us onto a huge plain of heather clad moor land where birds and butterflies of many different shapes and sizes called and danced.  

A Tiny Fritillary Butterfly enjoying the sunshine

And what we thought might be a Plover singing his little heart out!

And there were also one or two other species up there!

Tuesday 29th June 2021 🌞⛅⛅🌞⛅⛅⛅

This morning we were up fairly early for us and nipping round packing away bits and bobs and our awning in preparation for our move north to South Meadows Caravan Park in Belford Northumberland.  But before we could start our journey properly we had the dreaded rough hilly and bumpy three quarters of a mile track to negotiate first.  A couple of our fellow campers had complained that they'd caught the undercarriage of their vans as they approached the site but we'd been okay on our journey in!  However, we weren't quite so lucky going the other way despite my excellent chauffeur crawling along at a 🐌 pace!  As we passed through one of the unavoidable dips we heard something scrape and on later inspection it seems it was the jockey wheel - it now has a big gouge in it's tyre😠, but oh well, I suppose it could have been worse!

Now, as I'm tapping out these words we're flitting along the A1 looking for a coffee stop but even with The Angel of the North looking down on us parking places are in very short supply!😭

A bit of a wonky pic but my excuse is I had to take it as we speeded by!

And it wasn't until we were within about 40 miles of our destination that we did eventually find a road side lay-by that had to suffice as today's dining room and somewhere to pass a bit of time because it was still to early (12.30ish) to pole up at our next campsite.  However, this stopping place required us to have lunch in bed because my bike seemed to have taken over our usual dining space! 

So now we've only got about 20 miles to go and we've got everything 🤞that this new site won't present such a challenging access as the last one but I'll have to let you know later!!

Well, it's quite a bit later now and we're well settled in at South Meadows Camp Site  which is fairly huge compared to what we're used to! However, the site is set out in avenues with pitches located on either side and our pitch in particular is divided from the others by low hedges so we have our own little 'garden' for the duration of our 10 night stay. Additionally, access was incredibly easy, and it's only a few mins walk to the nearest shop which is in Belford, so all in all we're quite happy with our new home!

Wednesday 30th June 2021  ☁☁☁☁☁⛅⛅⛅

Today we couldn't quite decide what to do!  Should we🚴‍♀️🚴‍♂️ or should we🚶🚶but because it was quite blustery and dull the latter won out.  So after a bit of a lazy morning and some frustrating phone calls regarding our caravan insurance we set off in the car aiming for a local free car park that would allow us to walk to Budle Point.  The path took us along some of Northumberland's amazing coast line and  provided us with fantastic views back towards Bamburgh Castle, and in a northerly direction, we were looking across the wide open spaces of Ross Sands, that in the far distance, gave way to Holy Island and the Farne Islands.  

It also gave me the opportunity to practice with my new camera which is a Canon Power Shot that has up to x80 zoom, however it wobbles an awful lot when the lens is fully extended and I haven't quite got to grips with my new mono-pod yet!

The very beautiful and windswept beach that when covered in water would 
be Budle Water

The Monetary on Holy Island, Lindisfarne!
Apparently we were stood 5 and a half miles away - Its just a shame the light was so poor!
 

The Light House on the Inner Farne Island - and that looked as if it was even further away!

The White Painted Stag on what is locally known as Stag Rocks. 

On our way back we stopped to admire the White Stag that is painted onto the rocks just below Bamburgh Lighthouse (which happens to be England's most northerly land-based lighthouse), and it seems there are many stories about why it's there!  Some say it marks the escape of a white deer which jumped into the sea after running away from a hunt in nearby Spindlestone, some say it was painted by Italian prisoners-of-war during World War Two and some think maybe a local artist painted it in the early 1900's, but apparently quite recently it was given a new coat so it now stands out very clearly!

After we'd had our picnic lunch overlooking the beach we thought we might visit Seahouses but when we got there it was very busy and our chances of parking were about zero so we carried on to another windswept spot at Beadnell and there we had a short walk which took us to the old Limekilns which now seem to be a store for lobster pots!

The kilns date back to 1798 and in their heyday would have produced at least a thousand cart loads of lime each year that was taken away by sea from the tiny harbour.

Looks like the boats must have been quite small to get out of that little mouth!

And after that we were 'homeward bound' for tea and cake so I think that's about all I've got to say for another episode!

So bye for now 😘

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