RSPB Bempton Cliffs

And then we decided because we couldn’t see the cliffs, we’d go and take a closer look!

As we drove towards the Bempton Cliffs RSPB reserve, we were dubious about whether we would be able to see anything as the mist we had seen from Filey was very evident, but the car park was packed, so we got some advice on where to go and set off to the viewing platforms.

We could see the cliffs absolutely covered in birds and they were everywhere in the sky offshore coming in and out to feed their young.  We identified gannets, guillemots, razorbills and kittiwakes but no puffins.  It wasn’t possible to differentiate the dots in the water below. At the third platform we visited one brave puffin was sitting high on the cliff, grabbing the limelight, especially when the school trip arrived.

We headed out to the main gannet colony and were rewarded with dramatic views along the cliffs and with thousands upon thousands of gannets.  At the farthest viewing platform, we also saw puffins very close up near the top of the cliffs and see their orange feet as they flew in and out from nests further below.

Day 8 - Staxton Hill to Filey, 10.6m

We set off from the car park at the top of Saxton Hill with a short walk along the verge to the track which approaches the very unattractive Saxon Wold RAF station via a very smelly and noisy pig farm.  The track then goes down a wooded lane before turning up a very steep climb (once again it was a loose surface which made it harder to negotiate).  Coming out at the top felt rather like popping up from a rabbit hole.

The next section was straight to the road.  Straight meant climbing up and down a few small hills.  For the most part it was sheep country and attractive chalk valleys but there was also a very wet barley field where the farmer hadn't mowed the path so we were glad to have decided to wear boots but still wet over our knees. At the road we got a real treat, we'd spoken to a lady from Nottingham in a camper van the previous day who was meeting her Wolds Way walking husband at regular intervals.  He had just arrived and it was coffee time so we sat on their camping chairs and had a cup of coffee.  

From the road the path dropped down into our last chalk valley and the end of the sheep country, before turning along our last chalk valley which was unusual in that the path was through low shrubs and lots of flowers.

We left the chalk through a field with young heifers, the first we had seen as the cattle on the chalk are bulls.  We walked along the main road through the village of Muston and turned back into the fields past a row of cottages at the end of the village.  It had been trying to rain since not long after we left our coffee stop, but it was very light and sporadic, so we had managed with umbrellas. Just as we arrived at the main A165 crossing only 2 miles from our destination, there was a more serious shower, so we decided to shelter at the gate onto the main road and put on our waterproofs for the walk across to Filey.

When we reached the sea front it had stopped raining and we had a good view of Filey Brigg at the north side of the harbour, but the chalk cliffs to the south which we had seen from a distance earlier in the day had completely disappeared.  The sea-themed crazy golf was impressive - especially the lobster!

When we reached the Country Park, we spent quite a while working out where the monument which ends the trail was located.  We arrived at the same time and were completely upstaged by 3 ladies who had just completed the 110-mile Cleveland Way, which finishes at the same spot.  We went off to sign the route finishers' book at the café before meeting the couple from the motor caravan heading for their finish photo.

And then we decided because we couldn’t see the cliffs, we’d go and take a closer look!  (see next post)

Day 7 - West Heslerton to Staxton Hill, 8.9m

After another day off yesterday because of rain, today looked like it would be a lovely day, and so it turned out.  It can be difficult to find suitable locations to park a car at the start and end of a section and today's section was shorter than we'd have liked as a result.  We were rewarded almost immediately with wonderful views over the vale of Pickering, though the down side of heading east along the northern scarp is the road noise from the nearby A64.

A little further on, we came across a man spraying his potato crop.  He very kindly stopped so that we wouldn't have to breathe the spray as we walked past.  More wonderful views followed. This section of the walk is much more reminiscent of the North and South Downs than anything we have seen so far.

 There have been lots of amazing wildflowers along the route, but today's displays were extra special.

There were lots of interesting things to see including a small golf course run by a pig farmer, right next to his pigs!  And more picturesque and less smelly, the "French Victorian" Ganton Hall and St Martin's Church, Ganton, where we stopped for lunch.

After that, it was a steady climb through more fields of wheat and barley to the end of today's walk at Staxton Hill.  We were very glad that our climb up the scarp was much more gradual than the road, which has 'select low gear NOW' signs at the top and bottom and has escape lanes!

Day 6 - Wharram-le-Street to West Heslerton, 9.1m

We set off early this morning with the idea of beating the forecast rain.  The path from Wharram-le-Street climbs steadily up a farm track and we were delighted to see a couple of hares frolicking ahead of us and even more delighted to be able to capture them on camera!  The top of the hill provided great views over the surrounding countryside.

Road walking, track walking and more track walking gradually brought us close to the village of Wintringham. June is a great time to walk the route with lots of wild flowers in the field boundaries predominantly white and pink with occasional splashes of red poppies. The difference today was that we were out of sheep and bull country; all the farmland is arable.

The path continues through a potato field towards Wintringham, where the path cunningly bypasses the village.  We enjoyed meeting the Wintringham pig, complete with tusks (he was very attentive and clearly expected to be fed), crossing the Wintringham prairie and seeing Wintringham Church.  The guide book describes the church's octagonal steeple as 'unusual' - we obviously don't take much notice of steeples!

After a typical Wolds long steady and not too taxing climb out of Wintringham we came to this unusual sign advertising a steep climb.  The guide book could usefully have described this as 'unusually steep' or possibly just hyperbolical - it gets steeper . . . and steeper . . . and steeper.  The book did describe it as 'steep but mercifully short'.  Hmmm, the photo does not do it justice!

At the top, we were rewarded with another Yorkshire art installation, called Enclosure Rights and great views over the Vale of Pickering.  We sat on one of the benches by the dew pond and had our sandwiches.

On the last leg back to the car we spotted an animal running round in circles on the path before popping back down its hole and re-appearing to do it all again.  Fortunately, we were downwind of it and it didn't seem at all bothered by us watching its antics.  Although we knew that you can weasily tell a stoat from a weasel because a stoat is stoatally different, we had to resort to Google to establish it was a stoat because its tail has a black tip. 

Day 5 - Fridaythorpe to Wharram-le-Street, 9.6m

Today the weather was great for walking, sunshine and clouds, but not too hot.  We set off from Fridaythorpe duck pond past a chicken and pig feed plant which was not very attractive, but we were soon out in the fields.

After only half an hour, we were heading down into our first dale.  The dales are deep dry valleys in the Wolds which are very impressive.  

3 miles on we reached the most impressive dale in the Wolds, Thixendale.  As we walked down into the dale we got a good view of the artwork called "Space and Time" created by local artist Chris Gray at the junction of 3 dales.  The walk down the dale to the village of Thixendale in the sunshine was just beautiful.

Thixendale village was very peaceful but we were not as impressed as the writer of the guidebook as most of the properties seemed to be modern, which wasn't at all what we were expecting.  There were some interesting older buildings, though.

Straight out of the village, we climbed up the valley side which wasn’t too difficult and from there the path stayed high until we dropped down to the abandoned medieval village, Wharram Percy.  

Also billed as peaceful, we stopped there to have our lunch, but we had arrived on maintenance day so there were 3 workers strimming, moving and cutting down trees.  

It was relatively busy at the village, but once we left the car park we were on our own again walking down to the end of today's walk just outside the village of Wharram-le-Street.

Day 4 - Nunburnholme to Fridaythorpe, 10.6m

Today is not just the longest leg, but also has the most ascent at almost 1800 feet!  Handy then that we had a day off yesterday because of a forecast of heavy rain.  Suitably refreshed, we set off from Nunburnholome, straight into the first of 9 climbs,  this one emerging into the inevitable wheat field.

 A little further on, it's just possible to see the top of Kilnwick Percy Hall, now a Buddhist retreat centre and beyond that, a board explaining that you are now on the Pilgrimage of Grace Heritage Trail, which commemorates an uprising against Henry VIII in 1536.  It's an interesting tale and you can read all about it here.

 And then it was up . . . and up . . . before finally emerging on the top of the ridge, with great views of the village of Millington.

The views along the top really are spectacular, and the dales are quite wonderful.  Glynis speculated that these features might be referred to as bostals in the south.  They're certainly steep-sided as we soon discovered!  Fortunately, the first of the steep uphill section via steps has been replaced by a zig-zag path.

 And then we arrived in Pasture Dale, the biggest and most spectacular so far.  It has another of the wacky poetry benches and what appeared to be someone's lunch left behind.  On closer inspection it was revealed to be a large Tupperware box containing a book in which people had written brief verses and a note explaining that this was a Yorkshire Poetry Point.  Glynis's offering, with 30 seconds preparation time, was:
On day 4 of our walk, Humber to Filey, A nice place to talk, We value it highly.

 The end of today's walk was at Fridaythorpe, which claims to be the highest village in the Wolds - but then so does Huggate. In Fridaythorpe some wag has decided to put the village defibrillator next to the Wolds Way footpath sign.  It wasn't that bad!  Fridaythorpe also boasts a particularly impressive bus shelter and a lovely pond complete with reckless ducks.

Day 3 - Sancton Hill to Nunburnholme, 8.9m

Parking in the sunshine at the top of Sancton Hill, the wind turbines were turning merrily in a stiff breeze and the first mile or so of the walk was back along the road.  In fact, there was quite a lot of road walking today, but the views are magnificent.

 Then came a long section through fields of oilseed rape and wheat before arriving at Goodmanham, where the little Norman church stands on the site of an early heathen temple destroyed in AD 626 by Edwin, the Saxon King of Northumbria when he converted to Christianity.  Just opposite the church is an impressive stone house with an unusual bay window on the first floor.

The landscape is dominated by farming - largely arable farming, but also sheep in large numbers and a few cattle.  So more wheat, more barley and more wonderful views, this time of the Vale of York, featuring Drax power station (visible for the last three days) and Eggborough power station to the right and even (just) Ferrybridge further to the right (not in the photo below).

The Londesborough estate may be a shadow of its former glory, but is impressive even so. The approach through parkland and past two small lakes doesn't prepare you for the entire village that follows, all part of the estate which is still privately owned.

And so to more views of the Vale of York before we rached the end of today's walk at Nunburnholme, a tiny village with one great claim to fame.  The rector for 40 years from 1854 was the Victorian ornithologist Francis Orpen Morris.  During this time he published his six-volme A History of British Birds which changed Victorian attitudes to wildlife and birds in particular, leading to the establishment of the RSPB.

Day 2 - Brantingham to Sancton Hill, 9.4m

We set off from Brantingham and quickly came to two interesting constructions - All Saints' Church Brantingham, which is 12th century in origin and was restored in the 19th century - and the Brantingham sheep wash where the local farmers used to wash their sheep by hand once a year until chemical sheep dips were invented in the 1950s.

This section of the walk had some magnificent views, including of the village of South Cave.  We came across an unusual pair of arty benches with curved backs and an equally arty inscription on the other side: 

"we shed them one by one, by shattered field and barley skies, until the way is open for echoes of us

made strange by wind, deserted barn, the shifting trade

of shadows on the Humbri, Humbre, Humber, our mouths to springs that speak in tongues of theirs"

No idea what it means but you can find out more about both the benches and the poetry  here.

The next stretch passed through some lovely woodland with occasional stones with carving on.  This one bore the words "North end Drewton Fence" on one side and "South end Hunsley Fence" on the other - presumably a boundary marker between estates.  A little further on after a steep climb out of the dale into a cornfield, we came across another acorn post telling us we only have another 64 miles to go to Filey.

Passing a beacon on the top of a hill, we made our way into Slin Dale, almost 2 miles of a shallow valley populated by lots of sheep, wheat and barley before passing Sober Hill windfarm and the end of today's walk on Sancton Hill.

Day 1 - Hessle to Brantingham, 9.6m

Glynis was dreading this morning - having to drive a strange car out of the middle of Hull.  As it turned out, the hire car place wasn't in the centre of Hull and the route out was really easy, nearly all on minor roads.  In contrast with Hertz Carlisle last year (50 mins), Europcar Hull were really slick and we were away in around 10 mins and the car, which looks exactly the same as last year's, didn't have a large dent in the boot lid.



Pete had already found the start of the Wolds Way and suitable parking places with the aid of OS Maps and Google Streetview, so we took the obligatory selfie at the start point and set off.

The first landmark of note is, of course, the Humber Bridge (it's really hard to miss!).  The river and the bridge are quite spectacular and it's all enhanced by the very nice way in which the council have opened up the foreshore with loads of free parking, seats and the occasional interesting piece of artwork. 

Just past the bridge, and a total contrast, is an old Whiting Mill which was used to grind chalk and water together to make (you've guessed it) . . . whiting.  The path dives down onto the shingle beach (difficult to walk on) and gets steadily worse and more and more muddy (very difficult to walk on!) until you can turn away from the river and up through a very lovely wood.  

After crossing the A63 dual carriageway in the right place (don't ask!) the path goes through a Scout camp where some Scouts were busy cutting down bushes.  There's a very impressive post carved out of a single piece of wood confirming that you're on the Yorkshire Wolds Way and only have another 74 miles to go.  A bit further on although converted into several dwellings, the old mill at Welton is an impressive building and the cattle were certainly enjoying the mill pond.

After a bit of a climb towards Brantingham, we were rewarded with some spectacular views of the river and the surrounding countryside.