Log No 5. Wed 3rd Apr 2013 - Boggle Hole (Robin Hoods Bay) to Staithes, 19 miles (92 miles walked)

There was no phone signal last night to update the website, nor is there a good enough one here tonight either. I'll try to upload tomorrow morning from somewhere.

The weather continued where it left off last night as we left the youth hostel at 8.00 in the sunshine climbing up out of Boggle Hole then down into Robin Hoods Bay.

Like all villages built in a valley everything is crammed in and we meandered through narrow alleys before climbing up out to get back onto the coast path.

It took us 3 hours to get to Whitby, the path was good but crossing streams was slow work with the quite steep descents & ascents.

We stocked up with food again in Whiby and sat on a bench in the harbour to eat an early lunch while watching the boats. Earlier I had watched an old 3 masted ship leave the harbour and once into the open sea it was fairly rolling about, it was one of the 'pleasure' cruises and it wasn't long before it came back into the harbour.

My right leg & ankle were aching this morning, but as I had never done 2 consecutive long days on my training walks I suppose this was to be expected.

We left Whitby at 12.00 and I certainly felt the extra weight in the rucsac, we had a steep road to climb first before dropping back down to the sea front. When the promenade finished we walked along the sandy beach to the appropriately named village of Sandsend.

After a drink of tea here we climbed back up onto the cliff top, the rocky hills here looked just like slag or gravel heaps.
We stopped for a sandwick after another hour, at Kettleness, before continuing.

It was a bit cloudier now but the cold wind was behind us as we were now heading north-west.




We had a steep descent to the stream, Claymoor Beck, and then a dodgy bridge to cross, luckily there was not much water coming down the stream.
At the bottom it was a short walk along the beack to Runswick where we had another steep road walk to get back up onto the cliffs.

We met a troop of ramblers on their way down to Runswick and spent a few minutes chatting to the two ladies bringing up the rear, they were doing a 12 mile walk.

Skirting round Port Mulgrave and onto the headland at Old Nab we dropped down into Staithes, our destination for the day.

It was 16.30, there was just one campsite shown on the map, tents only so we thought we would get a cheap pitch tonight.
We had another steep road to climb before dropping back down to the site by the stream. It wasn't looking too promising as we could only see static caravans & chalets here, and sure enough they had stopped taking tents 7 years ago. The owner said there was a campsite back in the village by the car park (nothing was shown on the map).

It was back up the road again to this car park and we saw huts from an old WWI army camp and a sign saying campsite. The office was closed with a number to phone, it was a poor signal but I got through to an answer machine and left a message.

There were no other tents here and just one campervan, I went to speak to them and they said they had been here 2 days and hadn't seen anyone yet.

We decided to pitch the tent anyway and the chap in the camper asked if we would like a drink of tea, too right we would, thanks.

While we were putting the last tent pole in place a section split as I put the tension on, OOPS!!
Just then the site manager turned up and said it was okay to stay and it would be £6.50 each if that was okay, I explained we were doing a charity walk, anyway, to cut a long story short the fee was waived.

Meanwhile our 2 mugs of tea arrived and it turned out that Mike & Sally were from Willingham, just 2 miles from Mick's house!!

I managed to repair the split tent pole with a short sleeve pole that came with the tent, let's hope it doesn't happen again as there was only the one spare.

Thankfully the day ended well, it was still sunny and we had done 19 miles.