Ep 20: The Last One

0619 Littlebeck to Robin Hood’s Bay

We awoke today knowing this would be the final day of our walk. After significant overnight rain, we were delighted to see the sun streaming through our bedroom windows. It meant we would maintain our 100% rainwear-free walk!

Have a pre-walk breakfast – one last time. Pack the suitcases to be collected – one last time. Assemble and put on our backpacks – one last time. Then, having farewelled our hosts, our booted feet took us down the lane from Intake Farm.

Today, our last day, we wore our special Coast to Coast polos.

The first part of the day took us through Little Beck Wood, a pristine and peaceful wooded walk along the Little Beck.

The highlight was the Falling Foss waterfall and the unexpected pleasure of a café situated at the top.

Our break was rewarded with the best coffee any of us have had since we’d been in the UK. But we couldn’t dally; the rest of the walk awaited.

Our path took us up and out of the woods and almost immediately onto Sneaton Thorpe Moor, a real contrast and the last piece of moorland on our walk. The heather was the most colourful of the entire walk, perhaps due to the altitude.

It also gave us the first glimpse of the North Sea for today, and the ruins of Whitby Abbey to the north.

The sight of our destination gave wings to our booted heels. Barbie’s phone app, which she’s been using since the start of our walk, showed us speeding along at 5km per hour. In fact a passing low-flying RAF Typhoon jet fighter could barely keep up with us…

As we crossed over a road we saw a sign. Not just any sign, but one which recalled our nesting sheep from a few days ago). Now you may have thought the Monty Python ‘nesting sheep’ sketch was comedy, but in fact it was  a documentary! “Now it’s moi considerrred orrpinion that theyrrrre nestin’.”

At the end of the moor we descended into farmland, and a series of hamlets – High and Low Hawsker – and found refuge in the Hare and Hounds pub at lunchtime (how convenient!). We walked down Bottoms Lane to the coast and rejoined the Cleveland Way for the final 5km/3 miles. Adam had threatened to skip but if he did it was not recorded.

How can we describe the clifftop walk? In a word – spectacular! We were high up above the sea, following the path as it wended its way between farmland and cliff.

Eventually the terracotta-roofed cottages of Robin Hood’s Bay village hove into view.

We descended the cobbled and very steep main street to the bay itself, where we completed two rituals: dipping our shoes in the sea and making good on the ritual of transferring a pebble from the Irish Sea to the North Sea.

(The Coast to Coast book was our constant companion, with both Val and Barbie having well-thumbed copies. The photo of the book shows our four pebbles on top).

Us being us, a simple dropping of the pebble into the sea would not do. Instead we hailed a passing teenager (always reliable with anything tech!) to take photos and capture the moment as we joyfully and vigorously threw our respective pebbles over our shoulders.

If you look closely, you can see our stones:

We then repaired to the Wainwright Bar of the Bay Hotel, traditional ending of the Way, to sign the Coast to Coast walkers’ book and toast our 309km odyssey. To our surprise we were cheered by everyone on the balcony when we stopped to take a photo by the C2C sign.

The rest of our afternoon was more prosaic – walking up the hill, picking up our luggage, and catching a bus to the historic town of Whitby, where we’ll spend the next day or so. We’re staying in Whitby Old Town at the historic White Horse & Griffin, a deliciously classic pub. Having checked in, we dined at Mountrey’s, a wonderful Italian restaurant, and had the most wonderful pizza and pasta. A great way to end a wonderful three weeks!

So it’s now over and out from us. We hope you’ve enjoyed our blogs. Until next time…

To summarise our walk, there is no better way than to quote Alfred Wainwright, creator of the Coast to Coast walk:

Oh, how can I put into words the joys of a walk over country such as this; the scenes that delight the eyes, the blessed peace of mind, the sheer exuberance which fills your soul as you tread the firm turf? This is something to be lived, not read about.

Distance today: 21km

Distance travelled: 328km

Distance remaining – none!