Distance: 23.5 miles to hotel
Weather: bit overcast, few spots of rain during the afternoon, heavy rain late evening.
Detours: 3 (one of them intentional)
Squirrels: judging from what we've seen, there are more living in Scarborough than the whole of the rest of Yorkshire.
The end in sight, although it seemed like a very long way away indeed as we got up at 6:30am this morning. After a quick breakfast we were off just after seven. It was cold and more cloudy than of late, and it stayed overcast most of the day. We walked down the green out of Levisham village and turned off down a path that led down the valley above Levisham Beck. The dawn chorus was in full swing, including a cuckoo, and we saw a rabbit and a couple of deer bounding off down the hillside. The path was lined with bluebells, primroses, cowslips, daisies and common spotted orchids.
We went through the Hole of Horcum (not the Hole of Horcrux as I've been saying all day) and out the other side, getting a quick glimpse of Fylingdales radar station, sadly bereft of giant golf balls these days.
The track goes through some RAF land, where the signs warn of hidden surveilance cameras in operation. No stopping beind any bushes here. Part way along Old Wife's Way, we took a detour off the main route to visit the Bridestones Nature Reserve where there are some interesting rock formations - very similar to some of the cliffs we saw later at the seaside, but here free standing in the middle of an upland heath. I tried to get a comedy photo of Rob holding one of the rocks up, but he wouldn't stand under it because it wasn't right and gravity could have kicked in at any moment. There were a lot of bees here, and we saw stonechats. After a sit down and a Mars Bar, we headed back to rejoin the path.
The track went long and straight along the edge of Dalby Forest towards Jerry Noddle, where the path we wanted wasn't there due to the trees being cut down. So we had to walk back a bit and come down a different way. About here we passed a signpost saying Scarborough 10 miles. We took our third detour of the day, following some enthusiastic signs painted up by the farmer saying that the footpath went diagonally over the field to the gate at the bottom. A path did go that way; it wasn't the one that we really wanted, however we didn't realise this at the time. So we went down the hill, over some stiles and a footbridge, up a field, around some gorse bushes, up some more field, down a field, through a marsh, over a footbridge and up a field back to the road. There was a pub round the corner. It was closed. We walked on.
Shortly after, there was more steep up as we went over Broxa Rigg, a wooded little hill where we met some friendly cows and some midges. The track comes down into Hackness, which has a fancy church, big house, unusual bridge and a little stream running down the side of the road. We walked by the side of the (quiet) road for a bit then turned off down a not much used path to cross some fields, where we stopped for second lunch and noticed the sky had turned a funny pinky colour. There were a few spots of rain, but nothing serious. After going round some fields we came to Scalby, with its big posh houses, on the outskirts of Scarborough and followed the road to the coast. It was a bit of a hazy day and there was some umming and maybeing about whether we could see the sea. Rob got the 5p. Heading to the cliffs we met the Cleveland Way again and followed the cliff top path south into the North Bay. According to the North of England Way book, here is the 200 mile point, although until we get home and sort out the gps we won't know for sure. The tide was right in, which saved us a bit of a walk to dip our toes in the North Sea and the end of our coast to coast walk.
Then we had to walk along the beach, up to town and to the Grand Hotel. After a pot of tea and a sit down, we went for a fish supper by the harbour in the South Bay. Including this made a total stepcount for today of 50,477 on Rob's pedometer, about 25 miles.
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