The 5 weeks of Easter break were a dry desert hard to cross. I’ve been able to work on 2 exams, read 2 maths books, and a friend’s guitar made it slightly easier to pass; but a day hiking by the sea was an highlight for this studious period.

After comparing the different rides we could do, Floris, Josi and I decided to combine train and bus to go from York to Robin hood’s Bay.

Robin hood’s Bay

We first went through Robin hood’s Bay, a small, sloppy fishing village: probably more active in summer, with one or two streams going through, it’s really nice place. I couldn’t help but notice this nice bench: through all England, especially in nice panoramas, you can find benches dedicated to deceased people. But might not be the best tribute.

Gazing at shop fronts, we made a stop to a book shop following a fantastic concept: selling books & fossils. Definitely one of the best shops I’ve ever seen.

Once we left the village, we made our first meeting with the path we would follow for the whole day: Cleveland way, a 177km long National Trail going all around the North York Moors National Park (map). Our destination were Ravenscar, a coastal village 6km away, and we quickly lost sight of the Bay, and crossing our first fences with super smart steps like this one. The walk was good fun and physical: 3 or 4 times, after going down at sea level, we had to go up again via very steep stairs.

It took us 1&1/2 hours to reach the castle, passing by relics of different times: here what we assumed to be a bunker, and further on an ancient aluminium mine installation.

Once arrived we took lunch and enjoyed that the brief snow was over. We also took some nice Easter pictures. It’s weird to think that the green field that you see on the right side is actually a golf course with view on the sea.

We then did the way back to Robin Hood’s Bay, staying on sea level as soon as possible to avoid the successive climbs and descents. Reaching the village we were attacked by gusts of snow, and very surprised to see that a lot of people were actually starting their walk with this weather.

Robin Hood’s Bay to Whitby

Stopping at a cafe, we were lucky to see the snow stopping before we were done, and we started the second part of our walk: going from Robin Hood’s Bay to Whitby. Longer than the first one, it was such a good walk ! Compare to the path to Ravenscar, going up and down and passing by a few houses, this part of the Cleveland way is never more than 10m to the sea (to the edge of the cliff, at least), and surrounded by fields.

On our way we saw a weird ice formation that we would see twice again, it was very impressing. I still don’t know what it is actually ! Floris’ hypothesis is that the dampness from the sea come on the cliff at night, and gets transformed in ice, but still, not sure. Good set for a bunnies picture though !

We passed a isolated lighthouse and this very strange part of the cliff: as it may be seen, the rock we were standing on can be take of by hands, making small rock crumbs. We didn’t stay so long then !

An hour later (after passing an ugly camping site), we started to see Whitby Abbey, with 40 minutes left to get our bus. The ruin made me think about Bayland Abey that I saw earlier in the year.

It’s a bit of a shame, but we had only 15 minutes to spend in Whitby, it looks like a very nice city. And we spent it getting food. I’ll try to go back there !