Day 290: Ravenscar to Filey
Distance: 20.59 miles
Ascent: 9251 feet
Weather: Sunny
Accommodation: Centenary Way Campsite
It was cold when I woke up this morning, I was alright in my sleeping bag but as soon as my face or arm popped out it was absolutely freezing. I am going to have to get used to these cold mornings again. I knew that as soon as I was out of my sleeping bag the race was on to get everything done before I lost the use of my hands. There was a frost on the ground outside the tent and once everything was packed up my hands were very cold but the gloves were put on and I got on my way about 7.
It was a stunning morning with barely a cloud in the sky as I set of on my way and within 15 minutes my hands had warmed up. Once my hands were warmed up it was one of those rare perfect moments. The sky was a stunning colour, the foliage was a beautiful autumnal hue, there was no one around and the crisp morning air was amazing I was walking along thinking at this moment how lucky I was. I was literally bouncing along and then ‘Path Diverted!’
I decided to ignore the sign as the path was not fenced off (I have seen too many of these signs on the walk which are diverted for no reason) and carried on along the main path. It was confusing at first because someone had recently cut the next part making it seem very open but then slowly it became more and more overgrown, this path diversion must have been around for at least a year. I began to worry when I reached said incident that I might have to turn around. As I began to descend to Hayburn Wyke, the incident became very clear, suddenly the wooden stairs had been destroyed by a landslide. It was going to be a bit tricky to descend the 30m or so to rejoin up with the path but I thought possible. It was incredibly muddy and if I fell I was going to be absolutely covered head to toe in mud. Slowly I made it to the bottom and happy to reach the bottom I relaxed and then swiftly fell over luckily onto a pile of twigs they had cleared as though a but prickly at least I wasn’t covered in mud.
Now back on the path I cheered straight back up, just look at the sun through the autumnal tree photos below to see why. I followed the cliffs for a fair few miles and as per yesterday there were quite a few sets of stairs making it clear today wouldn’t be an easy one. I eventually reached Scalby Mills and shortly after Scarborough. There is an incredible road/path around the bottom of the steep sided headland that sticks out here before reaching Scarborough proper.
I decided to pop into Scarborough proper and find somewhere with Wi-fi and cheap food and refill tea as I thought I would stay here for an hour or two to catch up on some admin and get yesterdays dairy done as I was well ahead today. I ended up in a Wetherspoons, a plug socket, good Wi-fi, cheap food and endless tea what more could I ask for.
Eventually I headed back to the promenade and started thinking it was quite like Eastbourne where I went to school, with its bandstand and some impressive Victorian buildings mixed in with the tack in between and framed by hills at the end. I had to climb one of these hills at the end of the town to get back onto the cliffs.
Yorkshires Coast really is beautiful and this next section was again lovely along the cliffs, passing a couple of static parks, before reaching Filey Brigg and turning 90 degrees and heading into Filey. It was clear looking at a map that wild camping on the coast for the next 5 miles or so due to caravan/holiday parks would not be possible. So I popped first to Tesco and then to what I thought was one of the smaller caravan parks and one I believed took tents (a lot of them don’t.) It was bigger than I thought but when I found the touring part I was ready to be annoyed by the price quoted by the lady but was pleasantly surprised for once that the cost was what I believed to be fair and to get change out of a tenner, it is amazing how many of these parks try and charge £20/25+ and if they had quoted this I would have carried on and just found somewhere to pitch later on. But I didn’t have to so pitched up in the tent field, and guess what unsurprisingly I was the only tent in the field.
Headed into Filey itself to type this up and not looking forward to walking back to the tent in the cold after.
A really good day, and I am enjoying this sunwave to its max as I know there won’t be much more weather like this (even if cold) on the walk.
