Friday 21st March 2025

Today we left our house-sitting assignment in Kirk Ella and headed up to Kirkbymoorside in the north of the county, to visit our friends Lynda and Paul. But, us being us, we just had to stop off for another walk on our way up. We parked up in Withernsea, had a wholesome Full English Breakfast in the cafe, then caught the bus to Aldborough. Note to selves: Stay on the bus a little longer in Aldborough – we could have saved ourselves a mile of the walk!!

There is some serious cliff erosion along this section and in Aldborough a road had literally gone over the edge! There were ‘road closed’ signs – these seriously needed to be taken notice of. There wasn’t an obvious way down to the beach so the first mile was a stroll along the crumbling clifftop, picking out a path not too close to the edge, until we found a slope down. Like yesterday, our plan was to walk along the beach all the way, there seemed to be no other coastal path alternative.

Once down on the beach it was fabulous, perfectly firm sand – but a little chillier today, waves crashing and unfortunately we were walking into a pretty strong wind. The first 7 miles there would have been no access to get up to higher ground again … started to get a little worrying (the thought of having to walk all that way back) but as we neared Withernsea the cliffs got lower and lower, so there was always an escape plan. After a total of 10.5 miles we were back to the cafe for tea and cake and then the car for our onward journey.

We arrived in Kirkymoorside at 5.30pm for the next chapter of our Yorkshire trip. The journey up was joyous and where Lynda and Paul live is such a stunning area. Surprise surprise, the first evening started with non-stop chatting and a whole load of eating and drinking. Let the fun commence.