The Cleveland Way

Worth going large

Today has been magical, and I try not to use that word lightly. Following yesterday's exertions we managed to get up and out the door soon after 8 o'clock to catch the train to Whitby, via Leeds and Middlesbrough. It's quite a long and circuitous journey by train, but the time went quickly and the final leg through the North Yorkshire Moors was really beautiful, and a railway trip I'd not done before. There are not many train tracks in the country that I've not travelled at some point!

It's been many years since I'd been to Whitby, the last possibly being when I ran from Guisborough along the Cleveland Way. Today we were going to retrace some of that route, in the opposite direction, as far as Staithes, about 12 or 13 miles of wonderful coastal footpath. We were happy to leave Whitby behind as neither TJ nor myself are fond of crowds, and Whitby was heaving. We were able to appreciate its rather quaint tackiness and be thankful that 99% of visitors travel no further than a few hundred yards from their cars!

We started walking at very low tide so Whitby Sands felt vast and empty, with few people about in the very brisk northerly wind. It was quite chilly when exposed to that wind but when sheltered from it, and in the sun, it felt really warm. It meant for another day of much dressing and undressing! Apart from one brisk shower, from which we managed to get shelter under a very densely branched hawthorn tree, we enjoyed bright sun for most of the day, which shone out of the most dramatic skies I can ever remember seeing.

This whole summer has been graced with fantastic skies but today was the best day of them all. Fantastical cumulus rising all around us, with showers constantly dropping out into the North Sea to the east. The light was amazing and I could have blipped countless landscape shots. I guess I've chosen this as perhaps the most dramatic of them all, taken just a mile or so south of Staithes where we are staying for the night. We both walked up the final hill to the B&B rather weary of limb but completely energised of spirit. This is a walk I will remember for the rest of my life, not just for the fantastic scenery, but also for the delightful company. It's so great to be walking with a fellow adventurer.

PS My youngest son experienced some magic of his own yesterday, in a rather more literal sense! He has another wonderful photograph from his trip here.