Runswick Bay to Staithes

Friday
We had decided we would walk to Staithes this morning, the next village along the coast. Roger had the idea that since we had two cars, we could leave one at the other end, rather than walking back again, so this is what we did. It was an overcast day, but fairly warm, and we enjoyed the walk and exploring the lanes and alleys of Staithes. From there, we moved on to Sandsend, just short of Whitby, where we witnessed a very distressing “nature in the raw incident”. We were watching a couple of mallard families on the stream which runs through the village. Initially everything seemed quite normal, but then one mother mallard seemed to be attacking one of the chicks. At first I thought she was just trying to chivvy it along, but after a while it became painfully obvious she was trying to drown it, which unfortunately she ultimately did! The only thing we could think was that the chick was from another brood and had got mixed in with hers. The other mother didn’t seem to be in sight. We went back to the B&B late afternoon, as Peter and Judy thought they had done enough walking - Judy’s foot was bothering her - but we decided to go out for another walk, and drove back to Staithes and walked through the village and up onto the cliffs the other side - by this time the tide was coming in, so the village was looking more attractive.