Hornsea & Home - 15th July ‘23

I was planning to come home on Sunday but I decided to head home today - Saturday. Although the weather looks nice tomorrow, once again it was forecasted to get a bit rubbish this afternoon. 

Thankfully a trauma (and poo!) free evening and morning wake up! I didn’t fancy breakfast so I headed out as soon as I was abluted!

Someone had mentioned Hornsea as worth a visit. Never been before but I had the morning free so .. why not? It was about 15 miles south of Brid and took me about 30 mins to get there. My original plan was to park up at a village called Atwick and walk south along the beach into Hornsea. This plan was aborted as I didn’t fancy paying £5 to a caravan holiday camp to use their empty and scratty bit of waste ground by the beach! Silly really because it would have been a good plan.

I drove into Hornsea and found some free parking (as most of it was!) right by the beach. The sun was shining although it was quite chilly in the strong wind . According to the forecast I had at least a couple of hours of no rain!

I got the dogs onto the beach and started to walk northwards. It wasn’t a great beach for walking on - lots of groynes to navigate and less sand / more shingle than the other beaches this week.

After 10 mins of walking I realised I was on the “no dogs” section of the beach. To be fair to the few people that were around I didn’t feel any dirty looks/ judgement!

I got them on the lead and within a few hundred yards we were at the dogs allowed part of the beach. I walked north towards the village of Atwick - so my original plan but backwards!

There were very few folks on the beach and the weather was generally good - in fact, near perfect for walking.

We got to the caravan park at Atwick and had a halftime snack. 

Up to this point I have to say I was in a bit of a mood! Everything was making me cross- I was cross with having to have the dogs on a lead to start, I was cross with the groynes, I was cross with Tilly for walking by my side when she should have been enjoying the beach, I was cross with Benny for enjoying the beach when he should have been walking by my side, I was cross with the weather when it started to spit, I was cross with the woman walking towards me who totally blanked my smile and cheery hello, I was cross with the couple in front who kept throwing their bloody dogs ball straight towards us all the bloody time, I was cross with the uneven pebbles I had to walk on some of the time and I was cross that this time I’d remembered the dogs water but forgot a drink for me. But mostly I was cross that it was the 15th July and I thought I could treat it like a normal day. Like if I didn’t acknowledge it, it would not exist! Well I had tried being on my own (I don’t count the crazy collies) and it hadn’t worked especially well. But hey, I’ll know for next year. Every days a school day!

While we were sitting having our drink / snack I WhatsApp called the kids. I managed to speak briefly to all of them and as a result, I could feel the red mist lifting. Subsequently, I had a much nicer walk back along the beach to Hornsea. I suspect the dogs were as relieved as I was that my mood had lifted?!

I had a nice cup of coffee at a place called The Hornsea Hub. The town centre was pleasant enough too - the sort of place Kim would have loved poking around - lots of locally type shops. Overall, Hornsea has the feel of a seaside resort that’s trying hard to keep up but not entirely making it. I’ve been to a lot worse places!! You can have that FOC from me Hornsea - for next summer’s marketing campaign!?

The walk was about 5.5 miles in total. I was heading out of town at about 1pm just as the wet weather was starting to roll in. I thought I’d get something to eat before I started the Brunnehilda pack up procedure. I went back to the wee cafe I had parked by on the first evening- South Landing Beach, Flamborough. I think I had returned because it had a really cool name. I had an all day Eggs Benedict. It wasn’t great - you need runny poached eggs on a Benedict and these were as hard as Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast!! While I was in the cafe there was a very dramatic thunder storm. The loudest clap of thunder coincided with the server placing the plate on my table - a gastronomic warning maybe?!

The rain was set in now so I packed up and pulled down Brunnehilda in the drizzle. Including having a long chat with my Nextdoor neighbour. He was from Wakefield. He told me a lot of other stuff about himself too. I don’t think he was too interested in my back story but then why should he be!??

We were pulling out the site at 3.30pm. A very uneventful journey with just one food and fuel stop at Tibshelf. Arriving at Welton Lodge Farm at just gone 8. The economy has been awful for this return journey - less than 20 mph!! I don’t really know why - it was 28 going up!!

Here is the rating for North Mount Farm CL site:

Pros:

1) Very clean

2) Adequate space between pitches 

3) Great 5G

4) Each pitch had a water tap.

5) A nice sea view 

6) A good dog walking area

7) No gate

8) Flat pitches

Cons:

1) No where to walk to (pub / beach)

As the 8:1 ratio confirms - the site was a hit and deserves a return visit.

———-

“Better by far you should forget and smile

Then that you should remember and be sad”

Kimbo

6/1/61 to 15/7/21

Fraisthorpe Sands & Middleton - 14th July ‘23

Today’s walk was at Fraisthorpe - another local recommendation. This time from Ray and Luke. Good news was that high tide continues to push well into the afternoon but, the bad news is that the weather looked awful from midday onwards!

Now, in hope of pushing the blogs readership well past double figures, I had promised to keep clear of dog poo. Unfortunately this couldn’t be done as it played such a big part in the first 15 mins of the day! I was awoken in the middle of the night by Tilly jumping on the bed. She never does this unless she is trying to distance herself physically and emotionally from Ben and his actions. I was puzzled but too tired to figure it out.

I woke up quite late (about 9.30) and was awoken, not by Tilly (she was still in the bed) but by the smell. Ben had carpet bombed the whole front of the caravan with a very runny and toxic smelling explosion of poos. This was indeed the expected and violent effects of eating dead and rotten bird yesterday! It was the human equivalent of gorging on the “eat as much as you like” buffet at the past their sell by date curry shop! So, little sympathy from me as I cleared it up - using 2 full rolls of toilet paper!!

The postscript to this story is he then spent most of the first half of our beach walk desperately trying to do more! Walking along the beach in a permanent squat position with little or no success! Bloody dog!

The weather was windy, cool and the sky full of dark clouds until about midday. It then started drizzling and by 3 it was set in at 13 degrees with full on rain.

I breakfasted and was at the car park at Auburn (by Fraisthorpe) just south of Brid by about 11 am. I lot more people were leaving the beach at this time than entering it - I guess they’d all read the same weather forecast that I had!?

If I’d had my time again I would have turned left and walked the 2 miles along the beach to the South Beach at Brid. But I turned right and walked 2 miles along the beach to Skipsea. 

Here we shared a snack on the beach and then walked the 2 miles back to the car park. 

The rain was only light drizzle at this stage so I thought it might be an idea to try and get to Brid walking the other way (about another 2 miles), have some lunch and walk back. About 1 mile along the beach the rain set in and, after sheltering for a while by some 2nd World War ruined architecture, I aborted that plan and headed back to the car park. 

At this stage I spent a long time walking behind a middle aged couple holding hands  - they had the same height difference as Kim snd I and she was wearing clothes that were very Kim like. At one stage I even rehearsed catching them up and asking if we could make a threesome and I could hold the spare hand! Seriously, I was actually rehearsing what I would say! Needless to say, I didn’t! I should have been hard on myself for even thinking it but on this occasion I cut myself some slack - no harm done!

So after about 6 miles and 2.5 hours we were back at the car park. I really fancied a coffee but the restaurant and takeaway snack bar had shut up for the day - at 1 bloody 30?!

I gave the dogs some more water. I love this picture - it’s Ben patiently waiting for Tilly to give him a go. That’s love for you …

We were all a little damp at this stage, so I headed home via Tesco to get some more kitchen roll! More Tudors and a late lunch of Doritos and Stag chilli!

I then did a rare thing in Brunnehilda - I had a shower! It was ok although the water was slow to drain! At 5pm I headed out to Middleton on The Wolds - about 20 miles away. It was still raining!

I spent a very nice evening with old friends, Mervyn and Jeanette. She cooked a magnificent Lasagne and a Strawberry sponge cake. They were great friends when the kids were small but they had moved away and we’d lost touch. We only met up again after Kim passed away. It was nice to reminisce and to catch up.

NB it feels awkward writing “passed away” but I don’t like to write or say the D word! Stupid eh?

Home by 10pm. To bed watching another episode of The Tudors and blogging. Benny is doing some appalling farts - God help us, it might be a long night!!!? I gotta say, I feel a bit crook too - a bit fluey?! It’ll be all the freezing cold rain!

Finally, I picked up a crab claw on the beach at Fraisthorpe and found a great use for it!

Cayton Bay & Fimber - 13th July ‘23

So, a couple of the Chapman guys had recommended Cayton Bay for a dog walk so that’s what I did. The weather was set fair and the tide was an hour later being fully in - about 1.30 - so there was no need for an early rise.

I had a modest breakfast and was out the door just as James O’Brien came on LBC - about 10am. The 30 minute drive to Cayton Bay, just south of Scarborough was completed without incident!

I parked on top of the hill and we walked down the steep path (and steps) to the beach. The Bay was very picturesque but nowhere near as big as Filey - especially with the tide encroaching fast! 

We walked to one end of the bay then back past where we started and back to the other. Grabbing time to snack and get a quick book read at either end.

It was at this stage I realised I’d made a very familiar error - I’d packed loads of snacks for me and the dogs and plenty of drink for me, but no water for the dogs!! Many would say this was typically of me prioritising my nutritional needs over everybody else’s - and believe me I heard “her” say it loud and clear to me as I explained the predicament to the collies 😉.

Luckily there was a stream of fresh water coming from somewhere - in the spirit of not looking a gift horse in the mouth, I encouraged the hounds to drink - oblivious of the source of said “fresh” water!

The beach was shared amicably between young families and dog walkers. It all seemed to work well, although I was very aware of my 2 bombing in and out the water with little kids playing with buckets and spades at the water’s edge!

Now, the regular Travels with Brunnehilda blog readers (I think we’re in double figures now - you know who you are!!?) will know I have strong views and tragic stories about dog excrement. A holiday trip rarely goes by without some dog poo related drama. Well today was to be no different.

The rot started off by me forgetting the new roll of dog poo bags. This meant I had come out for the walk with only 2 on my person. This might have been enough in normal circumstances but Benny drinking barrel loads of sea water yesterday meant that today’s circumstances were never destined to be normal!

The 2 bags were used up very quickly with some pretty disgusting runny stuff. Then Tilly thought she would join in the fun - this necessitated double bagging. A process that is as skilful as it is extremely high risk but sometimes just has to be done. And we hadn’t even got to the beach! Once on the beach Ben started again - luckily I could discreetly dig a hole in the sand and bury the offending item (not sure something that looks like that can be called an item??) without too many people noticing. By this stage I was starting to panic - I’d got to get up the steps and past load of folks at the coffee kiosk without incident! I didn’t fancy my chances so …. Lord forgive me, I did a dreadful thing? 

I went to the rock pools and emptied one of the bags into the sea. And, to make sure it was prepared for use I had to give the empty bag a good swill out - sorry if you’re eating! Now I don’t feel proud of myself but if you compare it with the 375,000 times that the Water Companies did this same thing last year (with far far  greater amounts of the brown stuff!), I refused to feel too guilty.

There was a big queue at the coffee kiosk and, you’ll be pleased to know, both sets of canine bowels stayed unemptied! I still have the previously cleaned and emptied bag in my pocket ready for another day! Only joking, that disgusting thing went straight in the bin!

After the beach I had a bit of a walk along the Cleveland Way footpath. The views were wonderful and by now it was feeling really warm. I was tempted to walk down to the secluded Johnny Flinton’s Harbour but the path looked mighty steep. I regretted my decision within 5 minutes of making it - Carpe Diem, that’ll learn me!

We returned to the car at 12.15 - 3.5 miles and 1 hour 45 mins from whence we began. At lot less than yesterday’s 7 miler. We headed back to Brunnehilda to relax and clean up. The weather was so good I got the chair out and sat and read in the sun - after demolishing a couple of vegan sausage bagels! And, the sun was so hot I think I fell asleep for a bit - I certainly only read one chapter and I was sitting there for quite some time!!

Just time to take the dogs for a quick walk around the farmer’s field before heading over to my Brother-in -law’s  (Ray) place at Fimber - about 40 mins inland. The 3 of us (my nephew Luke joined us) had a good old chat over a cup of tea in Rays amazing garden / paddock. I took the dogs for another walk on my own (Ray has 4 crazy collies!) before we went for dinner at The Triton Inn pub at the neighbouring village of Sledmere. The Barnsley chop was wonderful! As was the pint of Timothy Taylor’s.

Back to Brunnehilda for more Tudors, Cadburys and blogging. And as if to finish my “pooey” day on a high …Benny emptied his bowels again - all over Brunnehilda’s sandy Germanic floor. This wasn’t the salt water, this was as a result of the dead bird I couldn’t stop him eating on our walk at Fimber! Yuk!

I promise, no more excrement talk tomorrow. If I want to get to 20 plus blog readers I really do need to focus on something a little more popularist!

Filey Bay - 12th July ‘23

So the plan was to get up early to catch the sun and the tide. The rain was due at about 1.30 and high tide was due at 12.40. This meant the best beach walking time would be between 9 and 11! Well that was never going to work was it?!!

Even with sacrificing breakfast and a thorough ablute, I could only drag myself out of Brunnehilda by 9.30am! The weather was cloudy with a few welcome sunny spells but definitely no rain at this stage.

I drove to Filey, popping into visit an estate of holiday houses called The Bay en route. This was a place Kim and I had stayed at one wedding anniversary weekend. I remember having Tilly and not Ben so that must have been 11 years ago! It brought back nice memories - which I took time to register and congratulate myself for the progress. More on that later.

I parked up by Glen Gardens at 10am. The beauty of an early start is that I got a free parking space next to the pay and display car park - result. We walked through the sunny and peaceful Gardens and dropped down to the beach at the end of the Royal Parade - coming out just where the beach went from a no dogs beach to a dogs welcome one! That was lucky!

We had a wonderful 90 minute walk along the bay towards Speeton. The tide was coming in fast at this time but there was still plenty of beach to play with. It was fairly busy (compared to Northumberland) but the dogs (Amazingly!) behaved themselves! The sun was shining as well. All was good!

After about 2.5 miles we came to a spot where the incoming tide was making things a little more difficult to progress. I decided, as there were very few folks around at this stage, to have a swim. I got as far as my thighs and had to abort! Not because it was too cold - it wasn’t. Not because I changed my mind - I hadn’t. It was because the dogs became quite agitated. Benny wanted to come in with me but was getting upset because he dare not take the plunge and swim and Tilly, who doesn’t like going in above her knees (do dogs have knees??) was starting to yap / bark.

I didn’t go any further out but we did walk / paddle for about a mile by the water’s edge retracing our steps back towards Filey. The weather was starting to close in a bit at this stage with a few spits and spots of rain.

When we got off the beach I was starving so we walked along the prom to the centre of town to get something to eat. The dogs were immaculately behaved much to my surprise- no pulling (Ben), no snarling (Tilly) and no barking (Tilly). I was very proud!

The something to eat was a kids scampi, chips and curry sauce - it was ok. Just as I ordered it the heavens opened. We started to walk to find shelter but in the end I gave up and we just sat down in the pouring rain and tucked in. The dogs had the chips that weren’t covered in curry sauce! By the time we had finished, I was uncomfortably wet and the dogs looked rather pi**ed off too. So we walked back to the car as fast as we could and stripped off our wet clothes - to be more accurate, that was just me not them!

Back home to Brunnehilda for a breather by 3pm. This consisted of a cup of tea, a slab of Cadburys and an episode of The Tudors. 2 hours went by very quickly! 

The beach walk had been a success. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like Northumberland and the weather could have been better but the dogs good behaviour had more than made up for that. And I had enjoyed thinking back and reliving nice Kim based memories. Even couples walking past me holding hands didn’t seem to affect me. A year ago, if I passed a happy middle aged couple on a beach I would be wishing pestilence and fatal diseases on them and their loved ones. Not any more! A few pangs of jealousy occasionally but nothing to worry my therapist!?

So a nice day and then a smashing evening. I travelled the 25 miles to Malton to meet up with some old Volvo buddies at Florios Italian Restaurant. It was great to chew the fat with Duncan, Ray, Mike, Mick and John from Chapman’s as well as meeting up with my old mucker, Scotty! It was a good meal but I hardly noticed it as the quality of the company was so darn fine.

Back home to Brunnehilda by 10.30. A quick call with  Thom and Rach and then to bed and to blog. No Tudor Porn for me tonight!!

The weather forecast and the tide means another early start for me tomorrow- hmm, let’s see!?