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!?