Friday, December 21, 2018

August 21, 2018. Hiking Day 14: Grosmont to Robin Hood's Bay.

15 1/2 miles with around 1400 (?) feet of elevation gain.

The last day of our thru-hike!  We were excited, yet sad, to be almost finished.

The day started with a steep walk uphill before turning onto fields/moors.


Heather!

Sheep wool caught in the vegetation



The path was fairly easy to follow...


We eventually ended up on a country road heading down toward Littlebeck.  Sage found some berries to eat while she walked.


Once through the small town of Littlebeck, we traversed country paths, past an hermitage...






...past Falling Foss...


...and took a juice/scones-with-jam-and-cream break at the small outside Falling Foss Tea Garden.


When we got up to leave, we noticed Sage had a new friend...



We carefully detached the would-be hitchhiker and deposited it/him/her in some nearby vegetation.  Then, on we went.  We turned off the walking paths onto a country road, and then we turned right toward Sneaton Low Moor.  Somewhere along the way we got lost for a bit, but we oriented ourselves using the guidebook with the streets we were supposed to eventually hit, headed in the right general direction, and ended up on a road about half a mile away from where we were supposed to be.  We got back on track after that quickly.



We are not where we are supposed to be, but we soon fixed it.

Fields, bogs, not-so-clear signage...it was okay though...one last chance to get lost on the C2C, lol.




Between some tall hedges...


Fields and fields and more fields...




Into Low Hawsker and then High Hawsker...



And THAT -- THAT is the ocean over there!  The North Sea!!



We walked through the last little residential area before reaching the ocean...






And here we are!  We have walked from coast to coast.  The official C2C, however, is not yet finished.  We still had a few miles to go, directly south along the coastal path.







There's Robin Hood's Bay!




Soon there!



We arrived at the top of the hill which leads down through all the narrow streets of Robin Hood's Bay.  I don't have photos of that, which is a shame.  Guess I was too excited to get to the very end.


Done!



The seagull approves.


We tossed the pebbles we had carried from St. Bees into the water, then went for fish and chips and mushy peas.




After hanging about for a while, we kept walking south for about a mile to get to our home for the night, the Youth Hostel Boggle Hole.

Looking back on Robin Hood's Bay as we walked south to Boggle Hole.



Our hostel had its own private beach, and the place was very busy with families and couples and folks from all walks of life.  It was a nice scene, and our private room was extremely affordable.


We did not need to make use of this.

Up to our room.

The main building of the hostel from our room.

And...that's it!  I hope this blog has been helpful to those who are planning their next adventure.  This was a lovely trek, and one can make use of hostels and campgrounds here and there...no need to B&B it all the way across if you want to save some money.

Final note -- Get Stedman's guide, and plan this months in advance (during December and January for the following summer), because things book up quickly.