Day 21 Littlebeck to Robin Hoods Bay

Expectations

Arrival! We’ll dip our boots in the North Sea and drop off our St Bees pebble. We’ll sign the log book. And then, we’ll be done.

It’s funny to be writing this part of the post before we’ve even arrived in the UK. I’ve been looking forward to this trip and planning the details of it for just over a year. It will be so odd to be the other side of it. I know I’ll need to start planning the next adventure immediately.

11.79 miles from Intake Farm in Littlebeck to Streonshalh/Leeside in Robin Hoods Bay. That mileage includes the short detour to lodgings before heading down to the North Sea. But not back up again!!

Realities

We made it. How gratifying and incredible and slightly numbing.

Every day has started with a “re-tag the bags” ritual, where we place the next night’s accommodation label onto the blue Packhorse tag. Today was the last time we’ll do that.

Bags re-tagged, we left Intake Farm after a good breakfast, made notable by two other guests, a married couple who spend a week there every summer, with the main draw being steam trains.

We didn’t backtrack to Littlebeck, instead cutting across north-east directly toward the Hermitage, an odd hollowed-out boulder. It was much bigger than I expected–it could easily seat all of us and probably more.

From there we went south-east through shady woodland to Falling Floss, a surprisingly high waterfall.

Then north-east yet again (what a zig-zagging morning) along tracks and minor roads, and across open moorland that threatened to be boggy but actually wasn’t (would definitely be a different story after heavy rain.)

One stretch of narrow path was unexpectedly muddy and difficult to walk along.

We strode on, eager to reach High Hawsker where we could, in theory, get lunch at the Hare & Hounds. We sat down, having grabbed a menu, only to have the menu snatched back with a firm “No! We don’t serve food today because we’re preparing for a wedding this evening.” No apology, no alternatives suggested. Hrmmphh. D and L decided to stay for a latte anyway, while the rest forged on toward a potential tea shop at the caravan park on the coast.

By this time it had started to rain, so we donned full rain gear.

In fact the potential tea shop was not only open but also remarkably nice. It was pitched as the Woodland Shop and Tearooms, but was actually rebranded as the Coast Cafe.

After lunch/snack, we headed down to the sea through a caravan park.

We then walked the cliff path several miles to Robin Hoods Bay. The village was hidden from view until the last 100 yards or so.

We walked through the outskirts, past our B&Bs, which we chose not to stop en route. A little further on, we spotted two bright umbrellas–it as D’s brother A and his wife L to cheer us in, with champagne.

It was grey and damp as we headed down the narrow, steep street to the waterfront, but the weather didn’t matter at all. So glorious just to have arrived!

We went out to the water’s edge, threw in our St Bees rocks (including the one CL collected two years ago).

Then we adjourned to a pile of rocks for celebratory champagne and drone flight 🙂

We stopped at the waterfront hotel to sign the Coast to Coast book, then back up the steep streets to check in at our B&Bs, before meeting back up at The Victoria Hotel for a lovely dinner.

And with that, the main adventure ends.

What next?