Day 15 - Littlebeck to Robin Hood's Bay

On a cold November morning (aka 9 a.m. September 10, 2013) we set off for the last leg of our hike across England.  Eleven miles later, on a bitter, raw February afternoon (aka 3 p.m. September 10, 2013) we reached the sea and completed our trip.  Today we experienced, rain, sleet, cold, and howling winds which came close to knocking us over.  For quite awhile, walking across a moor, I watched as my hiking poles landed 2 feet to the side of where I aimed them as the were blown by the wind.  Next time I hike, I'm going to do it in the summer.

As we left Intake Farm, we got to see a sheep herding exhibition when the farmer sent his border collie to the far end of the field we were walking along.  Within seconds, an entire herd of sheep was racing by with just the one dog behind them.

Within a mile or so, we passed both The Hermitage, and Falling Foss.

The Hermitage is a large boulder which has had a room with a bench carved into it.  If you build this wonder in Sid Maier's Civilization, you double the culture of the city in which it was built,  You must have an opera house in every city.

The Falling Foss waterfall.  We had several people recommend that we stop for tea at the tea shop here, but we passed by only about an hour after a large breakfast at Intake Farm.

After seeing these sites, we decided that it was time to once again get lost while walking through pastures. This time we got so lost that we had to bushwhack through several fields to get to a road, and roadwalk to a trail crossing at Hawsker.  At Hawsker we stopped at a pub called the Rabbit and Amoeba or something like that for tea and soup.  It took me five minutes to get my raincoat off because my fingers were too cold to work the zipper.

Leaving Hawsker, we walked about an hour and reached Robin Hood's Bay.  It's a pretty seaside town and I took several pictures  while walking through, all of which are the quality of the one below of the B&B.  I didn't notice the lens was fogged.  

At the end of the trail, I put my pebble from the Irish Sea into the North Sea, and the hike was done.  I went right to the store where you can get a Coast to Coast completion certificate, but they were closed.  A note on the door said to order one online.  I should post the url so anyone reading this can get one.

At the sea

B&B

Irish Sea stone from St Bee's

is now a North Sea Stone.  I was about 200 yards from the town when I dropped this at the edge of the sea at low tide.  The water is now up to the town walls.

We are just back from our celebration dinner.  Earl and Lois are staying in the UK for a couple of weeks. Tomorrow I travel back to Paisley, stay there Thursday and fly home Friday.  The next post for this blog will be when I get home