UK trip part 15: Whitby

From the Lion Inn (at the end of the last update we took the bus to Whitby. We'd spend two nights here at the Saxonville Hotel, a small family-owned hotel in the West Cliff area.

We had a couple of hours to walk around before what turned out to be a very delicious dinner (I had a lemon ginger squid starter followed by a a sea trout and watercress tart) at the justifiably famous seafood restaurant Magpie's Cafe. The next day we walked to Robin Hood's Bay, the actual end of the C2C, and then took the bus back to Whitby to tour the dramatic Whitby Abbey ruins. I've decided to put the Whitby (town and abbey) pictures in this post, and the walk to Robin Hood's Bay in the next, just to break things up logically. I promise amazing photos in both sets!



( Warning: scenery overload )

Even more Whitby and Robin Hood's Bay photos on Flickr

UK trip part 16: Whitby to Robin Hood's Bay

The 'official' Coast-to-Coast route continues across the moors to a place called Hawsker, where it picks up a footpath leading to the coast at a point about halfway between Whitby and Robin Hood's Bay. Most of the our group chose to take the bus to Hawsker and walk from there, for a five-mile finish to the two weeks of hiking. But the Cleveland Way - a trail system we'd followed for much of our time in the North York Moors - actually goes through Whitby and follows the coast all the way down, and Britt, Kris, and I opted to leave from the hotel and take this route to our destination.

We walked down to the river, crossed the bridge, and climbed the stairs leading to Whitby Abbey. Just past the ruins we easily found the marked footpath, which took us to the cliff's edge.



The path wound precariously along the top of the cliff. In many places the path veered dangerously close to the edge - or rather, the edge had eroded dangerously close to the path. Farther along the route we talked with another walker, a teacher who'd lived in the area for twenty years, and he told us that they'd had to relocate the path as the cliff fell into the sea.



( To the ends of the earth! )