Flim Flam

Our next camp site in Flamborough turned out to be a little field with space for 5 ‘vans, and further up is a much bigger field with a smattering of caravans dotted about. There were a few vans lined up on the right, one of which had a warden sign in it, but as no-one was around we just picked a pitch on the CL and set ourselves up.

We’ve taken the dogs on a walk from the site down Danes Dyke, an ancient bank and ditch earthwork that dates back to the Bronze Age and is now part of a nature reserve. The paths took us past the golf course and down on the beach where the dogs had some fun and Linda had a paddle (Phil kept warm in his jumper, still recovering from man flu!). We headed back through the woods spotting our first group of Bluebells in flower as well as an abundance of other colours.





Phil woke up feeling a bit better the next morning, but Linda woke up with a bit of a sore throat, so we are now concerned for her well being and survival.
In the morning we headed out to Bridlington. The town is a strange mix, with arcades, fairground rides and cheesy souvenirs mixing with lovely Victorian B&Bs and houses along the sea front and a ‘normal’ town centre behind it all, given all the other horrid seaside resorts we have visited on our trip we didn’t think we should like it, but the town was strangely endearing! We had a wander around and bought Prince a new collar from a pet shop (lucky him!) and then visited Bridlington Old Town, a lovely area of narrow streets and little shops and pubs, and a huge church which was bordering on the size of a cathedral!
Back at the van we had 3 new neighbours arrive in the time we were away, all setting their units up ready for the bank holiday. We had a chat with our motorhome neighbours Ron and Maggie, they are both retired and bought the motorhome a few years back, they go to Spain in it every Jan/Feb and have also had other Europe tours, we chatted for a while about life on the road and they said they were from Bexhill in East Sussex which is by the Kloofs site we stayed on, they were here for the weekend, so we saw them a few times!
After lunch we headed out to Flamborough. We parked on the side of the road on the way to the headland and walked towards the lighthouse, on the way we passed some strange little houses which looked more like shacks, we also passed the golf course and stopped to watch a group of 4 teeing off (no pressure then). We also passed the chalk tower, built in 1674 it was built as a lighthouse and is the oldest surviving complete lighthouse in England. We walked down to the headland and onto a lovely beach in a cove surrounded by the white chalk cliffs, part of the beach was sandy and the rest was a well polished and clean chalk plateau, very unusual. We headed back up the cliff path and up to Flamborough lighthouse, it is open to the public, but closed on Fridays, typical! After a walk along the cliffs watching the sea birds nesting we headed back to the car just in time for it to start raining..

We had decided that we wanted to head back down towards the Humber, to go and see Spurn Head, a huge spit of land that sticks 3 miles out into the mouth of the Humber estuary. We took the dogs for a walk along the beach down the Spurn, on the way down we could clearly see the remains of the old road and railway which are now being slowly taken by the sea. We also saw the remains of the WW1 Coastal Artillery Batteries, the emplacements have now fallen into the sea due to erosion and you can clearly see the huge foundations of these concrete defences. Once back at the car we tried to drive down the Spurn, but were thwarted by the warden who said that as it was a nature reserve dogs were not allowed, even if we kept them in the car. Princey called him racist and showed him his teeth which didn’t help! (this is a complete lie by Phil! - editor).

Linda wasn’t feeling very well when she woke up the next day due to the cat flu she had picked up from Phil, so we took it a bit steady. We went to Scarborough and walked up to the castle which is the dominant feature on the skyline. The castle and keep itself is now a ruin, but is still very impressive. We had a walk around the castle grounds, exploring the keep and the battlements. At one point we overheard a child saying to her dad ‘I couldn’t live in a castle, it’s too cold!’, appropriate words we thought as the north wind made a good effort at chilling us to the bone. Afterwards we drove down to the beach and parked on street, dogs out, we headed down the promenade and down the steps to the beach, at the bottom of the steps there was a big pool of seawater blocking our access so we had to climb over the wall to dry sand. Linda very elegantly crawled and tumbled her way over the wall to the amusement of some spectators above! After a brief play in the sea we realised the tide was coming in and we were being cut off, so it was back to the wall and a bit more climbing. This time Smudge was a bit more reluctant to go through the water and tried some climbing herself before we forced her into the water, we tried to get her to enjoy it by sending her several times, but unfortunately the torture didn’t mean she enjoyed the pain!

Today Phil had the great idea of taking our ill, battered bodies to Dalby Forest to do some walking and biking. Arriving at the forest drive you have to pay a £7 toll, and then you can drive down the 9 mile drive and park at any of the many car parks. We chose the car park at Dixon’s Hollow, where all the MTB tracks start from. A quick bite for lunch and we were off, Linda going for a slow plod with the dogs on a badly marked footpath and eventually following part of the bike routes. Phil rode the black route which was used as the world cup course only the weekend before, the course was short but good fun with some nice steep and tricky bits on the descents, there was also a bike park to play in with some jumps, log riding, slalom course and other things-for-silly-little-minds. Great fun was had but due to our illness we were both very snotty when we were back at the car. On the way home we drove through Thornton-Le-Dale where we have stayed previously, and happy to report that the village has lost none of it’s charm.

We have now moved to a lovely little site in the North York Moors, in a tiny village called Lealholm.