Spot the difference

East Yorkshire coast

Saturday 20th June 2009

Travelling up to Robinhoods bay with the family and Sheffield canoe club, we arrived mid day Friday.

Myself and Adele had not camped for 5 years or more, and the kids have never been so this was to be a proper adventure.

We got the tent up and then the wind blew! One cracked pole! I splinted it with cable ties and some metal tent pegs and it held out ok.

Waking at about 0730 on Saturday, I was surprised to learn that both kids had slept right through the night, (earplugs meant I heard nothing).

Glastonbury like camping was a bit rubbish!

Robinhoods bay or Smugglers cove was steep but interesting, we wouldn't paddle from here though.

Today we went north up the coast through Whitby to Sandsend beach, a long flat sand and a steep concrete sea defence, a pain to get down with the boat.

The sun was shining through the clouds, but that blue clear water of Wales just doesn't happen in the north sea!

We paddle a short distance as we had a group of 8, six of which were short river boats and an eight year old boy, Shaun in a Dagger Dynamo!

Landing on a steep shale beach under a cliff, we had a bite to eat and explored the stream that emtied onto the sand. There was evidence of the constant erosion that is destroying these tall cliffs.

I noticed there were many large pebbles embedded into the rock, and the odd fossil, couldn't work out what they might have been though.

It was then I noticed two or three holes in the cliff face at about head hieght. As I approached them I remembered the TV program 'Coast' and how they had described the way people had extracted Jet from these cliffs over the years to make jewelery and ornaments.

We got back in the boats and paddle back the way we came. This time though I hugged the cliffs.

Where a stream had been emptieing over the cliffs there was an amazing amount of built up lichen growth.

In the back of a small inlet this Kittiwake was looking a little sorry, eyes closed and shaking, the incoming tide was maybe 20 mins from washing him away, just 50 metre further there was another dead bird floating in the water.

At sometime in history it looked as though an optimist had attemted to defend this part of the cliffs with a rather time consuming method, not surprisingly there was only this 10 metre section.

In the village of Sandsend itself this bridge carries the main road North along the coast. I imagine that there are some spectacular scenes of white crashing water here during the winter months.

As we arrived back at the beach I checked my gps and was dissapointed to have only done 2 miles! Looking ahead into the distance I could see the break waters that mark the entrance to Whitby harbour, I hatched a plant to paddle on to hear, and with no takers, I did it alone. I hauled up on the beach first though, had a coffee and arranged a meeting spot in Whitby with the family.

As I got closer to Whitby there was an increase in the swell, I had been warned by Phil, that sometimes in the right or(wrong) conditions you can be surfing in through the harbour entrance.

Once inside the harbour I got the camera out again, today is the 1st day of an RNLI fundraising event.

The Trent class Lifeboat was moored alongside one of the older boats.

I had arrived just in time to see the swing bridge opening and numerous craft passing through, including an old lifeboat doing pleasure trips, and this trawler that towered above me as I sat feeling vunerable and small.

Anyway, did you 'spot the difference'?

Its my kayak! Its changed, after the awkward handling in the tidal flow in South Wales I decided it had to go. I've replaced it with an ex-demo Valley Aquanuat LV. This was its maiden voyage in the sea (under my power anyway).

Perhaps after buying the new Kayak, this should be my boat?

A short but interesting trip around a new venue.