Day 82 Little Weghill (Hull) to Aldbrough via Spurn Head

 

 Date: Monday 11^th July  2011   Distance: 52.91 Miles

 

Around 9 am we left the B and B, where if you wanted you could play an old organ that pumped air through by pedals and the lady of the house made tapestries, currently a kneeler for the local church.

 

At Burstwick we passed Hedon Salad greenhouses and the cars showed there was quite a workforce. Then a cycle route on an old railway which became quite narrow with long wet grass both sides and we came off at Ottringham as I didn’t like the kick back from the pedals when we hit something.

 

At Patrington there was lots of cafes, pubs and a small shop with a money bar all probably serving the caravan site. Ups and downs were quite easy cycling on the road which was more busy than expected. We passed a sign saying “Greenwich Meridian 0 degrees East- West”

 

At Easington village there was nothing open but the Methodist Church had a seat in the sun so we ate fruit and supped water, watching the different varieties of bumblebee on the flowering privet. We thought they were in decline!

 

As we rode past the Kilnsea , Crown and Anchor, we ear marked it for lunch later and carried on to Spurn Head, a sand and shingle peninsula. We had to stop just past the lighthouse, which could do with tender loving care, at the car park. We didn’t want to leave the bike but if we’d walked a bit further we would have seen a couple of seals (according to 2 walkers at lunch)

 

There is a charge of £3 for drivers using the road to Spurn Head but cyclists and walkers are free. The money goes to the Wildlife fund. There was a fair bit of work traffic going to the lifeboat station where the lifeboat men are paid full- timers unlike anywhere else in the country.2 pilots, who help ships navigate the difficult shipping lanes of the Humber, have prefab offices on the jetty.

 

The road to Spurn Head is prefabricated in concrete squares because it needs to move as the land erodes as this has happened several times already. A layer of shifting soft sand covers this making it hard to ride the bike at several points. It was beautiful with water on both sides of the narrow spit, river estuary with mud flats and open sea. Sea holly was dotted about and cow parsley was speckled red with red insects like tiny bloodsuckers.

 

We got back to the Crown and Anchor at Kilnsea and had jacket potatoes and a pint. We met 2 groups of walkers who said you could see deer in the wild around here. We did - a dead one by the side of the road!

 

We took a road that looped round the gas terminal, with the sea on our right the road rolled gently. We passed Outnewton Windfarm on the coasts edge but not all the turbines were working. There were more signs today saying support British pig farms but all the land today seemed to be arable.

 

There was a high police presence all day with often the same car going by, especially near the terminal at Easington, with even a police helicopter overhead. This was a bit unsettling!

 

We intended to go to Holmpton underground bunker, a tourist attraction sited on a small RAF base but, unfortunately, it was closed Monday and Tuesday with the gates opened at 2 for a tour at 2.30 on other days which we thought very specific.

 

At Withernsea we visited Tesco’s so I could change my shorts for padded ones (the higher mileage was taking its toll) and we were disappointed that there wasn’t a cafe. Encouraged by a “visit the lighthouse” notice as we came into town we did just that. It is set well back from the sea amongst the houses and we arrived as school shed hundreds of teenagers past its gate. At £2.50 each we looked at lifeboat memorabilia and an exhibition on a 1950s actress Kay Kendall and satisfied our thirst at the little cafe. We didn’t feel like the steep climb to the top for the view. This lighthouse was built after 3 boats from different years had crashed into the pier and demolished it bit by bit. Humber maritime had been wanting something in the Holderness area to make it safer for shipping. The lighthouse is quarter of a mile from the sea but the surrounding houses arrived after 1892 when it was built. All that is left of the pier is what they call the Sandcastle- like a castle stage set.

 

11 miles to Aldbrough with much twisting and turning of the road and after work traffic, we were overtaken by a recumbent. We never quite caught him up! Aldbrough is set well back from the sea but the end of the coast road has been torn up by the waves and disappeared over the cliff.

 

We ate at the George and Dragon in the village which didn’t have real ale but they did a nice couple of steaks. A tired couple on a motor bike curiously watched us packing up the bike as if we were mad though reputedly it was only 1 and a half miles to go to the B and B.

 

It was! The welcome was lovely at the Georgian, West Carlton County Guesthouse, especially if you like dogs. It is set in fields. We were kindly given a family suite because it meant we could have a bath to soothe our sore posteriors. It was very quiet and spacious and our hostess was laid back. She had just catered for a wedding in her garden with simple things like hay bales for seats, jam jars with candles and buckets of country garden flowers. She is thinking of making a little business of it as locals keep asking her.

 

It was a lovely breakfast but the kitchen seemed such a long way away and maybe the layback-ness was a bit too much as it took ages for everything to arrive. Perhaps she was multi tasking. Despite this we felt this place worth recommending for its relaxing ambience.