{"id":3331,"date":"2022-05-23T09:10:17","date_gmt":"2022-05-23T09:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=3331"},"modified":"2022-05-23T09:19:36","modified_gmt":"2022-05-23T09:19:36","slug":"scarborough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=3331","title":{"rendered":"1. SCARBOROUGH"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, this is novel!\u00a0 No ferries to miss.\u00a0 No Google translate.\u00a0 No funny money!\u00a0 But no cheap coffees either!\u00a0 … and lots of traffic and crowded supermarkets.<\/p>\n

The caravan is mended and all appears to be working.\u00a0 However, two days before we leave, I had a major tooth extraction.\u00a0 “Take it easy for a few days.\u00a0 No major exertion.\u00a0 Keep taking the tablets!”\u00a0 Yeah, right Mr Dentist.\u00a0 We have a caravan to get on the road!\u00a0 Glenda’s watch needed a new battery and my walking shoes fell to bits.\u00a0 So, a quick trip to Timsons – two birds with one stone!<\/p>\n

The day before departure, Glenda’s glasses broke.\u00a0 We needed new pads fitted.\u00a0 A quick troll round the local opticians proved that her glasses could only be fixed by a specialist with the right tools!\u00a0 Newton Abbot was the nearest place.\u00a0 So arrangements made to take them in on the way north!\u00a0 Where will I park a caravan while this repair occurs?<\/p>\n

Bookers carpark was the answer!<\/p>\n

The trip to Park Farm was uneventful in a wet and miserable sort of way.\u00a0 So much spray that not only could we not see where we were going, we couldn’t see where we had come from.\u00a0 Still, by the time we got to Strensham services, the rain stopped and the sun came out.<\/p>\n

Park Farm was a lovely small site with 180 degree, panoramic views.<\/p>\n

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There were five of us lined up at the top of the slope …<\/p>\n

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Four caravans facing the view… and a campervan facing the wall!\u00a0 Some people don’t seem to get the message!<\/p>\n

Although just ten minutes from the motorway, it was so peaceful – until, that is, I managed to blow up Glenda’s hair drier while drying a pillow case (best not to ask!).\u00a0 So a quick trip to Boots in Derby (to the same shopping centre we had visited an hour earlier for fuel) was required!\u00a0 We bought their entire stock of travel hair driers – all one of them.\u00a0 Later we discovered that the original item had re-set itself and continues to work perfectly.\u00a0 Still, Glenda now has a spare!\u00a0 I clearly don’t have a need for one apart from using it as a static “tumble-drier” (a procedure now banned by management)!<\/p>\n

The Cowshed, half a mile walk down the lane, serves a superb breakfast.\u00a0 And for a rural eatery, it seems to have a very large and loyal customer base.\u00a0 Cars were parked up and down the lane as well as filling their two carparks.<\/p>\n

We could have stayed longer, but we had to get to Scarborough.\u00a0 \u00a0While the trip from Devon had been in a swirling mist of rain and spray, the second sector was spent wobbling up the exciting M1, M18, A1M and the A64 in strong cross-winds while battling with enormous numbers of HGVs.\u00a0 Why do we do this?!<\/p>\n

Sawdon Heights (and there’s a clue in the name) is located high up on the south edge of the North Yorks Moors.\u00a0 Up a pretty but challenging four mile “single track road with passing places”.\u00a0 Luckily for us, the three passing spaces were located at exactly the right places.\u00a0 Just where we met three terrified locals coming down the lane!\u00a0 One at each spot!\u00a0 I told Glenda that I’d pre-arranged the timing ahead of time.\u00a0 But, as that’s what I always say, I don’t think she believed me!<\/p>\n

The reward was a superb pitch with a view out over the Vale of Pickering<\/p>\n

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From here we attended the memorial service at Scalby for the father of a very good friend from Brixham.\u00a0 This was the original reason for our trip north.\u00a0 Although it was a sad day, the sun shone and we remembered the good old times.\u00a0 It was also good to see all of Sue and Ed’s family together.\u00a0 And good to see them smiling again.\u00a0 David would have been proud of them all.<\/p>\n

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We have never visited Scarborough before (if you discount one day I spent watching motor cycling racing at Oliver’s Mount about 50 years ago on a day when it was too rough to go to sea from Whitby).\u00a0 \u00a0This time we walked along the cliff top at South Bay.\u00a0 It’s a very grand seaside resort of yester-year.\u00a0 Huge numbers of hotels, boarding houses and B and Bs many being converted to rather swish apartments overlooking the sea.<\/p>\n

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However, we decided that the town was best viewed from the clifftop.\u00a0 The closer we got to the epicentre, the more crowded and “kiss-me-quick” it became.<\/p>\n

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But there was an M&S Simply Food in town.\u00a0 Enough said!<\/p>\n

Talking of food, and I’m not going to say much about this, we discovered that everything in the freezer was defrosting!\u00a0 @#%@\u00d7&^\u00a3#.<\/p>\n

So, just like in Spain, the fridge had to go back on gas!\u00a0 After several “rather tense” conversations with our service agent back at home and several tests, it transpires that the fridge “thinks” that the computer-controlled gas valve at the back of the fridge is open and so won’t allow the thing to work on electricity.\u00a0 However, after working on gas for a bit, then switching back to electricity the fridge bursts back into life.\u00a0 Mutter, mutter, mutter!\u00a0 Another new master board required when we get home!<\/p>\n

Anyway.<\/p>\n

From our campsite the road continues a mile or so into Wykeham forest.\u00a0 There is then a sign saying “unsuitable for motor vehicles”.\u00a0 Well, that’s a challenge!\u00a0 The woodland is in fact criss-crossed with unsuitable roads, only one of which actually emerges onto a tarmac road.\u00a0 A road of sorts.\u00a0 Just wide enough for one car, grass down the middle, steeply sloping down the hill with NO passing spaces for about 10 miles (well, perhaps just over half a mile, but it would have been a real pain to meet anything bigger than an electric scooter!).\u00a0 This took us to Hackness Grange for coffee.\u00a0 Except during Covid the hotel had closed to the public.\u00a0 It’s now just a wedding venue for everyone’s convenience!<\/p>\n

From here it was a quick cross country trip to Ravenscar Tearooms for our morning drink.\u00a0 They are open every day …<\/p>\n

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… except Tuesday.\u00a0 And what day is it today?….\u00a0 \u00a0And they need to be told about the correct use of apostrophes!\u00a0 In the end, the National Trust came to the rescue with a rather good coffee and cake!<\/p>\n

There’s a massive seal colony on the rocky ledges below Ravenscar.\u00a0 But we declined the invitation to walk down a rather inviting cycle path to get a closer view.\u00a0 This was, in part (actually, almost exclusively) because it would involve a climb of some 600 feet later on!\u00a0 And anyway, closer views are what binoculars are for!\u00a0 But the view down the hill and across Robin Head’s Bay was spectacular…<\/p>\n

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… in fact, it transpired that this was the best place from which to view the Bay.<\/p>\n

On one building we saw this plaque…<\/p>\n

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… my kind of village!<\/p>\n

After a walk along the cliff-top southwards from Ravenscar, we drove to Robin Hood’s Bay.\u00a0 Two miles as the crow flies but about 12 by car.\u00a0 The road down to village was closed.\u00a0 Very limited parking.\u00a0 Missed the discounted fish and chips at the Grosvenor Hotel by 10 minutes.\u00a0 The dining room of the Victoria Hotel was closed for a private function.\u00a0 We left!<\/p>\n

Whitby was a place I had visited many times.<\/p>\n

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Four times a year we chartered the MFV Achieve out of the port while working offshore surveying the effects of industrial discharges on the local marine environment.\u00a0 OK, so it was best part of 50 years ago, but it was a lot more peaceful in those days.\u00a0 Far fewer tourists and certainly fewer “tourist tatt” shops and amusement arcades.\u00a0 But probably about the same number of icecream vendors along the harbour front.<\/p>\n

During one particularly windy (so no work at sea) day, the challenge was made to walk from the swing bridge to the end of the pier, eating one icecream at each available outlet.\u00a0 The only time you could stop walking was to buy the next cone!\u00a0 \u00a0The story goes that only one person ever completed the challenge.\u00a0 As I recall there were 13 places to buy icecream!\u00a0 And three of them were in successive shops!\u00a0 That bit was a little tricky!\u00a0 In 2022 I declined to repeat the event – in fact didn’t buy even one!<\/p>\n

We tackled the “unsuitable” road again the next day with the intention of visiting Dalby Forest, a few miles to the west of base.\u00a0 As with all good expeditions we set off towards the east before veering sort of north and eventually west.\u00a0 Several hours later we came across a “village shop”.\u00a0 Well, strictly speaking a table outside someone’s house with a collection of goodies and an honesty box.\u00a0 We came away with a cake, a jar of marmalade and a box of eggs.\u00a0 We’ll be OK for supplies if we get lost in the forest!<\/p>\n

In the event, it turned out that the road through the forest was a toll road.\u00a0 They wanted us to part with \u00a310 for the privilege of driving on what looked a lot less “unsuitable” road than the forest tracks we had driven on to get there.\u00a0 So we didn’t!\u00a0 We went back to our local forest for a lovely (and free) walk!<\/p>\n

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… with banks of “wild” daffodils…<\/p>\n

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And on that note I think I’ll stop although we do have one more day before we leave Sawdon.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, this is novel!\u00a0 No ferries to miss.\u00a0 No Google translate.\u00a0 No funny money!\u00a0 But no cheap coffees either!\u00a0 … and lots of traffic and crowded supermarkets. The caravan is mended and all appears to be working.\u00a0 However, two days… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-england","category-travels-in-2022"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3331"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3359,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3331\/revisions\/3359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}