A walk from Carn Galver Mine to Porthmeor Cove, oh and a little detour…..

A damp start, but as forecast, it soon perked up and developed into a lovely sunny afternoon. The forecast for tomorrow and much of the week is horrible so we have decided to head home for a few days – yes I’m afraid we are becoming fair weather campers!! However we are not losing a day so we head just beyond Morvah and park up at Carn Galver Mine. Now I could quite happily have set up camp and stayed here for the afternoon but Poppydog has other ideas….

We follow the footpath which closely resembles a stream down towards the sea and join up with the coastal path just above Porthmoina Cove. Access to the cove looks to tricky for us and the tide is quite high, so we continue along the footpath heading eastwards (towards St Ives).

I found the going fairly tough, I think partly as it comes at the end of nearly a fortnight of clambering up and down the coastal path. It is one of those stretches were you need to watch your feet as the path scrambles over rocks and slithers into muddy patches. After about a mile we are looking down over Porthmeor Cove, with patches of turquoise water, hinting at lovely white sand beneath.

Unfortunately here again access was too tricky for us to contemplate alone, though we did enjoy a brief rest sat in the sunshine just above the cove – the tide is still too high for the sand to be exposed but the promise is certainly there.

Porthmeor Cove

Now it is time for us to hike back up the hill and over grazing land to the van with a little look through the window when we get there.

Room with a view…

As the afternoon is still lovely, on the way back home we pop down to Perranuthnoe as a treat for a proper beach walk and to enjoy the rest of the sunshine.

There are a few other like minded people around so Poppydog has to stay on her lead, but still she can run, play ball and have a splash about.

As for me, well I can just take it easy and take photos of the sun behind the clouds…

A great day and we’re home and unpacked in time for tea….

Home for tea

A whirlwind tour of north North Yorkshire’s beaches…

As we have struggled to find any suitable campsites open a bit further up the coast, we have decided to visit the beaches to link up with last year’s adventure, from here. We drove to Boulby, just around the headland from Skinningrove, our most southerly beach last year, but this just turned out to be a cliff top hamlet with no access to the shore (that I could see anyway).

So next on the list was Staithes…

Staithes

A pretty little jumble of cottages clustered down a steep valley and around the harbour with a fair smattering of cafes, pubs, galleries and shops.

Not the prettiest beach we’ve seen but it had a lovely atmosphere and quite busy today. I bet it’s a lovely place for a holiday and surely buzzing during the summer

After a good mooch around we moved on to Port Mulgrave only to find that access to the beach and abandoned harbour was wiped out by a land slip so we moved on.

Port Mulgrave

To Runswick Bay…

A lovely crescent shaped sandy bay with a few challenging fast flowing streams to cross as we made our way along. The village of Runswick is a pretty hillside village with more than it’s fair share of holiday cottages, a hotel and couple of cafes – a great place to holiday.

Randomly as we were walking along the beach we could here the sounds of a huntsman horn and spotted some hounds scurrying through the woodlands behind the village – I would have thought it too steep for horses and we didn’t see any so perhaps it was just the hounds out for some exercise?

The sun was just setting (it only appeared in time to set!) as we made our last stop at Sandsend, the northerly end of Whitby Bay.

Sandsend with Whitby Abbey in the far distance

We could happily have spent longer at each place and walked the miles of coastal path along the cliffs in between but the time of year is not on our side so I am happy to add this area to our ever growing list of places to return to!

A walk along Speeton Sands in the sun, the rain and ever present wind…

Another wild night with pretty torrential (and noisy) rain kept as awake until the wee hours, when it either eased up a bit or we just got used to it and finally nodded off. It was still pretty miserable as we went for our morning walk around the large section of the site which is closed until busier times, there is a sizeable dog walk on site but this area is pretty waterlogged at the moment and as Poppydog still refuses to be towelled down without a fight, I prefer her not to get too soggy in the mornings.

By lunchtime the current batch of wet stuff and wind seemed to have passed on through so we headed to Reighton Sands with it’s small carpark and clambered down what is left of the footpath, mostly now a raging muddy stream onto the beach.

Reighton Sands

This time we ventured southwards onto Speeton Sands

Speeton Sands

Both beaches are at the southern end of Filey Bay a stretch of some 5 miles of low tide sand. Speeton Sands was pretty deserted and sheltered enough by Flamborough Head and Reighton Cliffs to make ball throwing an option – so we did…

Poppydog in flight
There she goes…

At the far end of the beach, the heavens decided we were having way too much fun and shed a bucket load of tears, whipping up a nice little flurry of wind to ensure we got a proper soaking – thanks! Still this was a bit of a bonus…

Our pot of gold….

Time to head back up the beach and chase a little sunshine after the storm before it bobbed down behind the cliffs for the day.

A little sunshine and a lot of blue sky, oh yes and one damp dog!

A bit blowy on South Sands in Bridlington….

Well at last, with Storm Dennis raging outside, a long overdue return to this blog, my excuse – well just blogged out I guess! I shall endeavour to catch up the missed blogs over the coming weeks and they will be back dated to reflect the actual dates.

However, today has been pretty much as awful as forecast, though having just watched the news, I again appear to be quite jammy, just sitting above the tranch of horrendous rain that is causing such devastation elsewhere. We opted for a shortish walk along the South Sands of Bridlington.

South Sands looking towards Bridlington
Looking south away from the town

A lovely long stretch of sand but open to the full force of the wind, such that walking away from the town, almost due south west was nigh on impossible!! Unsurprisingly away from the town the beach was deserted so Poppydog was able ‘run free’….

Born to run free…

As well as being lovely to see it means that I don’t have to walk so far, a bit of a bonus especially today as not only is it tough going but there is a fair bit of sand in the air getting in your face and eyes! So after an exhilarating hour or so we were quite happy to call it a day and return to our cozy little den.


Thought of the day…

Surprisingly the site has filled up during the afternoon, I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to tow today!

A month home in our beloved Cornwall….

On Thursday 5th of December, after a couple of weeks spent with my lovely Dad, it was time for us to head home. Off at the crack of dawn to beat the M25 we were down on the Lizard by early afternoon and more importantly on Kennack Sands by 3.

Much as we love our life on the road it is always nice to come home to see friends and family. Whilst home we kept up our routines and visited plenty of beaches ….

Poldhu (above) always a favourite (amazing hot chocolate in the cafe which is open year round) and Church Cove at Gunwalloe….

Fishing Cove and Loe Bar…..

Oh and of course Kynance – we are so lucky…

For the first time since we have been travelling, we are back in time to enjoy the Christmas Light switch on in Cadgwith always a great village event….

And after the crowds have gone a chance to see the lights…

Christmas Day wouldn’t be the same without meeting up on the beach to watch the midday swim, followed by a drink or two in the pub before stanking up the hill for a monster feed.

We had a lovely family Christmas week, with all the immediate family together, travelling in from New Zealand (nephew) and Canada (daughter), lots to talk about, stories to tell, alcohol to consume and of course food to enjoy. Poppydog was of course spoilt rotten with lots of fuss and attention and managed at least one sly lick at the cooked turkey before enjoying her own Christmas lunch.

Christmas week was over all too quickly with everyone returning to their own lives for the New Year.

Just into the New Year our beautiful little Poppydog hit the headlines by falling ill and rather dramatically requiring emergency surgery to have a stone removed from her gut.

Understandably this quite dramatically curtailed our activities with 10 days enforced recuperation. However as the weather was pretty shocking, wet and wild, it was no great hardship staying in to keep her company!

Signed off by the vet on Monday 13th January we are on the road again Tuesday 14th and so our journey continues….