I thought I would make good use of the fine weather to get a single days walk in on the east coast. Not being an ardent fan of Royal Weddings and again not receiving an invite, I left the happy couple to it!
I set off at 05:00 to drive to the East Riding of Yorkshire. I had two chores to do before I started walking, the first was to drop my bicycle off at Kilnsea and the second was to visit my auntie and uncle who live in a small village close to Withernsea.
It was a gloriously hot day when I arrived in Withernsea, I parked in the free car park close to Aldi and then set off down the promenade. High tide had occurred two hours before so I was soon able to get down on the beach and continue walking south. Again not much in the way of things to see when walking along the beach. I kept an eye out for the natural gas terminal at Easington, which is the processing point for the gas shipped from the Easington gas field some 47 miles offshore. I soon arrived at Kilnsea and bought an ice cream at a cafe. I transferred back onto the road and picked up the bicycle I had left some hours before. My intention was to walk to the end of Spurn Head and then ride the bicycle back to Kilnsea.
I set off down Spurn Head which was very busy. I passed over the “wash over” section which makes the lower section into a Tidal Island. The land was quite narrow and you could see large areas, particularly at the southern tip, given over to military installations largely overgrown, some from the First World War. I walked to the tip of Spurn Head and joined a small group of people who had gathered there to gaze across the Humber estuary to Lincolnshire on the far side. For those that did not fancy the long walk there was a lorry people carrier that ferried people down the Spurn, at a price. I cycled back to Kilnsea, but there were a number of sections where the road had washed away and I was forced to push the bike again through the soft sand.
I arrived back in Kilnsea and continued on foot pushing the bike. In retrospect I should have just left my bike there and caught a bus back to Withernsea and returned to pick the bike up. However, I continued along the grassy sea wall, pushing my bike. The grass was fairly long in places, which impeded progress to a small degree. I was aiming for Welwick Salt Marsh, where an access road from the village comes down to the estuary. I was certainly glad to see the Salt Marsh end point as I had underestimated the time taken and I still had the cycle ride back to the car at Withernsea. Still, walking down the length of The Spurn was the highlight of the days walk.
Distance today = 21 miles
Total distance = 3,802 miles
Walking the Coast of Great Britain 