At 6.30 when I was all packed up and ready to leave Intake Farm, I was excited and saddened in equal measure. By around 11am I was going to be able to say that I had done the Coast to Coast walk, but, by 11am it would also be over and I would have to start my reintegration into society. On the plus side I would also be able to have a shower in York and put the clean clothes on my sister was bringing with her to Robin Hood’s Bay.
So I embarked upon the final few miles through woods, over more moors and around cliff tops, striding ever closer to my goal of Robin Hood’s Bay and the North Sea: the distance markers on the road signs confirming that I was getting ever closer.
And then I was there. Robin Hood, on this journey, I have clambered over your chair; I have gazed indifferently at a pile of stones people call your grave; argued on-line that, despite being a portrayed as a Disney fox, you were never real and, as of 10:45 on the 11th August 2016, I paddled in the North Sea at the bay that bears your name. I have covered& 190 miles in 13 days. My stone from St Bees now rests at the bottom of the North Sea, my feet (yes, unfortunately not just my boots) are wet, my name is in the book of Coast to Coasters at the Bay Hotel as the first of the day to arrive.
Being an early bird I was unfortunate enough to get here before opening, but the Bay Hotel were happy enough to supply me with a pot of tea, while waiting for the bar to open properly. And then there was nothing else to do but to drink Wainwright’s Ale until my sister arrived and contemplate having to walk up the hill out of Robin Hood’s Bay.
Intake Farm, Littlebeck to Robin Hood’s Bay
11.6 miles / 90.6 miles