England Coast path part 76 Hedon to the Humber bridge

 Friday 16th May 

Miles 13 Miles     

Elevation Gain 139 feet   

Total days walking 86 (excluding the swcp)

Total mileage 1726.24 (including the swcp)

After a night in the Kingstown hotel a Green king hungry horse pub with play barn. Not a busy place but judging by the vehicles in the carpark it's used by trade services for overnight stays. 

A lazy start to the day as I have only planned a short six mile walk into Hull. The start is easy to find as it's where we stopped right outside the door of the pub!

Little did I know the path was that close when I booked it!

Unfortunately it's road trudging along the busy A1033, it has a wide path with cycle lane so it's no worry,  after about 3 miles we pass Hull prison with it's high walls & bars at the windows. Outside a parking warden is going about his duties. We are passing many Industrial units some well kept with Rose garden frontage behind the high fencing others overgrown looking tired.

Crossing the busy A1033 we turn off down a quieter road before coming along side the river Humber & the promenade leading towards the dock area, big wide walkways modern & clean but giving a sense of the industry that once was there & still present in a clean modern way.

 We pause in the sun to take in the views of the mud flats & the waves lapping at the land, next to a huge rig of some kind, bright orange on stilts sitting above the muddy river bed.

After some fruit & a coffee from our flask we set off again. While were walking along we met a group of special needs people with their carers enjoying the sun & fresh air. It was lovely to see them being taken out along the promenade.

Soon we are at the point we need to turn off Into the city centre but our train is not until 17.08 so have time to walk to the Humber bridge so continue along the path past the Deep aquarium crossing several lock gates some of which don't look like they have been opened this century all silted up.

Continuing weaving our way onwards crossing another lock gate & into Albert dock now with water on both sides we are trapped for on a straight path for a couple of miles until we come to a run down area with derelict buildings wonderful graffiti, how do they get to the places to spray the the paints without falling off & some of it so artistic. 

Carrying on over rough ground & onto a very modern concrete path flood defence walls on both sides & a commercial shopping area with many different retail shops lined up facing the river Humber. 

The Humber bridge is still way off in the distance but with each step we know we are getting closer. thinking about getting back in time for our train.  Finally the bridge looms large overhead we are here! but our journey doesn't stop here, we need to find the on slip for pedestrians which is where we will finish today & pick up on next time. 

Continuing on past a row of brightly coloured cottages & into the park past the old windmill under the under pass where an artist is doing some painting quite fine art (might take a peek at it next time to see the finished job) up some steep steps & across the car park we finally find ourselves at the start of the crossing of the bridge & our end destination of the walk.

Stopping our Strava we turn around to head to the bus stop to make our way back to Hull Central Station.

Lesley cheekily asks a lovely young lady who has just returned to her car if she is going to hull but unfortunately she is not, BUT, she does offer us a lift to Hessel square where a bus might be more readily available. 

She drives a large black estate car and as we bundle ourselves into the back seats like naughty children she says that she wishes she had her son with her as they were watching the TV show ''race across the world'' & have been talking about giving lifts & why people don't seem to do it these days & would love to give a lift to some back packers.

here we are, back packers in the back of your car!

 Now have a story to tell, we do hope that you get to find our blog from the QR code I gave you & you are able to put a comment here. 

So whoever you are we are most grateful for the lift, we did get the bus directly back to Hull & with plenty of time before the train, we managed to find ourselves some food & drink before going to the station.

We will be back, Hull is calling for us too continue our walk over the bridge heading for Grimsby & beyond, & whoever it is, we might blag a lift from someone back to the Humber bridge country park 

I didn't get your name but again thank you 

Lesley & Derek 

Photos of the day               

A bus stop on the A1033

The Deep aquarium

Derelict buildings

Ears of corn dancing in the wind

The Humber bridge with the National trails symbol


The route of the day

            

England Coast path part 75 Sunk Island to Hedon

Thursday 15th May 

Miles 15.25 Miles     

Elevation Gain 75 feet   

Total days walking 85 (excluding the swcp)

Total mileage 1663.24 (including the swcp)

We had a good nights sleep in the RV followed by a good breakfast with toast & butter, a real treat for us which gave us a late start to the walk.

Leaving the RV we knock on the door to our hosts house to  bid them farewell. On the road leading back to the path a truck pulls up & the poor driver nearly blows a blood vessel as he is very possessive about the little bit of road saying it's private. We state that we came in on it without going through the crops but he is insistent that we walk through the crop field saying there is a path along the side of the drainage ditch so we walk where he tells us.....

Back on the path the grass is quite hard going but we are sure this will get trodden down as more people use the newly opened KCCP, I just hope the truck driver doesn't blow a blood vessel as he encounters more walkers passing through his bit of the world.

The Seeker deer are in an abundance, If the stupid animals stayed still we would go right past them without seeing them but they jump up & run away making themselves obvious.

The dyke is high with the wind constantly blowing, we stop & have a coffee sitting on our backpacks out of the direct wind, carrying on along Cherry Cobb Sands Bank. Just before Paull in the nature reserve we stop for more coffee & cakes before heading down Paull main street, having earlier met a twitchier who told us there was a pub in Paull we were disappointed that all three pubs were closed!

Continuing on following the Hedon Haven into Hedon finally arriving at our hotel for the night.

Photos of the day

The Route

 

England Coast path part 74 Easington to Sunk Island

 Wednesday 14th May 

Miles 13 Miles     

Elevation Gain 17 feet   

Total days walking 84 (excluding the swcp)

Total mileage 1663.24 (including the swcp)

Today we aim to walk to a place called Sunk island & the only accommodation we could find on the route was  an American style caravan (RV) called Waders Retreat Stay, The pictures look good but we don't know what we will find! 

We arrived at Waders retreat & as promised the key was in the door of the RV so we went in to settle in with a cup of tea & a shower but unfortunately there was no hot water so we just chilled over the tea & a bit of TV  

Kay & Robby arrived home, we had cheekily asked then if they could buy us some bananas which they willingly did, they also bought us some milk, bread & butter which were most welcome.

We were introduced to there very exited dogs & when I said there was no hot water Robby went white, oh no I forgot to turn it on for you so apologetic I then spotted the water was not draining from the sink, Robby immediately jumped into action plunging the sink & jumping in the car to go & buy some Mr muscle drain cleaner. Back with the drain cleaner Robby pored it into the drains & plunged a bit more telling us not to worry about any washing up. The water now hot Lesley jumped into the shower but the shower tray filled with water! 

I was in my element I plunged the sink & the shower & got the water flowing again so I was able to shower, I highly recommend waders retreat perfectly located & the only place I could find to stay in that area.

So the walk from Easington to Sunk Island was flat good well trodden paths to start but the grass got longer & made the walking hard.

The light house on Spurn head slowly getting smaller in our rear view with the expanse of  water turning from estuary to river brown sandy murky water. 

plodding onwards we cross the Greenwich Meridian line Longitude Zero. nearing Sunk island i keep checking the map as we need to take the bridge across the drainage ditch to get to the RV. Past some beautiful green wheat fields we come to a bridge the only one on the map so cross over it & walk the road to the RV.

Photos of the day

The Route

England Coast path part 73 Withernsea to Easington

Tuesday 13th May 

Miles 18.62 Miles     

Elevation Gain 456 feet   

Total days walking 83 (excluding the swcp)

Total mileage 1681.86 (including the swcp)

Off we go, a bright clear day we head out from our accommodation to the old pier head where we finished on our last trip, the pier long gone closing due to storm damage in1875 only 26 years after it was constructed.

Starting out along the promenade past a plot of land that is for sale but I don't think will sell as its hanging off the cliff! & further on past life boat station, unfortunately its not long before the promenade comes to an end. We are looking for a way off the cliff to the beach which involves scaling a low fence & through a field, we are not the first, the path is well worn but the gate we are heading to is locked but there is no path down to the beach. Turning right to head out of the field onto a residential road we can see there have been goats grazing on the land.

Out of the field we walk down a residential road turning left onto the main road past a caravan site into the dog walking area where we find  some steps cut into the bank leading down to the beach now down on the beach we get into our pace.

Along the beach we can see the erosion & cliff falls with the ww2 pill boxes collapsed onto the beaches, I find a beach ball & kick it along the beach before losing it to the sea! 

Now approaching Easington where we will be staying Lesley calls the pub as arranged when booking to see if we can drop our bags off before we walk down to Spurn point but there is no reply so  leaves  a message.

We take a chance it & make a detour off the beach via a very nice well kept static home park, arriving at the pub they are having some work done  we speak to the guy & are are able to drop our bags off in the room. Bags dropped  we  carry on back to the beach & on to Spurn Point nature reserve.

Travelling light we are able to make good progress, its hot & dry walking on the dry dusty  sand is hard going. 

Finally across the sand bar past the hightide shelter (the sandbar can be flooded at high tide) heading out to the lighthouse 2 miles away its hot & the sand covered concrete road is easier but still hard going, as we progress along the road the sand becomes less & the walking easier, the only wild life we can see are the brown caterpillars crossing the path.

Arriving at the light house we are under whelmed, lack of birds lizards etc. We turn to make the crossing back off Spurn point. On the return journey we walk closer to the water edge on our left but are asked by a volunteer who is installing an electric fence to walk back over to the loose dry sand. Coming off the point we stop off at he Spurn point café a nice cup of tea sconce, jam & cream or is it, cream & jam! leaving the café with some reduced goods for breakfast  we head back to the pub where a pint is calling. On the way  we go down a lovely grassy path butterflies fluttering around but again not much other wildlife.  

Meeting a gentleman on the path with his binocular's he also agrees there is not much wild life about spotting just a few butterflies.

Back at the pub we settle into a nice cool pint.

Photos of the day

The route

England Coast path part 72 Epsom to Withernsea

Monday 12th May

Miles 0 Miles     

Elevation Gain 0 feet   

Total days walking 82 (excluding the swcp)

Total mileage 1663.24 (including the swcp)

Today is a traveling day & due to the Withernsea tide times we take a late train up to Hull. The train journey is uneventful arriving on time we have time to walk down to the market & get ourselves some lunch from one of the many market stall food outlets. Following our lunch we head back to the station to catch the the X7 bus to Withernsea. A pleasant hour bus journey we arrive in Withernsea & pop into the Aldi to stock up on some essential food item& head to the accommodation for the night. 

We have to stay over night so we can start walking early in the morning to be able to walk along the beach as like the previous sections due to cliff erosion there is footpath along the cliffs.