A bigger day of driving than I expected today. I didn’t want to travel on the motorway and miss the scenery so I set my GPS for a morning tea stop at Ripon. I might have avoided the motorway but I didn’t avoid the traffic. My route skirted around the outer suburbs of Bradford and also Leeds, I think. It was bumper to bumper for well over an hour.
Eventually I made it to Ripon, where I had planned on a cuppa by the canal, only to find there was no loo there. Eventually, and with great relief, I found one near the cathedral. Nearby was a nice little cafe where I enjoyed a cream tea - with clotted cream. Yum!
My second reason for coming north was to visit Kilburn and add to my collection of white horses. This one was very big and easy to find. It was cut in 1857 and is 314 ft long and 228 ft high. The horses in the south are cut into chalk but this one is cut into limestone so it was artificially whitened, first with whitewash and now with chalk chippings from the Yorkshire Wolds. During World War II it had to be covered so that it wouldn’t be a target for German bombers.
The drive today took me through typical English rural scenery, all very green except for fields of rapeseed. There have been some big climbs and steep descents and most striking, a sudden change from farms to heather-clad moorland which felt desolate and made one think of Cathy and Heathcliff.
My final destination was the coastal town of Whitby. Fun and games getting to my hotel as I kept missing the turnoff. It seemed too small to be a road. Over the road from the Pier Inn is the mouth of the Esk River and on either side there are attached buildings. So where was the parking they provide? I soon found out. Drive to the end of the road, follow it around and up the hill and look for the W parking spots on the side of the road. That is Cliff Rd, way above sea level. I had to put a parking permit in the car and make my way down a narrow alley. Fortunately I had already dropped my case at the hotel.
Anyway I have a nice little room with a view so all’s well.
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