Coast to Coast: Grosmont to Robin Hood’s Bay, 14 miles, Tuesday 22nd June, Journey’s End

So this was it. The final leg of our journey. After the obligatory Full English Breakfast, we said farewell to our eccentric hosts, pulled on our boots for the last time, and headed off east towards Robin Hood’s Bay.

The moment we turned left out of the hotel we were faced with a steep climb of almost two miles, to get back on to the moors. As we neared the top, we had our first clear view of the sea – Whitby and its ruined Abbey - in the far distance. But soon the sea view was lost as we reached the summit of Sleight Moor. The only really difficult section was when we had to negotiate a particularly boggy area, where Emma ruined her otherwise flawless performance when she lost her footing and fell spectacularly up to her waist in the peaty, muddy stream. Luckily it was another incredibly hot and sunny day, so she soon dried off.

Wainwright has designed his Coast to Coast walk to end as it began, with a final four mile coastal section along the cliffs above Robin Hood’s Bay, before eventually descending to the sea. The additional miles are, however, definitely worth the effort, as the view of the coastline above Maw Wyke Hole was breathtaking.

Soon we were descending into Robin Hood’s Bay itself. Luckily the tide was in, so we didn’t have to walk too far before chucking the pebbles we’d collected on the beach at St Bees into the North Sea.

So that was that. The final stretch was completed in just over six hours; plenty of time to adjourn to Wainwright’s bar for a pint of Adnam’s, my favourite beer.

Other than being right on the shore of the bay though, the bar held little charm, so we moved further up the hill to a more pleasant pub for a few pints of Ruby Red ale, before finally settling in the beer garden of the hotel at the top of the hill for some Black Sheep Ale, just a short stagger to our lodgings for the night; the Clarence Dean Guest House.

Clarence Dean is a typical seaside guest house; clean rooms, a sensible and efficient landlady, and a view of the sea from our room, just visible in the distance between the roof tops of the hundreds of other, identical guest houses.

After checking in and having a quick shower, we moved to the little Bistro restaurant next door-but-one from the guesthouse for our celebration meal. We ordered a bottle of champagne which Spike opened perfectly (unlike the fiasco at the Weatherspoon’s pub in Richmond, were, you may recall, the bottle went off like a bomb).

After dinner we sat out on the patio of the restaurant until nearly midnight, enjoying another bottle or two of house red.

And what of our fellow Coasters? Well, we saw the American ladies on the coastal path, and again in the village itself, so they made it. Yellow Tee Shirt man walked into the bistro at around 9:30 in the evening, so he made it as well, I’m happy to report. The only irony being that the tide was out by then, so he must have had to walk an additional half mile to throw his own pebble into the sea.

I don’t know what happened to Striding Man, or Captain Beaky and his long suffering wife, as we never saw them again.

So concludes our adventure, but don’t worry, there will be a final wrap up blog tomorrow on my return to Hertfordshire on Wednesday afternoon, where the first thing I will do will be to head off to the Rose & Crown for a pint of Greene King IPA, which as everybody knows, is my truly favourite beer!

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Full English Breakfasts: 14 out of a possible 16

Number of completed Coast to Coast walks: 1