I’ve been to the seaside! It took me a few hours to get there but the sun was shining and I just love the seaside. It’s the sea I like, I don’t like sand! I’ve always had a bit of a sand issue, it’s a bit like the issue I have with glitter. It gets everywhere, I can’t stand the fact that it just clings to you and you can’t get it off. But the sea is a different thing altogether, it has to be in my top 10 favourite things. I like to watch it, I like to swim in it and I just love to listen to it laid down with my eyes closed.
So which bit of seaside did I go to…….the North Yorkshire Coast. Runswick Bay and Staithes to be precise. I adore these two places and there is the most fantastic cliff top circular walk between the two, so that’s what I did. These are not the big commercialised tourist hotspots, they are still little working fishing villages, and they are so pretty.
You can do the walk in any direction but I parked up at Staithes and walked north to south, into the sun. Staithes has the prettiest little harbour with bobbing colourful fishing boats. Its streets are winding and cobbled. You can almost imagine the smugglers and pirates hanging out there in days gone by. The beach is really sandy and there are hundreds of rock pools in which I’ve spent many a happy hour with my two in the past looking for crabs.
I think it reminds me of happy family holidays when I was little. We used to go to Bournemouth every single year, same two weeks, same hotel because my parents are creatures of habit. I have such happy memories of childhood holidays. Apparently, I was the nightmare child on the beach though. Who would have thought?!?! I had to be watched like a hawk because I made an instant dash for the sea as soon as I was able to walk, but before I could swim. I have photos of my dad engaging in what can only be described as child cruelty. I’m only joking, or am I? Perhaps this is where my sand issue came from. His answer to this dilemma was to dig a hole in the sand as soon as we got to the beach and basically, when my parents wanted a bit of peace and quiet and a break from constantly watching me, they put me in the hole to thwart my escape plans. I then spent a couple of hours trying to get out of the hole. The only way they could keep me quiet was to buy me ice cream or put me on a donkey. Some things never change, even now the only thing that shuts me up on the beach is an ice cream, I’m a bit too big now for a donkey though!
I need to get as close to the sea as possible too. I didn’t take my swimming stuff on this occasion because it was far too cold. The closest I could get to the sea was by doing my best mermaid impression on a rock with my book. It was quite rough though and I got soaked as the waves crashed against the rocks but it really did blow the cobwebs away. I love the smell and taste of the sea too, when you get the salt all over your face. I wanted a swim so badly. I need to tell you about my swimming though. Although I love to swim and love water, I just can’t put my head under. You will notice on any picture of me swimming that my head stays above water and my hair is dry. If it’s otherwise, I’ve gone under by accident. I have an instantaneous panic reaction as soon as my face goes in. So, I can’t dive, only jump. It’s one of the things on my bucket list to get over it and learn to dive, I’ll do it eventually, maybe this year with some patient instruction! The back of my head is fine, I can do backstroke all day, but as soon as my nose and mouth are covered, I panic. According to my dad, I am the only person who can jump off a 5-meter diving board and not get my hair wet. I’ll have to video it one day as it’s hilarious to watch. How do I do it? I start doing breast stroke arms as soon as I leave the diving board. I create a huge splash and it makes my arms sting but I don’t go under!
This fear of putting my head under comes from when I learnt to swim when I was little. I think my swimming instructor went to the school of how not to teach children to swim. I’m sure she would be struck off in this day and age and I can’t believe anyone teaches swimming like this now. We never really started off in the shallow end or had flotation devices. She made you jump in the deep end and had a huge wooden pole which she promised would be within arm’s reach. I used to paddle furiously with my arms and legs, it wasn’t swimming, it was just trying to avoid drowning, and then every time you reached for the pole, she moved it just beyond your reach. I can remember being absolutely terrified of going for my swimming lesson and it’s a wonder now that I like water and swimming so much, but I just can’t put my head under. I used entirely the opposite methods to teach my two and they both swim like fish and are excellent at diving so I’m convinced I didn’t learn to swim the best way.
I had a brisk walk along the cliff top, wearing my bobble hat of course because it was windy, until I got to the next village, Runswick Bay. This is another gorgeous little fishing village and the beach near here is famous for fossil hunters looking for fossils from the Jurassic age. In the early 1990’s the fossil of a sea going dinosaur was found.
At the turn of the 20th century there were around 80 full time fishing boats going out of Staithes and Runswick Bay to fish the North Sea. They fished in a boat called a coble which is a type traditional fishing boat developed in this area. It was flat bottomed and high bowed so could be used in shallow sandy areas like this. Unfortunately, now there are only a few part time fishermen and a lot of the cottages are holiday lets as the younger generations have moved out of the area to pursue other, more lucrative careers.
It was truly a beautiful day. The blue sky and clouds were endless and the photographs don’t really do it justice.
I walked back along the cliff top to Staithes and even though you walk the same way back, in reverse it looks completely different. The advantage of doing the walk this way around is that you finish at the ‘Cod and Lobster’ the lovely harbourside pub which would at one time have been full of fishermen. Not so much today, but it does do the best cod and chips with mushy peas, slice of lemon and tartare sauce. Any visit to the seaside has to end with a drink in the pub and good old British fish and chips, and this day was no different. They always taste so much better by the seaside.
