Hers: fish and chips by the sea The was rather an uncharacteristic meal for me, but we were on holiday by the sea, and it was nice to eat the same meal as The Lovely Husband and Cosima, all of us together.

Day 1140 - the Yorkshire Wolds Way, Day 5

And so to the final day; the last leg from Ganton to Filey. This was about 21 km or 13 miles or, to put it another way, a half marathon distance and about half the distance we had eventually walked the day before. This would be a doddle. Indeed, as we set off, I felt fresh, renewed and full of energy. I insisted that we picked up the pace. I wanted to be in Filey for lunch and a large fish and chips by the sea! The walking was indeed much gentler than the day before and I was confident about achieving our lunchtime target even though it had started to rain a little. There were, however, to be 3 real challenges which would seriously derail my lunchtime plans!

Challenge 1

The Yorkshire Wolds Way takes a detour around an RAF listening post at Stanton Wold. In order, it seems, to make-up the ground lost by this detour, the path takes the shortest possible route up the side of a short hill that could be better described as a cliff. To compound matters, now the rain had started, the cliff had the same degree of grip as an ice-covered mountain. We literally had to haul ourselves up using our hands whilst clinging to the adjoining barbed wire fence. So much for this being an easy walk!

Challenge 2

The relief at reaching the top of ice mountain Stanton Wold was short-lived. At this point the heavens opened. Whilst I luckily had a rain cover for my refrigerator, the waterproofs I had for me were totally ineffective. I was soaked through and now cold.

Challenge 3

The only thing keeping me going was now the thought of my fish and chips at Filey. I had studied my map beforehand. The walk didn’t end in the centre of Filey but followed the beach a bit further north along the coast to Filey Brigg. I envisaged a final straight of a seafront promenade consisting of a selection of amusement arcades, tacky beach shops and most importantly fish and chip restaurants.  We reached the beach at Filey soaked but nevertheless ready for a glorious sprint down the promenade with momentary glances to our left to choose the best fish and chips restaurant in which to celebrate later. Except there wasn’t a promenade and there were no beach front fish and chip restaurants! Instead, the path went up another cliff. Disheartened we made our way up the cliff, only for the path to plunge down another cliff into a valley with an equally steep climb up the other side. Our glory sprint had turned into a final soul-destroying trudge.

And that was it. The finish of the Yorkshire Wolds Way. No feeling of elation. Just cold, tired and wet and the depressing thought that we had to go back along the steep up and down path back to Filey before finding our fish and chips and the railway station for the journey home.

As usual selection of photographs from the walk are below.

With a break from the blogging world and getting back into life at uni after a short break for reading week, I figured a short post would fit best to getting back into the swing of things. During my reading week I visited the seaside town of Southport. Southport, if you wasn’t aware is a relatively large seaside town in Merseyside about mid way between Liverpool and Blackpool. I’ve been to…

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Banana blossom “fish” and chips with homemade tartare, mashed peas, tomato sauce

Northern Soul Chip Shop

St Kilda - Melbourne - Australia

Vegan fish and chips picnic by the beach! Banana blossom “fish”, chips, mushy peas and house made vegan tartare

Northern Soul Chip Shop

St Kilda - Melbourne - Australia

Rockfish+Chips from Shelburne Pub

grox:

Let me out of this sewer, man I could be your best friend. I could be the best thing thats ever happened to you

everybody-loves-to-eat:

(source)

Some food and beer (Oblivion Backside IPA, Mac and Jack’s African Amber) at The Point, Medford, Oregon.