Filey to Felixtowe?

What better place to start a (possible) trip round the North Sea than the place where I first saw it. Filey is where I spent all my school holidays in the 70's - it has hardly changed since then and is none the worse for that. I had a look round the old haunts, and headed for a campsite in nearby Hunmanby. Alas! It appeared to be a members only site, so I went on to Grange Farm at Flamborough, at £3.50 the cheapest campsite I’ve encountered for quite a while. Only the first day, and already my carefully-hatched plans were unravelling (I love the mixed metaphors!)

Bike, paddling pool and Filey Brig in the background


The promised wet weather arrived, and this put me off exploring Flamborough Head, but instead headed south down the Holderness coast.

The coast near Skipsea

The weather certainly emphasised why the coast is washing into the sea so fast. I wanted to go to Spurn Head the following day, but no-one was in when I rang the only campsite near there. In increasing rain, and by now totally wet through, I headed towards a site I knew was open and affordable, at Barton-on-Humber. This involved a ride along parts of two very bumpy disused railway lines, and negotiating Hull. I lost the NCN route signs to the Humber Bridge, and ended up retreating from a very nasty fast A road having to push my bike the wrong way down a slip road. Then I found a cycle shop and the young chap there gave me a leaflet with the Hull cycle routes on - I could have kissed him!

It still seemed to be a long way to the bridge, and when I got there it looked very long, high, and narrow over a swirling coffee-coloured expanse of water, and through pelting rain. And I'd thought I was going for an easy option, the dry East coast! A memorable crossing, made more interesting by the waterfalls of water deposited on the cycle path, and me, from every passing lorry. So I ended up at Silver Birches Campsite very wet, put up a soggy tent, stuffed my shoes with newspaper and put my camping cooker on. Cup of tea and some pasta and all was well. (Lidl dried pasta in mushroom sauce - very good).

Humber Bridge from Far Ings Nature Reserve

Barton-on-Humber has several nature reserves, an arts centre, two historic churches and plenty of shops. I was kept busy and had plenty of opportunities to evade the stormy weather, and some interesting chats with people at the visitor centres. The rising tide is a popular topic of conversation. But I had 'done' the Holderness coast in one day, not the three I had intended! I kicked myself for not ringing round more of the campsites beforehand, but also started planning a little trip to catch up what I had missed - another time.

The following day I interacted more than necessary with Grimsby, but found an excellent cycle route out of Cleethorpes past sand dunes. It was Sunday, it was sunny, and lots of people were out enjoying themselves. I stayed at West End Farm a few miles from Louth for a couple of nights - I'd been to the site earlier in the summer, and been fascinated by the rather strange Lincolnshire marshes. This time I explored nature reserves at Donna Nook and around, which are very strange.

Donna Nook: the bombing range

Saw a Little Egret, a bird which we hardly used to see in this country, now they are quite frequent in this sort of area. Had a long chat with a woman walking her dog – turned out she used to be a public health officer in Nottingham and in her words "demolished St. Ann’s Well Road – not with a bulldozer but with a piece of paper".

The weather was going off again as I headed for Mablethorpe and another sea-edge cycle path. Bottom gears battling against the wind on the flat! The resort towns and caravan sites here are several metres below the sea - whose idea was it to build there? Ponds created when the sea wall was reinforced after the 1953 storm are now nature reserves. It was too windy along the coast, I headed inland to look at some interesting churches, and a long ride against the wind got me to Havenhouse Campsite near Skegness: another nice little site with a sheltered orchard for little tents.

Markby Church - note bicycle for scale

Next day I went to Gibraltar Point, which involved either cycling on, or on a narrow path next to, one of the A roads into Skeggy, but it was worth it. Even Skeggy had its uses - a cycle shop for tyre levers which don’t bend - and great views of the off-shore wind turbines. ‘Gib’ was great - I saw lots of interesting birds and some rather more accomplished birdwatchers told me what they were. But I recognised an avocet all on my own which I was very chuffed about. Was so into the birdwatching I didn't get to the cafe!!

I had to return to Nottingham for a few days, so the next day was the last day of this leg of the trip. It involved another assault of the headwind - even though I had 'turned the corner' into the Wash. Off into fen country and big fields and a general odour of cabbage. Best find of the day - Wainfleet has a caff! After some striking churches and a hunt for the sea, which was a long, long way out, I had to head for Boston 'stump' and find the station to return home - at least until part 2.

Boston Stump - note bicycle for scale!

All the campsites are on

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/ and I'd recommend them all.

The story so far...

Last year, after one job too many finished too many months too soon, I decided that it would be a sensible career choice to become a science teacher. Having realised the folly of this, I emerged blinking into the sunlight at the end of June with a PGCE but no job and no intention of ever entering a classroom as a teacher again. Live and learn - and I certainly learnt a lot last year, particularly that teenagers are human too and if I can't stand being shut up in a room all day with no windows, why should I expect them to? Common sense reminds me that I may change my mind, especially as financial need bites... and I was reckoned to be pretty OK at the job… but I am putting it off as long as possible. I value my sanity.

Anyway, as my final post on Covblog describes, I rushed off to Derbyshire to do lots of walking, and then off to Lincolnshire for a bit of cycling. And I'd promised myself, all that long long spring and early summer, that I'd go for a really long cycle tour. When would I get the chance again? But in August the campsites are full of families, and anyway, I got busy reintroducing myself to all the people I knew when I was last in Nottingham. Five years ago - and it was as if I had never left! Suddenly I was really busy helping the Wildlife Trust and the City Farm, getting involved with the Nottingham Organic Gardening Group allotment and Transition Sherwood. I spent a week in Yorkshire finding out what hard work it is running an organic veg box scheme, and spent a fair few days exploring the Nottinghamshire countryside.

September was pencilled in for the tour, but where? I'd hankered after a tour in France - the canal towpaths of Brittany, the banks of the Loire... but conscience dictated that I stayed in England in case any job opportunities came up. I actually planned two tours – one in the North of England and one down the East coast. As August progressed, it was the weather that was going to be the final arbiter. However, the idea for the East coast trip originated some years ago, when I came across the North Sea Cycle Route. This is the worlds longest continuous cycle route, taking in England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Shetland Islands and Scotland. Some people do it in one hit, others take several years. Apart from wanting to return to countries I visited on my European trip in 2002, my interest in the North Sea coast is to do with climate change: many of these coastal areas are at Europe’s climate change front line. It’s even a case of ‘last chance to see’ for some places.

So, as the long-term forecast ‘gave out’ wet weather in the North, and slightly less wet weather in the East, I decided that no time was better than now to start a series of bike tours which could potentially occupy my holidays for the next several years – if I wanted. I planned routes, I tracked down the small, cheap campsites, I plotted the locations of wildlife reserves and old churches. My plan was 'Filey to Felixtowe', my version of 'Hull to Harwich', i.e., the Sustrans Route 1. I intended to stick closer to the East Coast than Route 1, and to visit lots of the excellent wildlife sites along the coast. I invested in my first bright yellow cycle jacket to make me feel like a real cyclist, and a cheapo green cag to make me feel like a proper birdwatcher. (Actually I thought the yellow one would scare the birds away!)

I’ll return to this trip over the next few posts, with more photos and less writing. It didn’t work out as planned – but was possibly more interesting for that!

On Me Bike

If you need any explanation re the multiple meanings of this phrase then you weren't around in England in the 1980s. Even if Norman Tebbit was misquoted, he'll always be associated with telling unemployed people to get on their bikes and look for work. I'm looking for work at the moment (the theme of this decade it seems) and I like spending time with my bike. So it seemed a suitable blog title. However, I'm not going to spend much time boring readers (if there are any) and depressing myself with tales of job applications and interviews, nor is it going to be just about cycling.

I decided to start a new blog after looking back at my old one: CovBlog http://coventryblog.blogspot.com/ I enjoyed looking at what I'd written and photographed so much I thought I'd start again. I'm not in Coventry any more (part of the reason I'm looking for work) and I thought 'NottBlog' sounded a bit confusing. Anyway, people don't call Nottingham 'Nott' the way that people call Coventry 'Cov'. 'Nottnm' is more like it.