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Cleveland Way Day 9 – Robin Hood’s Bay to Scarborough

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My first instinct, when the alarm on my phone rang out at 5 a.m., was to immediately turn it off, roll over and continue the deep refreshing sleep from which I’d been rudely awoken.  A quick glance at the Met Office app, however, provided an instant reminder of why I’d set such an early wake-up call in the first place.  The forecast temperature for the day ahead was set to soar to 32 degrees, with barely a breeze to provide any relief.  The sooner we set off, the cooler the temperature and the easier the going would be for the initial, most strenuous section, from Robin Hood’s Bay to Ravenscar. In preparation for our early start, we’d bought some flapjack and biscuits which, along with a coffee from our room’s hospitality tray, made up our breakfast.  By 5.30 a.m. we were stealthily creeping down the stairs, feeling somewhat conspicuous as we left our room key on the bar, quietly unlatching the front door and gently closing it behind us.  Robin Hood’s Bay was still well and truly fast

Cleveland Way Day 8 - Whitby to Robin Hood’s Bay

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  Had I known, when booking our room at the White Horse and Griffin, that this inn is reputed to be one of the most haunted buildings in Whitby, I may have had second thoughts.  To be honest, I’m not exactly sure whether I believe in ghosts or not.  Having worked in a large stately home, where I was often the only person in the entire building after dark, I’ve experienced one or two incidents which, at the time, were a little hard to explain.  If pushed, I’d say that there may be a kind of force that enables buildings to record and store memories.  And I would agree that some things can be difficult to explain.  Like, for example, the noises which kept me awake throughout the night and sounded like someone in the room above ours was randomly moving furniture around.  Except, I realised when the first glimmer of morning light began to filter through our window, we were on the top floor.  All that was above us was the roof.     As the day brightened quickly and outside the screeching and

Cleveland Way Day 7 - Runswick Bay to Whitby

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They say time flies when you’re having fun and, whoever “they” might be, they’re not wrong. It was hard to believe, when I awoke from a heavy night’s sleep, that we had been following the Cleveland Way for one whole week.     It also didn’t immediately dawn on me that this was my birthday.     Perhaps I’d dreamt it?     A quick check on social media confirmed that I hadn’t.     I may not have had any cards or presents to open, but Facebook did provide me with a long string of birthday wishes to read and acknowledge before breakfast.     Ordinarily, a late start to the day might have disrupted our schedule, but as a short day’s walking lay ahead, it mattered not that our hotel didn’t start serving breakfast until 9 a.m., or that we didn’t venture downstairs until 9.30.       It turned out that the only other overnight guests had been the couple from Croydon, who we’d met the previous evening and who were just finishing their breakfasts as we arrived.  After exchanging our “good mornings