Wednesday

Another day of rest. We went to Whitby to buy various presents. Stephen got rock for his work mates, but I suspect he ate it all himself. I bought a sheep ballerina for Becky who was looking after Hoges. I resisted any major purchases. On the drive back we stopped at a lovely little village called Ellery where we thought we might have lunch - but the pub was full of people about 30 years our senior talking about their doctors appointments so we had a quick drink and then left. We went to the Posthouse in Egton Bridge which was very nice and run by people who (according to Stephen) had a Leeds accent. It was raining heavily by then but who cares when you are in a cosy pub?

That evening we went to the Endeavour in Staithes. We had found it on our last visit and is quite a popular place with a good reputation. The walk down the hill (every hill is steep in that neck of the woods) was bracing to say the least (NB - private cars are not allowed to drive down there). It's a very small place (like eating in someone's front room) with a surprising large menu. Most of it is fish, but it does have vegetarian options. I must confess that although the food was good, it wasn't really anything special (perhaps we shouldn't have gone there so soon after Greens).

Then it was a walk back up the hill - it's not a stilettos restaurant unless you get a taxi!

Thursday

Ah - the last full day. We must have had fun because it went so quickly. Once the rain had cleared we went to Hawsker - first to visit the graveyard where Stephen's grandparents and aunt are buried and then on to see his Daniel O'Donell loving aunt (who lives near a Shetland pony stud). By then the sun had come out so we walked into Robins Hood bay (where I made use of the public conveniences) and bought some bread, cheese and samosas for lunch. We then went onto the beach to look for interesting things for my water feature and jumping across rocks and generally being big kids.

The route then took us up the hill and onto the Cleveland Way where we met some other walkers who warned up it was muddy up ahead- and they weren't wrong. We made it to Ravenscar and then up a big hill onto the old railway track. Once onto the railway track the going was a lot easier, and the sun was coming up (at one point I even rolled up my track suit bottoms to let some air on my legs). We saw a young deer - but it was too quick for us to take a photo. We walked past the Alum mines and saw loads of sheep with lambs. It was a lovely walk. Back into Robin Hood Bay (where I again visited to conveniences - only to see a strange man talking a photo of me emerging).

From Robin Hood Bay we took the railway track back to Hawsker- a nice gentle climb, and a fantastic view of the sea. We picked up the car from his Aunts and then headed back to the Cottage. Stephen cooked a lovely meal of past with garlic bread whilst watching the Simpsons (as you can see from the pictures there was a lot of eating the garlic bread and watching the Simpsons whilst the cooking did itself).

Friday

It was sad to leave, but we decided we would go back again (I hope Sticky is still where I left him). We had a detour to take the Daniel O'Donnell loving Aunt shopping in Whitby and then we all had lunch in her local pub where we saw Bobby Nutt (he's been in Emmerdale and is a comedian, and also does the commentary for the jetwash and carwash videos shown at a well known chain of garages). Then it was back home to be ignored by the cats until we convinced them we were truly sorry to have left them.