Coast to Coast to Coast Day 6 - Castleton to Whitby

A nice leisurely day today, the weather forecast said it would be wet today but it doesn't look like it. It did rain during the night though.

Set off from Downe Arms, Castleton at 10.00, short ride through Ainthorpe where David first went to School and Dandy where we used to live.

Our old house - third one up from the bottom of the terrace going up the hill

Duck Bridge - Danby. You used to be able to drive over the bridge. ( if your car was small enough )

Now there's big stone posts at each end, the bike went over though.

I did a quick sketch of the bridge and another of Danby Castle up on the hill to the left ( well to the left !  out of the photo) then a quick cycle around the corner to the Dandy Moors Centre for coffee.

Suitably refreshed I continued along and up onto the moor high road above the rest of the villages, there is only a couple of steep bits on that route whereas the valley bottom route has a very steep hill at just about every village.

There is a rough bridle path from Aislaby down to Sleights, I would definitely recommend walking down this one as its very narrow with lots of brambles encroaching onto what's left of the path. I reached the bottom with white knuckles and lots of scratches!

I found a nice riverside tea rooms along from Sleights at Briggswath advertising cherry pie so it was another coffee stop ( and pie ). I will have to be careful as I'm not putting much effort into today's ride and I maybe shouldn't be refuelling quite so often.

It was a bit of a pull up the cobbled street to the Youth Hostel !!

(Okay Okay so there is another route up about half a mile further out of town that is just about cyclable :-)

I got to the youth hostel at 2.15 which left all afternoon for a wander around Whitby. It was very very busy especially as I'm getting used to my own company so I soon retreated back to the calm of the hostel.

The hostel from the gardens, with Whitby Abbey in the background. A fantastic spot.

Tomorrow was supposed to be a rest day but as I only had a half days cycle today I will be heading on south towards Scarborough or Bridlington and that will give me an extra day to spend somewhere else, probably Malham Cove but who knows.

Whitby west side with St Hilda's Church and the Abbey (The youth hostel is hidden behind the church)

The Abbey ruins at dusk, no spectacular sunset I'm afraid.

Statistics :

Distance today - 29.7km (18.5 miles)

Total Distance - 307.2km (191.24 miles)

Height Climbed - 469m

Total climbed - 4304m

Average speed - 14.2km/hr

Max speed - 44.7km/hr

Well that's the first part of my journey over - Walney to Whitby.

Next leg is Whitby to Bridlington.

Landrover Icecream van.