Trip 16, Pickering, North York Moors part 2.
We left Whitby and headed across the moors to Pickering. Driving up and down some of the hills was interesting. Pickering was busy but we easily found our way to the new campsite. It is more of a lawn than a field and surrounded by trees and high hedges. Hopefully we will get some sun or we will be without electric.
The first job is a cuppa and then off to find the water because Iona is too big to get to the tap. Well it is a bit like deliverance two, a run down old house with a motorhome and sheds filled with bits, old cars. The motorhome had two guitars, on the veranda of the summer house, which was also full, sat a man with a ponytail wearing a cap. This is just unreal.
We made two trips to fill the aqua-roll. Goodness knows what the elsan point will be like because it is a normal manhole cover.
After lunch we walked into town to find the recycling bins near Lidl. We walked up the high street to find a bank and there are some amazing butchers and bakery shops ready for another day.
We found our way to the castle and spent a good hour walking around the walls. It was huge in it’s day and worth the entrance fee, we have plenty of pictures. Walking home there are some historic buildings that echo the past, with a Mill building being quite impressive.
We found that there is a museum to visit and there is a model railway at the station for wet days. There are also a range of footpaths so we will not get bored.
Day 2:
Another dull day so we planned to go for a walk and end up in Pickering to get some milk. We followed the river and came across some holes in an embankment, they were constructed of brick and each one had two fireplaces and a flue, there was also a tunnel about 2 foot square linking each ‘cave’. We counted 5 of these ‘caves’. Further along the footpath we came to a cottage and footpath seemed to end but I spoke to a couple of men working in the garden and they told us the footpath went through the garden.
I asked them about the holes in the bank. He told us that they were Lime Kilns and there was a bowl at the top of the bank where they loaded the lime so it was cooked by the fires and then fell through into the kilns before being raked out and loaded onto railway wagons and transported to Pickering to join the main line. The lime was spread on fields as fertiliser and also used in lime mortar for house building.
We continued to follow the path to New Bridge railway crossing where a new signal box has been built. Then over the road and the footpath took us into a wood. After about half a mile the path split and we asked a couple of walkers where it went. They took the righthand path and we carried on until we came to a floodplain. Here we met a man walking his dog and he gave us lots of information on where to walk. we entered the would and followed a goat track until it split. we took the path up to the top of the hill and just as the man described we came to a style in the fence that took us out of the wood and we followed the path back towards pickering.
We soon came to the path around the castle that we had walked around yesterday. Now we knew where we were we headed into town to get some milk before heading back to the campsite. My pedometer was showing 12323 steps so nearly 6 miles this morning.
After lunch we walked to the railway station for a look around. The train arrived from Whitby but it was pulled by the Diesel. We took Grace Bear with us to take some pictures for the Spinney Motorhomes facebook page.
It is a good looking station but needs a Bar on the platform. We took some pictures and walked back to Iona.
Day 3:
Today we walked into town to do a bit of shopping. We bought some sausage rolls, Yorkshire style and went back to Iona to eat them.
After lunch we went for a walk along the river towards the lime kilns, then over the railway by the old trout farm. We found a track into the wood and came across a mountain bike trail, so we followed that as it went up and down the old quarry paths.
There was a battered information board that said this area was a prehistoric lagoon. The limestone along this hill had been quarried and huge cliffs of limestone were exposed. The quarry workings had been used to make the trails with steep drops and jumps in the bike trail. It was signposted and marked different grades of hill / obstacle.
Day 4
Walked into town with the rubbish. Bought some chocolates for our neighbour. We stopped at a cafe to get some free wi-fi with a cuppa and a scone.
It is very windy and the van is rocking but the sun is out to charge the batteries.
This afternoon we went for a walk to the lime kilns, where I climbed up to the top of the bank to see the pits that were filled with limestone and heated. We then headed for the large wood and took a different path.
There were information boards explaining that it was a sea bed in prehistoric times and how the sediments had settled and been compressed in sandstone and limestone.
We went by the railway to look at the trout lake but is has been filled in and turned into a car park for the railway.
Trip 16: 143 miles, 27.1 mpg, 39 mph, 3hr 47m
Iona’s Travels 