North York Moors – A Walk Into The Country

Goathland

We all know how beautiful the British countryside is. Beautiful villages with a blanket of green is a sight to behold during the summer. However, all that amounts to nothing in front of the notorious weather.
While the rain has its own beauty, a countryside visit needs the sunshine the most. I learnt that on some of my countryside visits which were somewhat ruined by the lack of sunshine. So if you think you are free on a weekend and you want to take off, first thing to check is the weather forecast and then the accommodation and things to do. We got one such weekend which ticked both these boxes i.e. we were free to take off and the sun was ready to shine.
I was visiting my sister-in-law’s place in Hull so we decided to visit the Yorkshire countryside. After a bit of research by my wife and brother-in-law and working out the logistics, we planned to head to the North York moors.  While Saturday forecast was cloudy, Sunday was as sunny as it can get. 
As lazy as we are over the weekend, we used the cloudy Saturday weather as an excuse to start late. Hence nothing much was planned for Saturday. We would be first heading to the beach side town of Scarborough, spend the night there and then move over to the moors early Sunday morning, return to Scarborough in the evening and then take train back to Hull.

Scarborough

A ninety minute train ride took us to Scarborough. It was a fascinating place with a combination of hills meeting the sea. The town was on a hill and we took a slight decent to reach the sea-side. It was already dusk by the time we reached but due to long summer days, it was still day-light. We had a sumptuous meal by the seaside at the Harry Rampsden’s Fish n chips joint, proclaimed by them to be ‘World Famous’. A short walk by the Marine Drive next to the sea followed. By then the cold was setting in and we were a wee bit tired as well, so we decided to check in to our hotel. We were booked at a monster of a Hotel – The Grand Scarborough. The hotel was designed like a ship and is meant to be true to its word ‘Grand’ with four hundred odd rooms. Thankfully, the rooms were modest with basic comforts and hence we got it for a very affordable rate of £42. The hotel was buzzing with people in multiple restaurants and bars, with tombola and other events going on. Unfortunately, we still had not digested our fish n chips meal and refused to be hungry enough to have dinner and drinks at the hotel. Restaurants stop serving food at 9 and post that only the bar is open. That meant that we had to step out to have dinner. We did so despite the temptation to stay back in the lively hotel lounge. We walked in the cold, found an Indian restaurant to have dinner and then retired into our room as we vowed to make the sunny Sunday count.

Whitby

Our determination paid off and we were ready early on Sunday morning. Public transport might be fantastic in this country but it can be quite unforgiving if you do not have a plan and be unaware of the train timings. Our destination was to be another beach side town of Whitby for which we had to board the train at 9:50 AM. We reached station on time but we decided on taking further advantage of our sacrificed sleep by taking a Taxi to Whitby. It was a decent £30 which would give us some time in Whitby before we head for the moors. The drive was around twenty minutes through the beautiful country under bright blue skies and it gave us an indication of the exciting experience in store. We planned to take the heritage steam train from Whitby to Pickering through the moors.  We bought tickets for the same at Whitby station before the beautiful coast-side town beckoned. To start with, we had ample time so we headed off for a sumptuous breakfast. And we found a modest joint serving amazing English Breakfast. After that we took a walk down Whitby. Again a combination of hills meeting the sea like Scarborough but much lesser in size and hence more cute and beautiful. Thanks to the sunny day, there were hordes of people of the streets and looked like the place was famous for fishing. Various boat trips were on offer, shops buzzing with people, a fish market in sight, the place was truly happening. But this was all we would have of the place as our destination was the moor. 

Steam Training Reaching Goathland Station

The steam train started at 11-50 at a speed leisurely enough to enjoy the beautiful view outside. The train would be stopping at Grotsby followed by Goathland, where we planned to disembark and enjoy a walk before boarding a later train again to Pickering. Soon we reached Grotsby. It was a typical heritage rail station reminiscent of the hill station trains I have experienced in India, mainly on Kalka-Shimla route. After all both were built by the British. The moors were absolutely green and looked gorgeous under the sun. The sheep were out in large numbers and each time I spotted their flock, I could not resist a few clicks. We reached Goathland in an hour. This was also known as the ‘Heartbeat’ country most associated with the television series. It seems the series has been shot here. Trust that was the reason why most people disembarked here. We realized we got what we wanted i.e. a walk in the woods, rather the moor or the country. The country looked like a postcard and could not have been more serene, I felt like just walking and walking as if there was no tomorrow, no train to catch to Pickering. There were meadows, guest houses, bed and breakfasts and then souvenir stores accompanied by coffee joints. But we hit the jackpot as we found a place serving Yorkshire tea which, most importantly had outdoor seating arrangement on the grass. What more could we have asked for than sipping Yorkshire tea and watching sheep in the meadows right across. 

Tea On The Moor

We walked further down and found a spot which gave us some post card views of trees in the far away hills which we could capture through our zoom lenses. It was almost two hours now and we had to head back to board the train that would take us to Pickering. As we reached the station, we learnt that the train is running late. Quite normal as the route is mostly single line so such delays are inevitable. I noticed a hill on the other side of the station and decided to climb that and explore. As I did so, I reached a vast open space which is ideal for a hike. Pending for some other time I thought. Soon the noise of the steam engine was heard. Pictures were captured from the lenses and soon we big good bye to Goathland. We reached Pickering in an hour through the moors. It was past 5 PM and by the time we reached Pickering, it was all shut. We were a bit disappointed as we thought that the place would show us something interesting just like all others we have been visiting since morning. We found that there is a bus to Scarborough in around half hour so we waited to board that. We thought our day was over and it was time to just have a sleepy journey back home. We were mistaken as the last round of surprise was still awaiting. We found the front seats on the upper deck of the double decker bus and had the best view possible of the scenic route that the bus took, meandering through one village after the other. It was like seeing those images from the train all over again from one more interesting angle. The bus went through the lanes and by-lanes of the villages like Thorton-on-Dale and provided a fascinating journey and one more peek into the country life.
Everything went to plan and we reached Scarborough at around 6:30 PM, an hour before our train to Hull. We treated our hungry selves to some Costa sandwiches after which we boarded the train to round off a memorable weekend trip to Yorkshire.