It's Been a Good Day

It has been rather quiet on my blog lately. I moved house, changed jobs and went to Germany for a while. Once back in England I realised that I had forgotten my camera charger on the continent, so I was rationing the life that was left in it until my dear dad sent his distracted daughter the forgotten item. Needless to say, I was not exactly a prolific photographer for a few weeks. But now my life is starting to have more of a routine again and I'm hoping to breathe some life back into this blog.

Today I was once again able to snap as many photos as I like without having to worry about being without a camera. So we left Hull and headed further "oop norf" to the beautiful village Thornton-le-Dale to get back into the habit of walking no matter what the weather... As we were getting close in the car we actually ended up in a little snow storm and I could already see how this walk would go but we ended up being very lucky!  There was hardly any rain at all and towards the end, I'm sure I even saw the sun.

A few locals smirked at our plans to go for a hike and the path really was very muddy indeed. Every now and then my foot would completely disappear in puddle of brown sludge. All the sheep around us were far from being huggable balls of fluff. They were stalky legs with a dollop of sheep-shaped mud cake plonked on top.

We headed towards Dalby Forest. The last time I was there it was summer and the Visitor Centre was heaving with people but now there wasn't a soul in sight. It would have been great fun to Go Ape with having the woods all to ourselves but alas, there was no time. At this point, John thought he had spotted a fox but when a jaguar came into view right next to it, it started to seem unlikely. They were both just made out of wood. The fox looked very real for a long time as we were approaching it, though.

We were heading up some hills when we suddenly entered a cold pocket. You could feel the air getting colder immediately, there was fog between the trees and the ground was covered in snow. I felt like I was in an RPG with a huge world to explore. It reminded me of Oblivion: The Elder Scrolls where landscapes smoothly blend into each other and you get sunny Anvil and icy Bruma on the same map... Ah, good times.

It was the first snow I have seen all winter and the air was wonderfully refreshing. We had hot, homemade chilli con carne on a snow covered tree stump in the light fog before heading back to the car. I really love roaming around Yorkshire. Now I'm warming up by a fire with a cup of tea... it's been a good day.

From Cleethorpes to Donna Nook

"Eyyyy!"

Most of the time, our walks take us to the Moors. But the other week I went to Grimsby for the first time in my life. Well, actually we went to Cleethorpes, which for some reason is not Grimsby though I got the feeling that the two merged into one another very smoothly. Why choose the Humber’s south bank over the North Yorkshire hills?

"Oh, hello!"

Because every November and December approximately 3,000 grey seals return from the open sea to Lincolnshire’s shore at Donna Nook to give birth to their pups. It wasn’t something to be missed and since there is a footpath from Cleethorpes all the way to Donna Nook, we decided to combine watching the seals with a 21 mile hike.

The footpath runs all the way along the shore. Once you leave Cleethorpes behind, you get a really nice view of one of the two Humber forts. Haile Sand is the fort closer to Lincolnshire and during extremely low tides, some people have walked over to it. Its larger sister (Bull Sand Fort) can be found just off Spurn Point on the Yorkshire-side of the Humber. Both forts were built between 1915 and 1919. During World War II, they were a popular target for German planes because the British spun a net between them to prevent German submarines from entering the Humber. The military abandoned the forts in the mid-fifties. So naturally, John would like to live in it.

Seals. Seals everywhere!

All along the walking path you come across pillboxes, which were built in the 1940s as part of the British WWII anti-invasion preparations. Now they made a nice coffee table for our lunch breaks. The walk itself is very flat and it being along the coast also rather windy. But it is easy terrain to walk on and only very little walking has to be done on actual sand.


At last we made it to the seals! Wardens had put up fences to protect seals and visitors alike. But the seals come right up to the fence, which is great for taking photos, and they seem absolutely unfazed by the many humans exclaiming “Awwwww!”, and “Is that one dead?”. We went on a weekend and it was pretty busy so if you can you should go during the week. Grey seals might well be my favourite hilarious animal. Even when threatening each other, they just look too funny flopping around howling and snorting at each other. That being said, there is a lot of mass to them and I would not want to get on the bad side of one... if I somehow lost my ability to walk with haste. Although the pups look cuddly and cute with their big beady eyes, you should not touch them. Not only can seals bite (they are Britain’s largest living carnivore) but a pup that smells of human or dog might get rejected by its mother.

We only spent about 20 minutes with them because we still had a ten mile walk back to Cleethorpes ahead of us but I want to go back next year and stay for a few days.

City of Hullture

By the Humber

You might have heard that Hull has put forward a bid to become City of Culture 2017. Today, team Hull gives its final presentation to the committee of judges in Derry to convince them to crown Hull the winner over the competitors Swansea Bay, Dundee and Leicester. It’s pretty big news all over the local papers and on my Facebook feed. The bid has created quite a buzz in the area. If Hull wins, the council has promised £15m worth of cultural events and for one year Hull would be in the media in a positive light and not just as the flagship of various lists about what is wrong with Britain. A pretty good opportunity and everyone is getting really excited.

Hull's Landmark: The Deep

Now, when a city like Hull applies to become City of Culture, the snobs and cynics start crawling out of their caves. Hull for City of Culture? Maybe they should change the title 'City of Culture' to 'Best Poor City in the UK'. You don't see Oxford or Cambridge wanting it! It’s true, Hull isn't Oxford but it isn't that hell hole some people want you to believe it is either. I don’t think it is about who has the oldest buildings and the fanciest museums (nothing against either, I love Oxford and London). I like to think of City of Culture 2017 as an award that honours the willingness to change for the better. I’d love to see Hull win and find the idea behind it laudable. To get a bit of a feel for it you should check out the video made to support Hull’s City of Culture bid.

Museums Quarter in Old Town

Okay, the video is a little bit cheesy but Hull has been making an effort to change its reputation for the better. It’d be great if for once its media coverage would focus on its achievements and not just its flaws. We have lots of nice museums, a fantastic art gallery, some of the nicest pubs I've ever been to, several theatres, one river and one estuary, a beautiful red-brick uni, the deepest aquarium in Europe, a little marina, tons of independent shops, various festivals throughout the year, many cosy cafes, a lively music scene, numerous parks, loads of history to explore and an admirable, ever-driving urge to improve.

There is one bit in the video that stuck with me: Hull's “end of the line sense of freedom”. In Hull, trains don't woosh through the station. They have to stop and turn around to continue their journey. When I first moved here, Hull's literal end-of-the-line location was suffocating to me. But I’ve come to appreciate that sense of arrival you get when the Humber Bridge comes into view shortly before your train pulls into the station. Hull is my basecamp now and I have my fingers crossed for it.

The winner will be announced 20th November!