ABC Tour – Captain Cook, Cliffs, Chicks

MONDAY 28 JUNE

After yesterday’s heat today was much cooler, only reaching 13 degrees.  There was only once short shower, so it was a good day for exploring Whitby.  There are lots of little lanes.  Pier Lane was a handy little short cut down the steep hill.

A famous feature of the town is the “199 Steps” which go from the harbour up to St Mary’s Parish Church near the Abbey.  This would not have been fun in the heat, but was no drama in the cool.  Whoever designed these steps got them just right.  They are not too high or deep, so very easy to walk up.

The view back over the harbour was lovely.

St Mary’s Church has a wonderful vantage point.

The church is unusual in that it still has the Georgian box pews.  The interior is quite cluttered compared to most churches.  A really interesting place to visit.

Then it was on to the Abbey.  Like so many others, it was destroyed ages ago.  There is evidence of a monastery on this site dating back to 657AD.

What a view.

Then it was back down the 199 steps (easy peasy) to more recent history.  This house (not the best photo) was where Captain Cook lived and worked while completing his apprenticeship.  A very informative museum.

We also just explored the town.  It is a maze of interesting shops and places to eat.  I stumbled upon this little beauty.

An Aladdin’s Cave of fabric.

The town is touristy, with lots geared up for children, but it is not at all glitzy.  Somewhere we have really enjoyed visiting.

Once we climbed back up to the top of the cliff we came across this statue of Captain Cook, looking out to sea, with friend sitting on his head.

A Steam Bus takes tourist on a guided tour of the town, but we didn’t have time to partake.

Back down the cliff, we did find time to go on a half hour tour on this old lifeboat.  It saw service at Whitby from 1938 to 1974.  When it was built it cost 6500 pounds.  To put that in perspective, an average house at that time cost 400 pounds, and the spitfire aircraft cost 5500 pounds when they were first built.  The current lifeboat cost 1.4 million pounds 15 years ago, so they are still a very expensive item.

While we headed out to sea, we encountered this 40% scale model of The Endeavour, which also does tours.

We went out a little way to sea before turning around and coming back.  It was a calm day, but was still quite choppy in the lifeboat.  I cannot imagine what it must be like going out in the rough weather to attend to vessels in distress.  Can you see the whale rock formation?

We had to take a happy snap of us.

Next we walked out to the end of the pier.

Before walking along the lovely sandy beach at low tide.

There are loads of colourful beach huts.

After all that walking, we enjoyed a lovely dinner by the harbour and to finish the day off, the sun decided to put in an appearance and make everything beautiful.

Now, my reference to “Chicks”….. There are heaps of baby seagulls at the moment.  They are on chimneys, in gutters and some even nest in natural places like cliff ledges. 

There is so much to see and do here that we have decided to stay another day.