Day 18 – Easington to Outstray Farm 19.5 miles

Thursday 23rd January

The day dawned dull.  A mist hung over the countryside and out into the Humber Estuary.  This was the day I had promised Jill would be a really interesting walk.  We drove from Hull to Easington seeing very little. We parked in the cliff top car park and reassured ourselves that it was unlikely to disappear over the edge in the course of a single day.

We set off from Easington along the coast path behind the Beacon Lagoons to Kilnsea and the start of the Spurn Point sand spit.  On the way we passed a huge concrete reflector which I correctly deduced was a sound reflector.  These were constructed during WW1 and would have had a microphone at its focal point to pick up the distant sound of approaching Zeppelins. A worthy technology of its time, it was rapidly made redundant by radar

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Spurn Head is a three mile sand spit that hooks around the mouth of the Humber but in December 2013 a huge tidal surge broke through the sand spit at its base and Spurn point became a tidal island. We had timed our walking around the tides to ensure we had plenty of time to walk to the life boat station at the far end and back before high tide.  I had thought we might walk on the sand but it is actually rather softer than the sand further north and so we resorted to walking the old road.  There were none of the wide vistas I had been promising and birds, if any, were difficult to see through the gloom. Even the lighthouse was a surprise when it suddenly appeared. We were beginning to feel cold and damp and so after photographing the Lifeboat Jetty (I couldn’t see a lifeboat) we headed back along the the track to the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Discovery centre (and café) where we warmed up and had an early lunch. 

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The next part of our walk would be along the dyke which stops Holderness becoming part of the Humber Estuary.  The top of the dyke is about 3 metres above sea level and, with the eye of faith, I thought the mist had cleared a little; Jill was unconvinced.

 We did see some little egrets, Brent Geese and sandpipers.  The dyke was deserted except for a couple of bird-watchers and a dog-walker who stopped for a chat and whose dogs entertained us.

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As we approached Winestead Drain, we turned inland. The Drain is a substantial canal which terminates at the sea with a large pumping station which is securely fenced off. Walkers have no choice but to walk inland to Outstray Farm where there is an agricultural bridge across the Drain.  From here we arranged a taxi to take us back to Easington and collect the car.