Scarborough March 2011

The start of season meet for the North West Sea Kayakers was based round Scarborough last weekend. It's not really a start of season meet as many of us carry on paddling right through the year but it's a great excuse to have a good time and catch up with some of the gang from further a field.
The sea was too lively on Friday for a paddle so a walk was the best option along the cliffs at Sandsend and the wave cut platforms covered with fossils. The cliffs were scarred with Alum mining and processing. Alum was used in the middle ages to stabilise natural dyes instead of wee. By the shore the Alum leaches out like dense cotton wool though fossilised mud that is  slatelike and layered.

giant horsetails

having a break

Alum is toxic so the area for processing were bare and lifeless but the huge gouged out hollows were left as wildlife habitats. The ponds swarmed with singing toads having a mass tumble in the weeds and sun.                                                         

The very unstable cliff is pock marked by dug out holes left by brave people with dented heads looking for jet which is fossilized monkey puzzle tree.

ammonite

On Saturday morning a group of us set of from Scarborough heading south towards Filey. The sea undulated with a smooth deep swell which formed beautiful tunnel waves before they broke and boomed from the cliffs. We kept well away. Things became more lively as the wind picked up and paddling into this always feels like paddling in drying cement- tedious and energy sapping. Some of our group found it heavy going and as we approached the headland at Filey Brigg I could see swell breaking heavily on the reefs. It was a difficult but inevitable decision to turn back and deal with surfing all the way back to Scarborough. It is exhilarating to feel every part of me focusing and gliding over dancing waves..the nearest thing I will get to walking on water. Fulmars with their fat rugby bodies and kohl smokey eyes floated to check us out and guillemots, one razorbill and a pair of frantically flapping puffins passed us by too.

post paddle pow wow with silly shenanagans

 As usual we held the eating olympics that evening as one of the best bits of paddling is the amount of refueling one needs and it was absolutely delicious  ( thanks to the Robinsons!)

I had decided with that I would walk again the next day with some pals as I thought the residual swell caused by a big North sea fetch would be too much for my little arms. We walked over the cliffs at Flamborough Head and the sights were stunning. A colony of kittiwakes hustled for space on the cliff edges and a pair of choughs glided effortlessy though the breeze. It's funny how birds are named afer their call..like the kittwakes and chough.