It's just over three miles from Flamborough to Bempton on the East Yorkshire coast. The distance is covered entirely along the clifftop, starting beneath the bright white lighthouse at Flamborough Head, meandering above North Landing, with its sea-carved caves offering doorways for the choppy water, and then climbing to some of Britain's highest cliffs at Bempton.
The British coastline at its best, though something is amiss today: the air is whisper still, not a breeze to lift a blade of grass. And it's warm - we're in T-shirts although it's mid-October. We settle on a bench above Thornwick Bay to munch homemade sandwiches, and admire the weather-polished rock arch beneath what looks like a giant prehistoric mud hut. The place derives its name from Thor, the God of Thunder, because the waves that whip the rocks during North Easterly gales are so deafening. Today, the sea is almost Mediterranean - pale turquoise, clear and still.
Bempton glistens bright white in its chalky glory ahead now, and we arrive expecting to see the RSPB sanctuary's colony of gannets - the site is home to England's biggest mainland colony. But all is still: the streamlined handsome birds are far out to sea for the season, and the curtain of cliffs that normally bustles with them, eerily empty.
On the return leg, we buy a tea-to-go and descend to the beach at Flamborough North Landing. Now in shade, the horseshoe-shaped cove is bedding down for the night, though still peppered with families building sandcastles and dogwalkers throwing toys. A couple balances on a shelf of cliff, trying to encourage their pooch to take a dip; another four-legged friend rushes up and down the shoreline, confused, when its toy disappears beneath the wash.
It's always lovely to be back in Yorkshire, and this time has been no different: as well as beachside frolics, we have caught up with fantastic friends over supper in Warrington and dined with family on pork pies from award-winning Newport Butchers and delicious Italian-inspired cuisine at The Millhouse in Skidby. A rather lovely weekend for our UK swansong as a DINK couple.
