Anyhow normally I try to hike a decent distance once a month, even through the winter to keep match it, so to speak. This year however, work, life, injury and ....well everything really, has conspired to prevent me doing so, and I have to admit I have put on weight and am not feeling quite so ready as I would normally for the challenge in just over a fortnights time. I have this long term progressive ailment called "ageing" which means that things I did easily 20 years ago are now getting to be a bit difficult. And when I go to bed fully functioning I cannot guarantee that everything will be in working order the next morning. My left knee injury is a long term issue which for legal reasons I am not allowed to talk about, but lets call it my old war wound - that plays up awful first thing. And now my feet have joined in - one or other, or both will be very painful to walk on for the first two minutes of any random day, for no obvious reason. I have the mind of a 22 year old but in the body of a 47 year old who has aged an extra 20 years due to 28 years of shiftwork in a very physical job.
So, this month has seen a crash course in decent length hikes to get me up to speed. So far I've done Halsham Round, a local hike of about 8 miles, and Kiplingcotes to Eton and back on the old railway track bed. These are both fairly flat walks however - well living on the Holderness Plain we are a little short of decent hills around here. But I do have a cunning and devious plan that gives the knee and calf muscles a similar workout - Spurn Point.
For those living elsewhere who have never heard of it, Spurn point is the little finger of land that sticks out into the North Sea just above the Humber, in geological terms it is a relatively unique feature, a hooked spit, caused by erosion of the soft boulder clay between Bridlington Bay and Easington, the deposits from which wash around to the mouth of the Humber where the form this strip of land. It is a curving belt of land with a spatulate end, 3 miles long and as little as a few metres wide in places. It has the sea with a beach to one side, and the mud flats of the estuary on the other. This means it is a great place to hike, as not only is it beautiful with diverse wildlife and fauna, but it also has many different surfaces to walk on - mudflats, stony beach, grass meadow, concrete road and heavy going soft sand. Or at least that is how it used to be.
Allow me to elucidate. The natural process that causes the point to build up is cyclic, and over 100 years give or take 10, it should build up, then breach so that the end becomes an island, then wash away as it builds up again, slightly south of it's previous location. This has gone on for thousands of years until the Nepolionic Wars, when the military importance of the Humber Ports meant the estuary had to be protected. So the peninsula was reinforced and not allowed to breach. During the two world wars it was further reinforced, with concrete bunkers, pill boxes and even a light railway being installed to supply munitions from Easington to the gun battery at the tip of the point. The upshot of this interference is that the breach has been overdue for the last 120 years or so. Of course once the war was over all military interest was lost, but the defences have lasted a good seventy years since their last reinforcements. Indeed many pillboxes remain and with a little work could still be used for there original purpose today. But winter 2013 finally saw what nature had been battling to achieve for over 200 years, and the sea broke over the narrow section, washing away the road and separating Spurn Head from the mainland. We now have Spurn Island - twice a day. High tide sees the land cut off for a couple of hours at a time. Now there are other islands that have this same sort of status, Lindesfarne Springs to mind. But Lindesfarne, otherwise known as Holy Island has a permanent and well maintained causeway linking it to the mainland. Spurn simply has land that is there and then not, and each tide changes the route of the "road" that will re-link it once the tide recedes. Today the road diverted along the beach, because the original road has long since washed away. It takes a proper 4x4 to get across, by which of course I mean a Series Land Rover or Defender. Other than an Argocat style six wheeled machine three Land Rovers were the only vehicles I saw on Spurn Head today, in stark contrast to my last visit when cars were allowed the full length and you could, should you be stupid enough to own one, take a Smart car to the lifeboat station.
Much of the road is concrete, built by the army long ago, but the more recent sections over the narrow neck of the point were made of blocks that fitted together like a jigsaw, such that as the land moved the road could be lifted and replaced easily. Even this only delayed the inevitable breach and the land eroded from under the blocks, which now lay scattered and broken, destroyed by the power of the tide and nature.
The Lifeboat Station of course is one reason why a road was maintained along the land in recent years. I believe that Spurn Lifeboat Station is the only fully manned 24 hours station in the country, and this reflects it's importance on the coast and for the Humber. Inaccessible at times due to weather conditions even before the breach it is even more isolated now. Housed at the end is a small community of full time Lifeboat crew and their families.
When I worked as a Coastguard I once plotted the locations of telegraph poles into our GPS to assist in mapping searches. These poles are now gone - the telephone wires either run underground or no longer connect the houses and lifeboat station. I suspect they must now rely on mobile phones and radio for contact with the outside world. Whether or not they are connected to the National Grid for electricity is anyones guess.
But is it a remote and desolate place? No, far from it. Their housing has a homely if somewhat utilitarian look and feel. Spurn is tranquil, quiet, peaceful, restful - a beautiful place of solitude, great for reflection. As I walked I found myself in a state of heightened awareness, without the need for chemicals or alcohol to assist me. It was as though the silence accentuated the remaining senses. Deprived almost of any sound, my eyes were picking up Painted Lady butterfly's, brown tailed moth caterpillars, little white moths, - at this point I wish I had more knowledge of nature, because I can only describe the birds as hovering hawk like things, and whilst I recognised Gorse and Bracken there were other things and blue flowery things, and stuff. Rabbits abounded, and although I didn't see any today I have seen deer roaming wild. I once came around a bend in the track to be met face to face by a young stag, a matter of 10 feet away. So startled were we that he forgot to run away and I forgot to get my camera out, we just stood and looked at each other for maybe a minute before he turned and strutted away. Just over six feet tall, handsome, lean and muscular, a prize specimen I must have looked to him.
Crossing the point where the tide breaches daily I could see how thin the strip of land is - it was always thin in the past but now it's as little as 30 feet, and only a few feet above the low tide line. The point is owned or certainly maintained these days by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, and a good job they make of it. They could promote it a bit better and it could do with a bit of a clean up - some of the litter could be removed, and there are a few buildings they could put into service as holiday lets for example, but other than that they are doing a decent job. They post the daily tide times and a warning of when it is dangerous to cross to the island and back. For the very stupid, they have provided a shelter in the form of a hut, which seats four, where you can wait until the tide turns. I suspect that four seats will not be enough during the summer, when people from Barnsley and Bradford with no knowledge of how the sea works come to visit. I was once astounded to learn as a coastguard that the most successful fundraising area was the Midlands, where grateful landlubbers dug deep to provide funds for those hardy souls who looked after the coast and had rescued them when the boat they won on Bullseye capsized.
Stepping past the breach point, the land widens out, but you still get that unnerving sensation that you are now on dangerous ground. The tide can, and will cut you off if you do not keep an eye on your watch. There is, in fact plenty of time to walk the three miles to the tip and three miles back before the next tide, but it is noticeable how much the tide has moved when you return to the pinch point. It certainly makes you realise this is a walk on the wild side.
Smeetons Light, the old lighthouse to the left on this picture currently stands on the mudflats, but was on dry land when it was built. Matthews Light, the newer lighthouse has recently been awarded Heritage Lottery funding and is now surrounded by scaffolding as it is under renovation to become a new visitor centre. Click here to read more about the plans to renovate it
http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/Work-start-Spurn-Point-lighthouse-restoration/story-25967975-detail/story.html
Returning through the pinch I was passed by one of the Land Rovers used by the lifeboat crew and river pilots who operate from the jetty at the point. As skilful as the driver was I noted he was only marginally faster than my walking pace as he traversed the shifting sands on what is now effectively the sea bed between the wannabe island and the mainland. Only a Land Rover or possibly a Toyota Landcruiser could have achieved it, but lets be honest, the Toyota would look out of place.
My walk was most enjoyable and I'm pleased to say the knee stood up to the terrain nicely, dry and soft sand, wet and sucking sand, concrete road, meadow and pebble strewn beach. bring on the Three Peaks, I think I'm ready for you.
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