Grey Haired Travellers

After being served a Good English Breakfast at our B&B – bacon, egg, tomato, baked beans & sausages – washed down with a pot of tea – we headed south down the coast to Whitby. The town had lots of character and charm, but was overrun with tourists who were visiting all the touristy shops that the beautiful old buildings had been turned into.

Couldn’t get out of town fast enough.  Kept heading south to Scarborough, very pleasant beach area on the north side, but again the original township has been turned into one great big amusement parlour.  So we drove around and didn’t even get out of the car.  Headed west towards York but it was running and a bit late so got as far as Malton then turned north to drive up inland.  Passed through some lovely country side and beautifully maintained old stone villages.  Much more interesting.

On our return journey the navigator told us to turn off a perfectly good motorway into an industrial area.  We followed it dutifully thinking it must be a shortcut.  We came to a dead end with an enormous high bridge with a gondola hanging underneath it.  There were no cars waiting and the gondola wasn’t moving, so we turned around to head back to the motorway.  Ever tried to tell a navigator that you don’t know where you’re going but you don’t want to go that way.  Turns out the bridge “The Tees Transporter Bridge” was closed for renovation, but the navigator wasn’t told.

When we arrived back in Hartlepool in the early evening we strolled down the beach front to the local fish & chip shop The Almighty Cod for dinner.  We figured it must be good as there was a queue out the door and down the street.  When we were almost at the head of the queue we asked the couple in front if they could recommend what to buy.  Without hesitation, in their broad Hartlepool accent, they said ‘O I yu’ll ave cod & chuups an a bit u butty’. Didn’t know what the butty was but we decided to give it a go.  Before they left they put our order in for us and for ten pounds we had two of the biggest serves of fish & chips with the scraps of batter that they scoop off the top of the oil on top, two slices of white butter bread (butty) drowned in large splashes of vinegar and salt.   We went sat on a seat at the beach while the sun started to settle behind us to enjoy our meal.  Incidentally, we only made it through one serving.  The second one went into the freezer for another day.

Drove down to Hartlepool – pronounced Hart-le-pool.  Great b&b facing the water.  Lovely pub next door which had great steaks.  Hartlepool is a combination of a little seaside resort surrounded by heaps of heavy industry.  Another wind farm was under construction just off shore in the North Sea.  Seems very logical place to put them.  England is suffering just like us with soaring electricity prices and unsustainable fossil fuel burning power stations they were buying the electricity from Russia when we were there.

There a local legend about hanging a monkey.  Which leads on to another story which must be told.

A French ship was wrecked off the coast back during the Napoleonic Wars and no locals had ever seen a Frenchman.  The only survivor was the ships mascot a pet monkey.  He was found wandering along the beach dressed in his sailors uniform.  As no one could understand him they assumed his screeches when captured that he was speaking French.  So seeing that the Brits were at war with the French they hanged him.

But the legend doesn’t end there.  In 2002 the local elections were on for town mayor.  The local football team had a mascot whose costume is a monkey suit.  This monkey ran for mayor on the platform that he’ll give every child a banana.  Well, he got elected didn’t he and again in 2005 and 2009 and he almost kept his promise.  As there was not enough bananas schools were supplied with fresh fruit for a year for free.