UK Trip Day 19 A Captain Cook at Whitby

Having a Captain Cook at Whitby

Bah Humbug! It's raining again. Not a good day to drive all the way to Durham, so we go to plan B.

Barb hasn't had a proper look at Whitby township yet, or seen the harbour. Plus it's close by .... so that's where we'll go (oh yes, close by, only 40 minutes or so). Whitby is where Captain James Cook's Endeavour was built and where he served his apprenticeship on boats before joining the Royal Navy. It would be very un-Australian not to look around here, as without Captain Cook Australia as we know it mightn't exist.



Whitby (in the rain)

Memorial at Whitby (also in the rain)

The Abbey on the hill overlooking Whitby harbour (quite something, despite the rain)

We arrived in town and parked outside Whitby railway station, the northernmost end of the North York Moors Railway (NYMR). There was the usual kerfuffle in securing a ticket at the Park & Pay machine. These machines have minds of their own. They seem designed to make it as difficult as possible to operate and to obtain the requisite ticket to display on your dash, and there's usually a gaggle of people around them trying to help each other find the correct coins. Only old one pound coins please! No change given etc, and this one was really picky - it wanted the car rego.

End of the line NYMR - Barb was disappointed to see diesel rather than steam

John waits his turn to do battle with the Park and Pay machine

We wandered over to take a look at the harbour where there were several fishing boats coming in to tie up. You can see by the tide markings on the quayside that there is a huge tidal range here, several metres by the look of it (around 5 metres depending on whether it's springs or neaps). At low tide they have to climb up a very long vertical ladder to reach the quay. Yikes! It looks quite dangerous (icky rather than dangerous, but's always good to hold on tight).




You can see the very large tidal range in the harbour

The old bridge proved very interesting to John. Being an engineer, he just loves to see how things work. It's a swing bridge (sideways not up). I'm not sure if it's still in operation or if vessels only come under on low tide (built in 1908 and still very much in operation, I checked).


Swing bridge at the harbour



Barb at Endeavour wharf

The old area of town is very quaint with its steep cobbled laneways and charming shops. There's all the usual ones selling Whitby jet jewellery with no prices on display so it must be exhorbitant, Whitby rock (hard-boiled lolly sticks), knick knacks and tourist tat.

Whitby rock for sale

The cobbled street of old Whitby town

The market area

We went in to a tearoom called Mary Antoinette's Let Them Eat Cake. It claimed to have the best cakes in town and they did indeed look delicious. A local couple at the next table to us assured us we'd chosen the best tea shop. Well done! They tasted as good as they looked too.

Marie Antoinette tearoom

Yummy lemon meringue pie (it was Barb's - this was just quality control)

After tea, we walked on down to the harbour entrance. From here you can also look upwards to see Whitby Abbey, and if you're feeling friskey, climb the very steep very long stairway up to it. We weren't, so we didn't. Been there .... done that already.

Entrance to Whitby harbour

Very pretty streetscape

Instead we walked back towards the Captain Cook Museum situated in John Walker's old house in Grape Lane. Who the heck is John Walker? You may well ask. He was the master to whom Captain Cook was apprenticed in his early years. They maintained a great friendship throughout Cook's life as the letters between them attest. There's lots of memorabilia here as one might expect, including models of the Endeavour and information about his various chart-making and explorations in the Pacific (When I was in the Pacific in the 1980s many charts in French Polynesia and the Cook Islands, to name but two regions, were still based on surveys by Cook, and they were very precise. He was a very able and thorough individual). All very interesting and worthy. Having done our duty as good Australian citizens we moved on to more important things. Lunch.

John on Grape Lane

Barb at Captain Cook Museum

Captain James Cook

Model of The Endeavour

Barb had yet to try a real North Yorkshire style English Breakfast. The tearoom attached to the railway station offered an all-day brekkie, so in we went. For the princely sum of twelve pounds we got two meals, including juice tea and a diet coke.

There was enough grease on one plateful to clog up your arteries just looking at it. Barb had a tiny nibble at the black pudding, just to say she'd tasted it and had the egg, baked beans and toast leaving the rest to congeal on her plate. John enjoyed the sausages and chips. It's not something you could indulge in every day.

No!  I did not finish it all - far, far too much!

We arrived back at the cottage at Danby to find that Susan and Geoffrey and the dogs had also gone out somewhere. It's starting to fine up a bit. Let's hope it lasts.