Blogging at 22:13 on Saturday 1st June 2019 from N 54.29598°, W 01.08574° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:54.29598%2C-01.08574
First stop today was Flatt's Lane parkrun on the outskirts of Middlesbrough. It was recommended by one of our racing friends and it's one of the hilliest parkruns in the entire UK. For sure, it was a hard one but we both enjoyed it.
After a leisurely breakfast we bumbled south and for the entire afternoon we've been watching stuff and mooching round the area of the coordinates and pic shown (where were also intend to kip). There's an excellent mix of habitat-types concentrated in a few square miles hereabouts and it's proved really good for wildlife. I haven't seen such numbers of brown hares for ages. Rabbits are also massively abundant so it's maybe no surprise we've been a stoat darting about, too.
Most notable birds have been red kyte, roding woodcock, nesting golden plover and at least four separate churring nightjars. The woodland birdsong at dusk was also quite something with thrushes, finches and warblers all going at it.
Tomorrow we intend to have a bike ride in the morning taking in a substantial breakfast cafe stop in Helmsley, waddling uncomfortably back to the truck and then heading home.
It's been a really pleasant few days out and shows yet again that sometimes you don't have to go far to go far. If we'd found these kinds of landscapes, wildlife, access to superb cycling, lovely little villages and a general feel-good atmosphere in the far reaches of eastern Europe we'd have been raving about it and urging those we know with shared values and interests to visit (or move there) immediately...
Tomorrow we intend to have a bike ride in the morning taking in a substantial breakfast cafe stop in Helmsley, waddling uncomfortably back to the truck and then heading home.
It's been a really pleasant few days out and shows yet again that sometimes you don't have to go far to go far. If we'd found these kinds of landscapes, wildlife, access to superb cycling, lovely little villages and a general feel-good atmosphere in the far reaches of eastern Europe we'd have been raving about it and urging those we know with shared values and interests to visit (or move there) immediately...
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