Cleethorpes, Mablethorpe and the Humber Bridge

With the state of the rivers still preventing us from going very far we decided to have another day exploring the region by car. It was a sunny day, plenty of fluffy clouds, but warm enough for sitting outside.

Cleethorpes Pier

We drove first to Cleethorpes - neither of us had realised just how close it is to Grimsby, really just a suburb! We parked on the sea front close to the pier and set out to discover what sort of holiday destination it is. Christine recalls the names of the place names along this coast from stories told by her father!

Donkey Riding

Almost immediately we saw that some things never change - little children having beach rides on a donkey.

From there we went back into the town and shopping street - plenty of eating places. It is a long time since we had seen fish and chips available with bread and butter!

Mostly small independent shops: we bought a pork pie from a butcher, drinks from a discount shop and then found a good sandwich specialist and bought a filled roll and tortilla for our lunch. Again they seemed remarkably great value - and friendly staff.

The sea front has a long stretch of well maintained gardens, offering plenty of places for people to sit as an alternative to the beach - but we planned to find a quieter place a little way down the coast.

Donna Nook

We first tried one spot marked on the map but it was rather a disappointment so we went on to Donna Nook, a nature reserve on the edge of the salt marshes with the sea quite some distance away. However it was pleasant to sit on a grassy bank to eat our lunch.

Whilst Mike sat and read his newspaper, Christine walked along the path and spotted plenty of interesting wild flowers. She snapped one of the many marsh orchids. However, we felt a little disappointed that the RAF did not lay on a display for us - a lonely Spitfire (Mike thinks!) flew around just the once.

Marsh Orchids

We drove further on down to Saltfleet and the nearby Rimac nature reserve which had a viewpoint marked on the map. This proved even more prolific in terms of wild flowers - plenty more orchids and other marsh-loving plants. We spotted only a lone butterfly and it was not a great time for birds either. But the landscape quickly grows on one - the sense from such extensive flat stretches of land, dunes and marshes is so very different from what we normally experience.

Rimac Nature Reserve

Vipers Bugloss

Our earlier disappointment with the RAF was compounded as we watched four aircraft arrive and line up for numerous practice runs at the range where we had lunch! Too far away to see very much but it was remarkable how steeply they climbed up after their low level run.

We still had time to take a look at Mabelthorpe - although we soon realised that this was not at all to our taste! The town centre had lost almost all its shops, replaced by garish slot machine establishments and similar forms of entertainment. The shore line has a large protective embankment, topped with a long line of assorted beach huts.

Beach Huts at Sutton-by-Sea

Out the other side, Sutton-by-Sea is a little more sedate but still nothing to write home about. At the end, Sandilands at least had a small car park for a few cars where we squeezed in to take a quick walk over the embankment to view the beach.

True, it has a long sandy shoreline and today the sea was very calm - just a few people were out enjoying the return of sunshine.

Time now to set off back, realising that by making several stages to get here it was a lot further back than our main outward leg! Furthermore, Christine particularly wanted to cross the Humber Bridge, one of the longest single spans bridges.

Crossing the Humber Bridge

There was nowhere to stop and take in the view on the southern bank so we managed some photos through the car windscreen as we crossed over. On the other side - toll now only £1.50 - we spotted a sign to Humber Bridge Country Park, quickly turned off and parked in an enormous - but almost empty - car park. Alas both the advertised tourist information and catering facilities were well and truly closed.

Black Mill

We walked down through the woodlands and came out by the Black Mill - which we had seen when crossing the bridge - an a chance to appreciate just how significant a piece of engineering the bridge really is.

All that was then left was to drive along the motorways back to Keadby and decide what to do tomorrow.

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