RogueRunners '24 Day 3 - Whitby Loop

Everybody did the short route today - just as well as the first back was at 17:00, all was going well until a village with an awkward junction, where I thought everyone turned right.

I was wrong, I turned right & found myself alone with Mark in the Alpine & a SatNav telling me to turn around.

Then the SatNav went strange, it still gave me instructions, but I had no line to follow, so I was glad of Mark's presence, but that was the last we saw of the main group.

We headed out over moorland roads & within not too long at all found ourselves looking across a valley at Whitby Abby. There were signs out about the swing bridge being closed, but fortunately it was open for us & we went up toward the abbey & turned inland.

We had problems in Pickering where the high street was closed for market day. That split up the four of us that had managed to find each other, but we re-grouped at a petrol station & moved on. Then there was an altercation with a deer that had been hiding in a verge & chose the moment I drove past to bolt. I think it was OK - my car was.

We stopped for coffee in a village that had the most Yorkshire man I've ever come across serving in the café. Everything you've heard rolled into one "ee if yer all pay on't card thee bank'll charge me a fortune, 'ave ee not got cash?"

Later we heard that the other group had called in & he'd accused the Alpine of being a Porsche & he didn't hold with for'n cars. The village also boasted a public loo decorated with a small bicycle - I think it had been hung up by the health & safety man going by the size of the chains - they would easily support my car. 

After that there was quite a lot of knarly, twisty, steep roads, I like the technical lanes, but there was rather a lot & I was very pleased to see a white line in the middle of the road, although others said this was their favourite day.

There was also a road with gates across which we had no truck with after our experience a couple of years ago & a little later another one, but I suspect that was because the SatNav believed the road I'd picked was closed - it wasn't, so we drove along it until the SatNav sorted it's life out. Later we found out that others had tried the gated road.