Thursday 24 August 2017

Day: 220 20/2/00 Grimsby to New Holland

Weather:  Cold and fine

Distance:  30 km (18.6 miles)    Total Distance:   2836 miles

The first walk of the new millennium and what is turning into a traditional couple of days walk when Margaret and the boys are over in Ireland.  I dropped them off at the airport yesterday morning and then chilled out watching Wales beat Italy in the first of the Six-Nations Championship.  I knew today’s walk was a long one so there was no point in coming up yesterday just to do a small bit. 

I traveled up early leaving home at 6.30am and started walking at 9.00am.  I parked the car near Grimsby dock train station. The first mile was along the dual-carriageway looking at the new car storage area in the docks.  I called into the Shell petrol station for a cappuccino coffee from the machine and walked slowly while it cooled down.  The first hurdle of the day was a road and footpath closed sign that greeted me 100 meters further on.  There were indeed major works ongoing but I took to the adjacent railway line and squeezed around them – I’m glad it was a quiet Sunday with no workmen around. 

Access to the sea wall was just a little further on.  The first thing that struck me was the large number of sea birds on the mud flats.  There was quite a bit of activity to watch at the first couple of factories with coal and other material being moved around.  Walking past the factory I spotted a Triangulation Pillar on the factory land that I had never noticed before. 

The sea wall was in a good condition and it was easy walking all the way to Immingham.  Talking to a group out walking their dogs my fears were confirmed that I had to cut inland at Immingham to avoid the docks.  I turned left, through some woods and soon came out on the docks road and what was to be three miles of walking beside busy roads carrying freight lorries.  I hate to think what it would have been like on a weekday.  The saving grace was a little café I found and called in to buy a bacon batch and cup of tea for £1.30 and took them outside to eat.  It had been a very frosty start to the day and only now in the bright sunshine was the ice starting to melt – it was a lovely day.    


The road took me between Immingham town and the dock without good views of either so it was not pretty. Eventually after an hour I turned off the dual carriageway and onto a minor road and then down to a Conoco factory.  Walking straight through the site I came out on the sea wall again and near some old lighthouses still used to warn estuary traffic of the dangers of the river.  I passed some strange houses and factories in the afternoon – the first being a house whose ground were strewn with old cars and a prospective buyer looking around.

At North Killingholm Haven was a collection of very old brick clad oil storage vessels – I learnt later from a friend that these now had holes cut in the side of them and were used a warehousing.  The dock itself was being done up but the contractors were not taking very good care of the footpath through the area that was strewn with debris. Then I passed what looked like an old brick works with an old chimney.  I was pushing myself a bit since I did not want to miss the bus 16.14. 

At East Halton skitter I walked through the first of the many timber yards I found on this stretch of the river.  At Goxhill Haven I saw something that I felt helpless to do anything about.  The first thing I saw was sheep and lambs running around a farm outbuilding complex but strewn with abandoned cars etc. I then clocked a house in a dilapidated condition and a young boy ~ 12 years old clambering around the roof and a very old man, cloth cap and overcoat climbing very slowly up an old wooden ladder helping the boy repair the roof.  He was in no condition to go climbing a ladder but was either very eccentric in nature or fiercely independent or very poor.   

Another half-hour and I was going through another timber yard and into New Holland.  An examination of the timetable in the small train station told me the bus stopped at the station but there was no stop to indicate exactly where.  I asked a man walking his dog but he did not know.  I walked up into the village a bit found a stop but not the right timetable on it and then a Methodist church with organ music sounding out. I wondered if anyone was in it.  I walked back towards the station.  I called into a club still open, asked again but nobody knew but had a half a Guinness and stopped and watched the last ten minutes of a Newcastle vs. Tranmere Rovers FA cup quarter final match.

I waited for the bus that turned up exactly on time and was only a few yards off where it was meant to stop.  We had to change buses in Immingham and then onto Grimsby, the whole journey taking me around the villages of North Lincolnshire sometimes more than once I think! I hopped off the bus not far from the car and finished what was a great day’s walk.

I stayed the night with some good friends in Brigg.


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