Walking the Humber

In 2018 I am walking the length of the north bank of the Humber estuary, from Trent Falls to Spurn Head, as close to the shore as possible through Public Rights of Way. Much of the first part of the walk will follow the Trans-Pennine Trail, a national coast to coast route. The eastern section of the trail runs by the Humber from its headwaters to the city of Hull and follows the rail trail from Hull to finish at Hornsea. For the remaining of the trek, I will do circular walks.

The Humber estuary forms at Trent Falls, the meeting point from two large rivers, the Trent, from the south and the Ouse, from the west. The estuary drains a huge area in England (24,000 km2). Its intertidal mudflats, salt marshes and reed beds are nationally important for many birds, including many of conservation concern, such as the amber listed Marsh Harrier, Bittern and Avocet, who breed locally. It also supports important wintering and passage concentrations of red listed Curlew and Lapwing, Golden Plover and Pink-footed Geese. This has resulted in the Humber Estuary being designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), RAMSAR site, Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and a Special Protection Area (SPA). Read more about its conservation challenges in the Blacktoft blog by warden Pete Short.

As I did for the River Hull last year, I will do half day stages, blog about them and complete Birdtrack lists for the km2 or tetrads covered. It is about 62 km in length. This is the walking plan, which I will update as I do each stage:
  1. Faxfleet Ness to Broomfleet Island. January 15th. 5 km each way.
  2. Broomfleet Island to Brough Haven. January 22nd. 8.4 km. Train.
  3. Brough Haven to Hessle Haven. Welton Water. North Ferriby. Yorkshire Wolds Way. Humber Bridge. Train. January 29th. 12.4 km.
  4. Hessle Haven to the River Hull. Train to Hessle and back home. February 5th. 11 km.
  5. The Deep to Alexandra Dock. February 14th. 2.7 km each way.
  6. Green Port. February 18th. 2.8 km each way.
  7. King George Dock to Salt End. March 6th. 3.6 km each way.
  8. Hedon Haven to Paull. March 13th. 10 km round trip.
  9. Paull Holme Strays to Old Little Humber. 19th March. 11 km round trip.
  10. Cherry Cobb sands to Stoney Creek. 16th April. 12 km round trip.
  11. Sunk Island. 23th April. Circular 14 km. permissive path.
  12. Sunk Island (East) 30th April. Permissive path. 10 km.
  13. Welwick saltmarsh. Managed realignment site. 14th May. 9 km round trip.
  14. Skeffling Clough to Kilnsea. 9.7 km round trip. 21st May.
  15. Kilnsea Wetlands and the Spurn Triangle. Circular 7.7 km. 11th June.
  16. The Breach to Spurn Point. 18th June. 13 km round trip.
(image credit: composite of two NASA photos, public domain)

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