Still driven from the countryside, GEORGE WILKINSON takes

a stoll along the coast between Sandsend and Whitby

I HAVE peered at the websites, made fruitless phone calls and can only conclude that for the purpose of significant walking the countryside is still closed, bar tarmac tedium. So, like many of you, I have been driven to the edge - to the seaside.

A glance at the tide times in the Evening Press settled me earlyish to bed and almost up with the dawn, and I reached Sandsend in the quiet of the morning. First stop was Sandsend Stores for chocolate and this year's booklet of tide times, as one could well be back, in a routine of forest-canal-seaside for a while. Mr Raine at the stores said he'd had a wonderful few weeks, the cold days of spring busy as summer hols.

The tide was out, not very far, not a particularly low one. The two mile ribbon of beach was empty bar a few local dog walkers and a runner. Getting up early is not my natural inclination but does pay off sometimes for the light. And it was beautiful, as you could see all the way to Whitby, crystal clear with no shimmer or haze; the pier and the Abbey were caught in silhouette, so sharply defined that by illusion they appeared quite near.

The water was a decent North Sea grey green breaking in surfable style about a hundred yards out, providing a sound track that would cost you from a quack therapist. It did the business and all virulent thoughts of the scourge were washed from my mind.

I meandered down to the waves hissing salt water on my boot leather, up the beach to find firmer sand, over the glistening salty streaks draining from the high tide and splashing through the freshwater of a couple of becks. Mostly it's sand, sometimes a fine shingle, sometimes pebbles of every hue, and here and there flat shale for skimming the waves. The cliffs are low and slumping boulder clay in places coated with a temporary turf. There was one bird, an oystercatcher.

Two thirds along things change, there are some scattered rocks covered in barnacles, limpets, mussels and seaweed. The cliffs harden to sandstone and the light hardened as the sun burst through the sky. You walk the sands all the way to Whitby's West Pier, and strolling the pier was so nice with the town still sleepy, shopkeepers braced for the tide of trippers, a couple of fisherman bemoaning the small size of modern fish.

The view from the end of the West Pier is ace, and instructive on the paths that feed up and down from the beach. Not that it is likely that you will be trapped by the tide, but I would advise effort on timing or you may not have much time to explore the town. I could not face fish and chips for brunch, so instead just read the seafood menu outside the famous Magpie Caf. A gander round back alleys brought me out on West Cliffs by the whalebone arch, with a birdseye view of the sands. Back down to the beach.

Or not quite because there is a causeway that runs parallel and just above the sands for half a mile, past a hundred beach huts painted in a poster colour rhythm of red, yellow, blue, green. And now at least a hundred people on the beach, many of them displaced ramblers - a bit sad, rucksacks rather than windbreaks, boots instead of buckets and spades, purposeful not playful.

Sandsend looks good from a distance, and not unpleasant close up, and provided a delicious lunch of mussels and French apple tart in the sunshine at the Estbek House Hotel.

Distance: Five and a half miles.

Time: Two or three hours.

General location: Northern coast of North York Moors National Park

Start: Sandsend village.

Right of way: The complete route is along public rights of way.

Date walked: April 21, 2001.

Road route: From York A64 to Malton then A169 to Whitby via Pickering.

Car parking: Roadside free, car park £2.50 for four hours.

Lavatories: Sandsend by 30mph sign. Whitby near beginning of West Pier.

Refreshments: Whitby - numerous; Sandsend - cafes, pub, restaurant.

Tourist & Public Transport Information: Whitby TIC 01947 602674.

Terrain: Beach.

Points of interest: Whitby Harbour Office Tide Tables 2001 from Sandsend Stores and Whitby, 70p. Low tide at Whitby for Sunday April 29, 2001 - afternoon 14.52. For Sunday, May 6 - morning 10.06 and romantic 22.32.

Difficulty: Easy/moderate.

Dogs: Suitable for those suffering tarmac depression. Not allowed on Whitby Sands.

Weather forecast: Evening Press and recorded forecast 0891 500 418

Please observe the Country Code and park sensibly. While every effort is made to provide accurate information, walkers set out at their own risk.