 For many years we've talked about wanting to find the source of the River Esk and follow it all the way to the North Sea. Today the talking is over. Join us as we follow this magnificent river from its humble beginnings on the North Yorkshire moors to the beautiful fishing town of Whitby and the vast and unforgiving North Sea. Hello, and welcome to another video. I'm out on another trail, but this one is very important because we, and when I say we, I mean me. Do do do do do do do do. Guess who's back? Back again. Joey's back. Tell a friend. Hello. This particular adventure has been chatted about many a time the Esk valley from source to mouth. There's no path to anything and we're looking for the source of the River Esk thought. I'm excited, man. Like I say, we've talked about it for so long. I mean people have walked the Nile, people have walked the Amazon. Really the big one, the old one. The tick that they all really want to do is Esk. The feather, the pheasant feather in the calf, he's really been asking it. This is the, oh look he's just stopped talking. This is beautiful. He's actually definitely quiet. He's definitely quiet. Right, so anyway we're going to plod on this way and we're looking for the source of the River Esk, which apparently is called the Esklets and he's made up of maybe three or four different water sources. So we're going to go and try and find the main one and maybe have a drink of it to start our trek. Lap it like a dog. Lap it like a dog, he says. He's back. Oh, it's an egg. My egg. These traps are for the things that will have probably have eaten the eggs that we just picked up, which are like rats, squirrels, things like that and it's to stop them eating grouse eggs. But if I can find the footage I'll put it in, but many years ago we found one of these traps and they're quite controversial and there was a, was it a tarnie owl? It's an owl that has been trapped from running through there. It's a waste of an amazing creature that could do. The tributary is running. So if we follow this here, we, we should get to the source of there. That's gross, mate. Medic! Oh, it's just like a death trap. The death hut. Can't get out. Yeah. Can't get out. Look. Medic! Those are fun. Where? That one there. Oh my God. Look at them all dead. They can't get out. That's dark. Oh, he's alive. Oh, man. He stinks. Oh, it stinks. We've got to save him. This is dark, isn't it? This is a dark time in our lives, isn't it? They've turned into a soup, haven't they? I'm going into the spot. Three of them. Oh, mate. You can't put your hands in that. Why? When are you going to wash your hands in? In the sauce. I've got to save them. If you get sick, mate, if you get sick, you're going to jump back in if you come that way. What? I'd throw him that way. They're less likely to fall back in there. Do it once. Go, boys. There we go. That stinks. Little fingers. No way. What a great start to our amazing journey. We've freed three frogs there. So that's good karma, isn't it? I've got to wash these hands absolutely wrong. Wrong. I think I've just washed them in like dead frog juice. To the sauce. Good stuff, mate. Good having a mobile tripod, isn't it? It was dark, wasn't it? It's like some sort of horror movie. We've had a rabbit riddled in just the death rabbit and then that makes me feel like gipping. Guys, dead super frog. Not good. So these hides in the middle of nowhere, for those that don't know, they're used to shoot game birds for posh lads. This is it, the source of the River Esk, which is going to run down here, join the main Esk and through the Esk valley. Leading us in maybe two or three days to the harbour and the mouth of the Esk, which is in Whitby, which feeds out into the North Sea. This is exciting times, man. We've seen a lot of death. So hopefully from now on we'll see a lot of life. We've got a lot of positivity to bring just to counterbalance stuff out. Let's get these jackets off, do a quick cuddle and then we're going to set off and follow this river all the way to the sea. This is it, this is it brother. Come on Joe, do a little ceremonial wipe of the, oh, he's ready. I'll do it as well because monkey see, monkey do. Let's go. The River Esk is a river in North Yorkshire, England that empties out into the North Sea at Whitby after a course of around 28 miles through the valley of Eskdale, named after the river itself. The river's name is derived from the Brythonic word isca, meaning water. The Esk is the only major river in Yorkshire that flows directly into the North Sea. All of the water course is defined as being major rivers by the Environment Agency. Either flow to the North Sea via the River Tees or the Humber Estuary. The source of the River Esk is approximately 400 meters above sea level on Westerdale Moor. Here a series of small streams called the Esklets Merge. The river then flows through sparsely populated areas of open moorland and farmland to float into the sea in Whitby. Yeah, you could probably swim in that. Right, here we are. We've just joined this, this track which is used by the hunters to get to their hides. It's quite well established for little buggies, but we've just done some off-roading and foot report, moist. 100% Yorkshire. So Yorkshire. It's so Yorkshire right now. We've been taking detours just to see the water as much as we can because this trip is all about the river and we want to follow it as much as we can and see as much of it as we can. So we're going to go down here off-road because we can hear running water and I do know what, if it's a plunge pool and the water fall deep enough, I'm going in. We've got to do it. It's not often we have Josie Fondaya out and about with us and it's not often we get to fulfill one of our dreams, mate. I'm going down. We've not seen each other for so long and here we are doing it and it is stunning and I know I say it's stunning a lot but like sometimes I'm lost for words. In fact I'll have to put you away for going down here because I will stack it. Let's go. And there we are back down. Look at this. Underneath is this plunge pool, a waterfall and then going off onto another waterfall. New swim shorts. No, but love swim shorts. Available soon. There's a good chance we could have been first people ever to swim in that. Josie's just seen a robbing land over there. So this is truly, truly a magical time. We're not on path. We're just making our own way along the side of this steep valley. One of the escalates that we'll feed into the Esk and this is what we're calling the source and we're following it. We can hear it. It is just nice, isn't it? Yeah. It's just beautiful. Farmerland, I think we'll have a little map check, my boy, before we get shot for trespassing. Look at that. That is beautiful. Let's just feel action. The craftsmanship. Oh, it's silent. Oh, that's really nice, really nice. See if it's got a spring on. Let it go. Oh, you don't get many. You do not get many. Absolutely fantastic. Idiot. Welcome to Yorkshire. Lovely bit of Baylor's band there. It's called Little Esklets and that is a cute name, isn't it? Dude, I don't care how hard you are. Oh, how hard do you think you are? When you hear the word Little Esklets, you're melting in it. Even Mike Tyson in his prime when he was doing his walk out to the start gong, so much went up and whispered Little Esklets in his ear. He just started giggling. Look, swallow. Yeah. Beautiful. It's lovely to see swallows, swifts, house martins all out. Dogs are going rabid. Hunting dogs. But you know, it's a working farm. That's what all this is. The Yorkshire Moors is defined by the farmlands and the people who work here. The history of the place. Is it a squealer? I don't know. No. Silence. The Yorkshire Moors treating us. Didn't even have to warm it up. It's beautiful. Look at that echoing throughout the valley. We're here. For anyone who's just new to watching my videos and you think, oh, is this lad coming along, checking over latches and locks and doing a bit? Well, I'd just like to tell you now that this is one of the original founding members and joint CEO of latches and locks. He was here at the inception of latches and locks. If I remember or can be bothered, Q-Clip. We now are doing latches. Plenty of content. There's plenty of content to share. So you lads can have the beer reviews. Just leave us our latches. And also it's the ones where they've done makeshift locks that you'll find in the middle of a field somewhere. And also to prove how serious I am, if you'd just like to go down below and follow my new Instagram page, latches and locks, if anyone's got any interest in latches or locks, maybe you've made a latch or a lock or you've got photos that you'd like to share of latches and locks, then please do get in touch. There you go. Just so you know you're dealing with. There you go. Certified, mate. Certified. Medic. Medic's in gates. We're back. The Esk Valley Walk. I had a little bit of a wobble on my Harriet way being like, oh, we do too many latches and locks and medics and that, but we're back. We're back. We're back. It's good so I had a poorly tummy because of eating them gammy prawns, but we're back. And we've joined the Esk Valley Walk this is now. So we're off the beaten track bit. We have plotted this route in ourselves. So there's another bit that we're going to sort of make up and come off the track, but now we follow the Esk Valley Walk and we're going to try and stay as close to this wonderful river as possible. St. George's Mushroom that comes out around St. George's Day. Ready? It's seen many incarnations over its time. Oh my God. Sanded by human hand. Have you still got your little stress lichen? So what is it? That's a finger. You can't say that. Medic! We stopped for a little break to change into our shorts, have some trail mix and air out our feet while taking in the rolling green hills of the Esk Dale Valley. A game of cricket was being played in the distance to a soundtrack of birdsong and morale was high. Some more St. George's mushrooms. We've taken a couple. I've put both me waters in one side and we've put some mushrooms in the side pouch. They'll probably get annihilated and turn into soup, but if when we get where we're going, they're in half decent nick, we're definitely going to cook them up, man. What's that? There's the ultimate medic, is it? Oh, it's not well. I think I've got some anti-histamines in my bag. Jack is beyond help or the thing is my medical team has had is a 100% success rate. And as I've always said, no one gets left behind. So give it a shout. Done. You'll be all right, sunshine. They're on the way. What best wildlife sightings of my life? Walk down here, this tree, something just floats out of it. Big barn owl. Found this little cut out here, looked back at us and then just banked and slowly flew off. Day sighting close up of Barnabas MacAuless. And then he just effortlessly glided through that tree there. I thought he was going to land in it and then he just sort of glided through. And you can't hear him because the thing about owls is at the end of their wings is all circular. And so they don't cut through there. They sort of walk through it so that they can hunt silently at night. You don't hear their wings flap. That was a sighting, man. Amazing, man. That is easily the best barn owl sighting ever. Best barn owl sighting? What a glorious day. This is shaping up to be a beauty, isn't it? All these nettles, mate. It's worth getting stung just for a walk back. Come on. And there she is. Look, the mighty, not so mighty yet, but potential, the River Esk. We've got geese. I mean, it's a poor poor poor man's owl. I've heard geese being referred to as ground owls. Large body ground owl. A flock of long neck ground owls here. We've got to see the river and we've got to see some amazing ground owls, but we've goofed. We have our first goof gas. We've our first goof of the trip because we got... What is going on with this? We had an owl brain, didn't we? Yeah. We had fluffy owl brain. We were starstruck, weren't we? How did you close this thing? It's a mission that I'm willing to take on. It's a huge mission. Oh, there we are. I can escape. There we go. We're in. We're done. Oh, yeah. We've got fuzzy brain, fuzzy owl brain, didn't we? I've not been a wasted journey because we managed to see the nice river again. Is it map time? Yeah. Yeah, it's map time. Don't look at us. We know where we're going intuitively. Brand spanking new. Shampooed edge as well. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Medic. So sometimes on these hikes, I'll have a pint and sometimes I won't. And when I say sometimes I won't, I don't think I did on the Cape Raft Trail and that was about it. But this looks nice because it was established in 1865 according to my glamorous assistance. But we're giving it up out because it's like, it's about our five. And there's another village down the way called Dambi. And we know that that's got an alehouse too. So we think we're going to put in the extra miles, get to Dambi, then we've really earned our pint, haven't we? Have a pint, have some fodder, and then just think about somewhere to picture. Have a look on the map. Beautiful Castleton in the distance there. That's where we are. Primrose and Wood Violet. Let's go and let's have a look what they've got going on. Apparently Yorkshire legend a piece and we'll see how we get on, see where this goes. We're leaving Dambi. We've had one pint, the sun's at our back, and we had a business meeting and we've decided to bat on for the four or five miles to the next village, which is Leelum. Find somewhere on Leelum to picture our wigwams. Slobbery, aren't you? Slobbered on Milosevic. Oh, look at that. It's beautiful, isn't it? Oh, man. Hey, boys. Hello, darling. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Oh, hello. Yeah. See you mate. He was cool. You want more? Come on. Goodbye. The golden hour, as you can see, sun going down behind us, and we're nearly there. We're nearly in Leelum, not being doing much waffling to the camera because we finally got to that stage. So when you first start, which has always happened to me, you're giddy, you're into it. Let's go best time ever. There's owls flying and landing on your head, eating fucking nuts off your face and all that. And then you're getting ahead of the danger. You need to earn that gauge and we've done it and we can see Leelum and the possibilities that Leelum holds. Lollipop, lollipop, oh, lollipop. Spruce tips. Weird. Yeah. Nice though. It's like a gooseberry almost. Yeah. They're full of good soup. When you do that. Yeah, I like it. Look at us be foraging, living off the land. Some primroses. Roadside primros. What else we got while you're on? So we've come to, he's come to like, we're just eating from hedgerows now. This is Leelum, our destination. And we can see Leelum and we're still eating plants. Eat that flower. You eat it. You eat it. The lads are coming into town for Saturday. Have you got your Ben Sherman shirt in your bag? Good lad. Fire trap jeans. Good lad. I've got some, I've got some cool water if you want to, what's this? A single grave. Burial ground by the Society of Friends. We're all friends. We're all friends here. So here we are. Shall we go across Stepping Stones? He said, of course, I reply. Look at you falling into water. The famous Stepping Stones of Leelum home. He used to come here, like, this is the place. He used to come with my granddad every single time they came up here with Leelum. Yeah. Always had to come to Leelum. Because he loves it and it, I can see why. Yeah mate. Whoa. Because it's mint. Wow. Because the river's moving that way, it makes me feel like I'm a bit pissed. Oh, lovely stuff. Absolute joy to walk over. Are you having that look? Put your way because it's weird filming as you're going into a pub. But here we are. Let's go. What are you having for breakfast? Fruit and nuts. Fruit and put it together yourself or buy it as a deluxe handcrafted nut mix. After a wacky feed and a couple of pints in the pub, we set off by the light of the moon to find a place to pitch our tents. We chose the corner of this field, pitched late, set off early and left no trace. My tent of choice is the big Agnes copper spur, something, something letter, letter two. And the reason is, anyone who watched my last video know that I got absolutely drenched with condensation. And now this is prime condensation. It was low lying mist, thick grass and nothing. Now my sleeping bag was dry. I was dry. I had my uber light thermal rest mat on my yoga mat with my Natrino 600 sleeping bag. Brought me a pillow this time, which was just me with Decathlon pillow and slept very well. Joseph von Diddle, the classic corpsman. It's vintage by now, isn't it? It's a relic, isn't it? It's the waterproof. Oh, I don't know, mate. No, it's not been tested in a proper downpour for a long time. I would suspect it failed. So we're suspecting it had failed in a downpour. The corpsman exponent, it's called. And for anyone who's a regular watcher, you won't have seen JOY D camping in anything other than that for the last 10 years. Value for money. Value for money through the roof. Right, it was 60 quid. That was 60 quid, and he's used it for the last 10 years. At least. At least. Yeah, you do the math. We're on about 10 p.m. camp. I was warm and I've had softies. I went for softies in a very thin summer sleeping bag. It's a wise versatility rather than having a down sleeping bag. Yeah, it makes sense. What is yours, synthetic? Yeah. The sleeping bag he had was that, what was it, 15? Yeah, comfort level of 15. Comfort level of 15, which is like... It's about eight or nine degrees. Yeah. Comfort level of 15, which is like the height of British summer. Sometimes, when you test out your kit, you have to be cold sometimes. You've got to try it. You've got to maybe skirt on the edge of being a bit cold just to know exactly what your kit can do and what works for you. Right. We're going to pack up our shells. We put everything away. We've just got the shells of the tent and it's a beautiful day to be hitting the trail. And our plan is to make it to the sea today. I think we've got about 19 miles. So it's a 18, 19 miles, something like that. No trace left. Just a little bit of flattened grass as the smell from the countless wild garlics permeates the air. We'll head off, try not to burn our necks and our shin bones. We just had maybe two pints. We had a bit of fodder, but I'll tell you something. I got hot dog and chips. Judy got scampi and chips and it was mad, wasn't it? Little tin dot dog. Judy had a little metal tin with about four scampis in it. Loads of chips. No side salad or peas out. It was pretty it was pretty wacky. But when you're that hungry and you've been hiking all day, any pot in a storm, any pink prawn in a rat, any crab stick in a coating that looks like a parsnip is good enough for me. Wonder what wildlife we're going to see today. Yesterday was splendid for us. Yesterday it was on one, wasn't it? We had the owl sighting which was up there. We wanted best ever. We saw a deer that was just stood next to a fence. We've no run-up at all. It just bounded like five or six foot in air straight over it. Not a really good experience with frogs though, was it? It was traumatic, wasn't it? Fingering through that dead fog suit. That's wildlife. You can't, you can't have the life without the death. You can't, can you? The cosmic suit. It's not friendly, it's not nice, it's not kind, is it sometimes? Sometimes life is brutal and if you don't believe me, you can ask them frogs left in a little hole to die in their own stew, just with the mates all drowning in their own mates, liquidised mates. Pretty much, yeah. That's the truth. It's a nice track to walk on, isn't it? Oh, it's good for the morning. We've got legs going. Good morning to the esk. Lovely to be walking by its side first thing. That's nice, isn't it? A luxury spa. I bet that stinks once you start mucking about in there. Leave it. See if she's a screeler. Should I go for the mechanism? Always go for the mechanism. Oh, it's a painful squealer. It's a bit stiff as well. Oh, no, it's painful. Painful to watch. He's nice, but then... MEDIC! Maybe he's struggling mentally and he needs to get in cold water therapy, do some whim off. Oh, you feel better. You know what, whim off, don't you? He's a unit. Right, we're going to come past. Don't do anything stupid. Don't go rogue. Don't go rogue. Don't go rogue. Fair do's. Look at that for you. Yorkshire, it's finest. Oh, that was... That was silent as well. Look at this elf man in the middle of the woods. This is heaven. Oh, little Robin. Oh, look at that for a house. There's the mill there, look. The old water mill. And look, you've got the river running past you. You've got no neighbours. Smells so nice. There he is, look. Beggar's Bridge is a survivor from a time when horsepower and walking with the men murdered transport regarded this old photo. Beggar's Bridge was built in 1619 by a wealthy merchant named Thomas Ferris. According to legend, Ferris was born in nearby Ecton, the son of a poor farmer. As a young man, Ferris fell in love with Agnes Richardson, the daughter of a prosperous squire who lived in Glazedale across the river. When Ferris asked permission to marry Agnes, the squire refused, dismissing him as a beggar. Tom decided to go away to sea to make his fortune. He wanted to say goodbye to Agnes before he left, but a flood made the river impossible to cross. He left Britain for the Caribbean, where he made his fortune. On his return to Yorkshire, he married Agnes before becoming the sheriff of Hull in 1614. Ferris built a bridge across the river Esk so that no future lovers would ever be parted as he and his love had been. Steep it. Make another sheer drop. Oh, the call of the void. It's been a glorious section through some of the most beautiful woodland with blue bells and views and rocks and it had everything going on. A real nice mix of trees. Everything's in flower, everything's coming into like, getting ready for the start of summer and it's beautiful and we couldn't have asked for a better day. My sailor to this gadjump bike is struggling, look you. Now mate, you all right? Yeah, good lad, good lad. We couldn't have asked for a better day for it, but it's forecast for lightning later today, so we're hoping to get to Whitby before the lightning strikes. Ninja horse. Here we're back on the Esk. Just had a lovely stop there, the bottom horse shoe. All right, there's two for a Scotch egg and a cake and a couple of coffees, double dropped and we're back on these bad boys. Look at that, extreme sports. Those of you know, know. What do they know? About ropeswings and me. Oh, that you love them? Well, it's got them too. Oh, yeah. This is science mate. Three, two, one, science. The rope swings. Decent swing that. Right, we're going to try and get in this river, our wet. This is it. We're going in for our second dip in the mighty River S. Oh, there we go. Second dipping Eskimo. Oh, just an invigorating little cold dip there. I feel absolutely brand new and that sun after being in cold, it just feels amazing. We've stopped for a little snack. We're going to cook up our St George's mushrooms, a beautiful mushroom. Make sure to cross-reference and double check all mushrooms before eating them. This one does have a poisonous lookalike, which is the deadly fibre cap and it appears at the end of spring, early summer and can look similar, but it stains bright red and its cap is covered in fine fibres. Absolutely beautiful smell. So we've got our mushrooms and I just picked some wild garlic flour to go in at the end. We've just got a little pot, so we'll bang them in there and just stew them in their own juices. I mean, the Soto Windmaster, she can use quite a low heat on it. Stay there, don't follow her. The Spyderco, so we'll just tide him up, taking off any of the grit, mud, insects, whatever. And there you go. Look at that specimen, man. That is beautiful. A nice low heat. Right, we're done. St George's mushroom and wild garlic flour. And considering there's no salt, there's no seasonings whatsoever, it's just foraged goods. The flavour is great. Right, that's as animated as you're going to get off Joe D, but that trust me, is him being ecstatic. Wonderful, like clear, almost like a consummate of just pure essence of shroom. The little hits of wild garlic. Mm-hmm. Pass it like a zoot. And what a wonderful trail snack. Genuinely, it's really tasty, isn't it? Yeah, really tasty. Clean, like you say. No salt, right. We're going to finish these off and then mosey on downhill. We're just coming through Slites now. We're heading from Slites to Whitby. I'm looking forward to seeing where this brings us out and I'm tying it all together in my mind map. Film it just in case it's lasting. You ever see the final gate before I get gorged? No, it's fresh. But it is fresh because it's the last one. Come on then, where is it? That's a telltale sign. What is it? Medic. Why is it a teddy? Medic. Nice view of Whitby Abbey there in the distance. That's where we're heading to. Fairy door. We're just coming into a rose up now and this is the old, we used to call it the mart and me, when I was a youth, my granddad used to bring me here on like a Sunday for markets to see animals and he just put me in with pigs and that. I used to just shit myself and he just like leave me in with pigs. That's maybe why my noodles a bit scrambled. Just in with pigs. Trauma. Up here is the weir. This is where the tidal water ends at this weir. This is all tidal water. You get seals coming up right up here and I've seen some in these fields down here which looks bizarre out of context. Joe's home village of Rosa where he's born, born and bred and raised, you know what. La Pool Viaduct, also known as the Esk Valley Viaduct, is a 13 arch brick viaduct built to carry the Scarborough and Whitby railway over the River Esk. Due to its situation close to the sea, the design avoided the use of iron using brick and cement construction which began in October 1882 and was completed two years later. The viaduct is mentioned in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula. The Little River, the Esk, runs through a deep valley which broadens out as it comes nearer the harbour. A great viaduct runs across with high piers through which the view seems somehow further away than it really is. Coming into Whitby, they have been the distance, the new bridge, the train, it's all going on, civilisation. Naturally formed by the estuary of the River Esk, Whitby Harbour was the main source of income for the residents of Whitby for centuries, from traditional fishing to whaling, shipbuilding and alum export. Originally known as the only viable road into town, Whitby Harbour was used as early as the 1300s by merchants from Northern Europe to trade goods with the wealthy abbey. The wine was by far the most common import into the harbour, while salt herring was the most common export. Contrary to most people's instincts, the piers lie to the east and west of the harbour mouth which actually faces due north. Whitby is one of the only places in the UK where you can watch the sun set and rise in the sea on the same day during summer and it's where we grew up, it's our hometown and it's the perfect end to the perfect trip. We did it, as Joe was saying earlier, it's mad to think that those little esclats and that waterfall that we bathed in become this and spill out into the glorious North Sea. Final thoughts, highlights, we're a bit knackered, we'll say that, we just had fish and chips, it was delightful. I just enjoyed the whole walk, I'll be honest man. The terrain was really varied, never felt like monotonous at any point or loads of wildlife. Owl. We've just seen some dolphins, we've got seen an owl. Owl was obviously a womble, a deer, so what's a gear? Just shy of 30 miles, so a really good two day hike. Let's get your feet dunked in, very least we can do for you. There we go, there we go, look yes, from source to mouth, the champions of the esk. Oh, that's cold. It's nippy, isn't it? It's quite cold on shin bone. It's cold at source, isn't it? There we go, look. We've done it, we've made it. Whoa, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. That's colder. colder than the source, he says. All right, what a trip. We've ticked it off, we've managed to do it, finally after all he's talking we've managed to smash it out the park and here we are, stud in the North Sea. If you followed us along, thanks for watching, take care of yourselves. I'll send you a note, but love, he says, see you later. Bye for now.