UK Coatline Tour in a Motorhome - 10 Years on - Great Yarmouth - Goth Weekend Whitby - Week 10

 TUESDAY, 4 NOVEMBER 2014 Week 10

Great Yarmouth was a lovely, traditional seaside town, at one end the majestic Victorian hotels and guest houses and at the other side of the pier all the amusements a cheap tat gift shops. We had a great time on the pier, playing in the arcades and feeling like a kid again, but as we’re getting to the end of the season shops and the pier shut down earlier and now the clocks have gone back too, it’s dark by five, yet weirdly it still fills like eight or nine at night.

One night we went to watch Northern Soul at the local cinema. Great Yarmouth doesn’t appear to have these big all singing all dancing, Imax, super, duper, surround-sound, Dolby-screen, ultimate, movie experience – you get the idea. We had a cinema and chairs like something from the 1980s and there was just 5 of us in the auditorium, which was quaint and great! I don’t think Great Yarmouthians like the flicks much! 

We moved on to Whitby for a bit of a detour for Halloween and the Whitby Goth weekend, which was amazing and very atmospheric. We walked up the 199 steps to the Abbey where I saw someone dressed up like Vampire Lestat and had a baby vampire following him around! We then went to the Abbey itself, where they had organised an outdoor play of Bram Stokers Dracula.

There were just three actors who played all the characters and their interaction with the crowd was very funny. I love watching live performances as you feel your part of the show, even if you are just watching, but the crowd’s interaction and the actor’s ab-libs made the show very funny and entertaining indeed. We watched the last performance of the day and so got the opportunity to watch them put the Abbey lights on, which they were doing for Halloween only.

We then did a ghost walk, which I still love, even if I think the person taking me on the ghost walk isn’t that fantastic because you still get a sense of local myths and legends and to walk through the small winding, cobbled streets in the dark is always atmosphere, especially at Halloween.

On Halloween itself, we walked around Robin Hoods Bay, which was rife with smugglers in its day. The best way to describe the place is a miniature fishing village on a very, very steep hill. I can see why smugglers like the place. Back in its time, unless you lived there you probably wouldn’t have bothered to negotiate the steep hills, cliffs and tight winding streets. The place is very quaint though.

In the evening we went back into Whitby and it was bonkers! There were goths and Steampunkers dressed to impress. Tourists like myself and Del who wanted to join in and dress up a little bit and be a part of the scene, then there were the people who just came to watch the shenanigans. There were some amazing outfits and then there were some really creepy ones, like the clown IT from Steven Kings film, there was even a guy whose makeup looked like he had reptile skin under his human face, like ‘V’! Very good and very creepy. Naturally the place was bursting at the seams with people, but we managed to stay out until midnight. (Not a big crowd person)

We also went for a walk up onto West Cliff by the Pavillion where the music festival was being hosted (not sure what Heaven 17 has to do with goths though) The amount of pimped out hearses parked up there was amazing, and I guess some people just love living the whole undead lifestyle for real, for me though I’m quite happy to just write about it. The place was so atmospheric, I was even inspired by a new horror story, thanks to Derek! That’s all I’m going to say for now…. Mwah Hahaha!

Heading back to East Anglia exhausted but happily spooked for another year.

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