Day 18 - Grosmont to Robin Hoods Bay

Today should be our last day on the Coast-to-Coast walk.  Fittingly, it rained for much of the night, and our tent is sodden.  We pack it down and leave it with the rest of our overnight gear for the luggage carrying company to pick up; then off into Grosmont for a 9:30am breakfast at the local shop, as none of the cafes have yet opened.  Fortunately the shop keeper comes to the rescue by making Fiona a cup of tea.  Fiona without tea in the morning - it just doesn't bear thinking about.  We drink our tea and coffee on the station platform, watching the staff of the North York Moors Historic Railway prepare a steam engine for its day's work.

We finally get walking at 10:00am, across another section of moor land. It starts raining again, and continues for the rest of the day.  At midday we enter a forest, where we sight the only deer that we have seen on the walk.  Unfortunately it does not stay around for a photo.

Then off across one last moor, before reaching the coast a few kilometres north of Robin Hoods Bay.

Followed by a spectacular, grey, rainy, walk along the coast - which is probably only appropriate for the North Sea - 

before reaching Robin Hoods Bay at 6:00pm.  We have a quick shower, then head to the pub that the guidebooks states is the gathering place for Coast-to-Coasters.  Here we met up with six other people who have also finished the C2C today.  One of them is new to us, but the other five we have seen regularly over the past few days.  Hot dinners are eaten, and C2C stories (both good and bad) are swapped.  

I am smiling - it is just that the rain has washed my teeth away

That is the end of our soggy Coast-to-Coast adventure.  I'll write up a summary next week.  The next adventure, real life (including finding a way to pay for these reckless walking endeavours). 

Distance walked today: 25km

Total distance walked - a little over 300km

As he hurried along, eagerly anticipating the moment when he would be at home again among the things he knew and liked, the Mole saw clearly that he was an animal of tilled field and hedgerow, linked to the ploughed furrow, the frequented pasture, the lane of evening lingerings, the cultivated garden-plot. For others the asperities, the stubborn endurance, or the clash of actual conflict, that went with Nature in the rough; he must be wise, must keep to the pleasant places in which his lines were laid and which held adventure enough, in their way, to last for a lifetime.

- Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

Day 17 - Blakey Ridge to Grosmont

The day starts off with some blue sky over the moors;

which soon becomes grey skys over the moors,

and then it starts raining, again.

Fortunately the rain only lasts for 20 minutes, although it does remain overcast for the rest of the day.  We get to see some cute old shepherd's huts,

and to practice our grouse stalking skills again - which involve walking up to grouse just a little bit more slowly than we would normally walk.

Fiona demonstrates her skill as a huntress, by walking to within 4 metres of a grouse.

Idea for how to turn grouse hunting into a real skill-based sport - Make it that the hunter has to hit the grouse with a thrown unweighted beach ball.  The sport would then be re-named "Grouse Bunting", be administered by "The Royal and Ancient Society of Grouse Bunters".  and with the beginning of the bunting season each year the moors would abound with bunters demonstrating their skill with a brace of brightly coloured beach balls.  

We finish the day at Grosmont where we camp in a farmer's field, then walk into the village for dinner at  an inn.

Distance walked today: 20km

Day 16 - Lord Stones to Blakey Ridge

Yeah, the weather has cleared making for lovely walking on the North Yorkshire moors.  Heather as far as the eye can see.  This has to be one of the most purple landscapes in the world.  There are grouse everywhere, popping up out of bushes at the edge of the path, giving me a fright, then letting lose with their gurgling laugh.  Grouse have a warped sense of humour.

A sheep with the dreaded Blue Bum disease

Ancient boundary marker between two lord's lands.

For anyone who is wondering how difficult grouse shooting is - here is an unmagnified mobile phone photo of a grouse (centre of picture - not to be confused with the sheep in the right of picture).  Grouse have to be some of the stupidest / tamest birds in the world.  As long as you can hit a target the size of a chicken, with a shot gun, at a range of 4m, you'll be fine grouse shooting.  We found that mostly grouse just ran down the path in front of us.

Toward the end of the day we come across two 15cm long animals locked in combat on the path.  Subsequent research on the internet identified them as weasles.  We sat and watched the fight for five minutes.  It was like watching a gladitorial contest - between two socks.

Distance walked today: 20km

Day 15 - Oaktree Hill to Lord Stones

We get off to our earliest start ever - 8:20am.  Why?  Because we need to walk 25km to a camp ground that we are told closes at 5:00pm.  Another day in rain.  Well, lets be honest.  Not so much rain as drizzle; heavy drizzle though.  In Richmond Fiona purchased a product to waterproof her boots, and it is having no affect at all.  We climb up into a set of low hills in the mist, then set out across heather clad moors.  

It's lovely, but damn damp.  

Apparently if it was clear we would be able to see the North Sea, but all that we can see is a sea of heather.

Fact for the day - As a result of freak atmopsheric conditions, the North Yorkshire moors are one of the few place in the world where you can see the curviture of the earth.

We camp for the night at Lord Stones Camp Ground, and cook for ourselves on our camp stove.  As a result of another day in soaking boots, Fiona is very cold, so crawls into bed at 6:00pm and refuses to get out of her sleeping bag until after 7:45am.

Distance walked today: 25km

Day 14 - Richmond to Oaktree Hill

We get away to our traditional 10am start.  Why can we never get away early?  The weather is fine, and at couple of stages the day nudges into hot.  Fiona even puts on her sun hat and suntan lotion.  A positively shocking turn of events.  We walk along country lanes, past recently harvested fields of wheat.

At one stage we encounter a diversion, telling us to walk a couple of kilometres out of the way to bypass a construction site.  Fiona knows that this will be her longest walking day to-date, and isn't going to have anyone make it even longer.  She leads the way in reclaiming an (almost) English women's right to ramble over the countryside where ever they like; bulldozers and land barons be damned!

"But I didn't see any sign officer"

Fortunately, because it is Sunday, there isn't any construction going on anyway.  We also get to walk through some woodland, and increase our grey squirrel count for the trip from two to five.  A long day, and we have sore feet and legs now, but otherwise all is good.  The guidebook describes today's section as the low point of the Coast-to-Coast, but we enjoyed it. 

Distance walked today: 26km

Day 13 - Rest day in Richmond - Special feature on stiles

We are taking a rest day today in Richmond, doing laundry, visiting castles, eating curries.  But this day off walking presents an ideal opportunity to write a special feature on a topic very dear to any Coast-to-Coast walkers heart - stiles.

The majority of the Coast-to-Coast passes through farmland.  Even the moors, and hills of the Lake District, are grazed.  Meaning that farmers get 20 plus people a day walking across their land, opening gates, maybe closing gates, maybe not closing gates, maybe freeing cattle and sheep to roam, well, free.  The "solution" is stiles.  A stile is described in the dictionary as - a series of steps or rungs by means of which a person may pass over a wall or fence which remains an obstacle to sheep or cattle. In the Yorkshire Dales the Coast-to-Coast walker passes through more than 25 paddocks a day. 

To reduce the risk of a farm gate being left open, each paddock along the route has stiles built into it.  The walker doesn't have to open a gate, instead they just walk through a stile that stock cannot get through.  It is a nice theory, but sometimes the stiles are a bit of a tight fit.

Some of the stiles have been sponsored by the RSPA (the Royal Society for the Promotion of Anorexia),

and some of the stiles are staffed by border control cows - What is the purpose of your visit to the paddock?

Day 12 - Reeth to Richmond

We wake to a sunny day and head to the local shop to buy some sandwiches to eat for lunch.  Then more easy walking down the Swaledale beside the river.

About midday the rain clouds roll in; but half an hour later they roll out again.

Today we get a short section through a forest, where we had the good fortune to see a grey squirrel.  Still no red squirrel sightings unfortunately.

We arrive at Richmond at 3:30pm - the earliest end to our day's walking to-date - and we have a rest day scheduled for tomorrow; very exciting and much needed!  Although the weather has been mostly fine today, Fiona still has soaking wet boots as the ground conditions under foot are still sodden from earlier rain.

Fact for the day - a few short sections of the Coast-to-Coast are carpetted

Distance walked today: 18km

Day 11 - Keld to Reeth

The rain pours down overnight.  So much so that I can hear it impacting on the thick slate tiles that roof the converted barn in which we are staying.  In the morning the barn yard is a frenzy of ducks, trawling through the newly wet ground.  Which is all very well for the ducks, but we are supposed to be walking in this.  Fortunately the weather starts to clear about 10am, leaving some dramatic sky-scapes.

Looking down the Swaledale valley

Today's journey is a relatively gentle stroll down the valley, often beside the river.  The weather slowly improves throughout the day, and we have a very pleasant walk.

The Lipton river, flowing out of Yorkshire's famous tea growing highlands.  A factory downstream extracts the water, combines it with fine wood shavings, and packages it as tea bags.  OK, OK - it is just the run off from the peat bog above.

Fields near the village of Gunnerside.

We have arranged to tent in the campsite at Reeth.  We are managing to do this about one day in three, to help keep costs down.  However, on arrival the effervesant campsite owner offers us the use of a caravan for approximately the same price.  This is great because it means that we don't need to spend time setting up and taking down our tent, or pack the tent wet in with all of our other gear in the morning.  As we do most nights, we have a meal in the local country pub.  We have become very enthusiastic about these old gems.

We are now over half way through the Coast-to-Coast, and although we end each day quite tired, we are otherwise both in reasonable physical condition.  The current plan is to try to complete the Coast-to-Coast with six days walking, then a rest day, then five days walking, then another rest day, then a final five days walking.  We are certainly looking forward to our next scheduled rest day - the day after tomorrow.

Distance walked today: 20km

Day 10 - Nateby to Keld

Today we cross the Pennine Hills, Britian's main divide.  Rain that falls on the west of these hills makes its way to the Irish Sea, while rain which falls on the east makes its way to the North Sea.  Appropriately, it is raining again. 

Weather normality is restored

On the top of the range are the Nine Standards; nine large stone cairns.   I can't explain who built the standards or why, as no one seems to be sure.  It is possible that they are less than 500 years old, but also possible that they are several thousand years old.  Any analysis is complicated by the fact that they seem to have been rebuilt/restored many times in their current location.  Although we are not quite half way yet, if the Coast-to-Coast had a symbollic half way point, the Nine Standards would be it.

Then on across the moors and into Britian's grouse shooting heartland.  People pay a staggering amount of money to come here and shoot at rusty brown coloured chickens.  I must admit that I don't get it.  The grouse that we have seen are relatively tame and will let us get to within 25 metres.  I could understand the "challenge" in grouse hunting if you were restricted to hitting them with a spear, thrown knife, or even bow and arrow - but hitting something the size of a chicken at 25 metres with a double barrelled shotgun - well, it might be sport if you had to kill the bird by throwing your gun at it.

Grouse hunting bunker on the moor.  If those grouse start shooting back then an Englishman wants to know that there is at least 50cms of stone wall between himself and hot metal.

We finished in Keld, at the head of the Swaledale valley.  Keld was once a major centre for lead mining.  Probably best not to eat any grouse from here that we've gun butted along the way.

In the end it wasn't too wet today.  A short patch of rain while on the tops of the hills, occasional drizzle at other times; but mostly it was overcast, windy, but fine.  More good news is that my knee is slowly improving.  I'm very happy about this because a few days ago I thought that there was a chance that I would not be able to complete the walk. 

Distance Walked Today: 21km

Coast-to-Coast Map

Fiona keeps (rightly) telling me that I need to include a map of the Coast-to-Coast route in the blog.  The red line is the approximate route of the Coast -to-Coast.  This won't be exactly the same as the route that we are taking, but it is close enough.  We are walking left to right (west to east).  The whole route is approximately 300km (190miles).