DAY 9 – Thursday, 22nd August 2002

We are now exactly half-way through our 190 mile journey from the West coast of England to the East coast and we are all happy for the time being. It is a point which I did not think I would reach and I am very pleased that I have been able to do so without blisters or otherwise – these could be famous last words!

We had an excellent stay at the Kearton Country Hotel, Thwaite and a good breakfast but as Tina had picked us up at Keld the previous afternoon she had to take us back there this morning to start our day’s exertions at the YHA building where she had met us. The two Australians, Peter and Melva, were staying at the YHA and they set off with us at just after 10 a.m. (It’s getting later as we progress through the journey). We left Keld by the specified Wainwright route, passing Crackpot Hall (it must have been named after the masochist Wainwright) and made our weary way up the first hill.

Nearly all the places we stay at are in the valleys or, now that we have made it to Yorkshire, the dales and it is therefore inevitable that the first few miles (and the first few hours) are uphill each day. I hate having to climb the hills and I am slow whilst Pat careers off to get to the top as fast as he can. He says that he does it because he doesn’t like heights but when Mary (his wife) and I got to the top of one hill we found him sitting precariously on a large boulder overlooking a disused quarry. It seems illogical to me that the faster you go up a hill negates the fears of heights but I suppose that we all have theories which are extremely suspect.

We have to climb to 2200 feet today but we have the advantage of having started at Keld today at 1100 feet above sea-level which makes the climbs not quite as severe as yesterday. The views of the surrounding hills from these heights are always spectacular and today, after two miles, we have the luxury of a path about two metres wide which apparently runs most of the way towards Gunnerside but I didn’t have the opportunity to find out. My erstwhile younger, adventurous colleagues wanted to climb higher and go over the top of the highest hill to make our way towards Reeth.

To be fair, this appeared to me to be the official Wainwright route although my map-reading skills are very limited and I tend to make my comments on reading the narrative to the walk and also rely on my trusty compass, on which my son Paul had given me lessons two days before departure on this trip. The decision to go over the top today, rather than take the easier route at ground level, proved unfortunate for me as I slipped on some loose stones when descending a very precarious hill towards a cement works, slid five metres down the hill and very nearly over the edge, and ended up with cuts to my face, left arm and knee. It was however perhaps slightly fortunate as Mary who was following me also slipped in the same area and crashed into my prostrate body which probably saved her an injury. I was pleased to be able to help in this way as Mary has been very supportive during the past eight days and kept me going.

Pat and Mary patched me up getting stones out of my nose and face generally and cleaned me up as far as possible so that I could carry on the tortuous journey. My sunglasses had been damaged in the fall but Pat mended the arm to the glasses as best as he possibly could and we re-started. We were surprised to see some people working at the cement works when we got there as we assumed that this was disused in the same way as the other mines etc. which we had passed. What anybody sees in making routes to go past disused mines, quarries and cement works, I do not know as they could hardly be termed attractive.

Today we passed the 100 mile mark on our journey at Level Bridge and we had our photographs taken to mark the historic event (from our point of view). This did not happen until 2.30 p.m. i.e. 5 miles in 4 ½ hours and I am sure that Wainwright does not take into account the distance in going up and down the hills, then up again in calculating the distance walked. I am always moaning about the distance and I am sure we have probably covered about 150 miles (not 100) to get to this point but it does not matter anyway as we still have 90 country miles still to do and I can assure you they are very long miles.

We reached Surrender Bridge at 3.45 p.m. and it clearly states that there is only 3 miles by road to Reeth. What am I saying – only 3 miles – two weeks ago that seemed to be a long distance by foot. My companions however did not want to take the safe easy route into Reeth, they wanted to go by some treacherous footpaths which were difficult to find and we did not arrive at The Buck Hotel, Reeth, until 5.30 p.m. and the last half-hour’s walking was marred by a heavy shower which could have been avoided. Fortunately, at this hotel we had a bath (instead of a shower) in our room and we could relax before having an enjoyable meal at 7.15 p.m. followed by the customary drinks.

DAY 10 – Friday, 23rd August 2002

We had our breakfast at The Buck Hotel, Reeth at 8.30 a.m. and although it was a full English breakfast we are now cutting down our portions as we have been feeling a bit heavy over the first few miles of walking each day. Norman, the very helpful “Jack of all Trades” at The Buck gave Tina all the help and directions she needed to get to our next destination.

When we were at Kirkby Stephen, Tina had managed to find a launderette and she had laundered all Pat and Mary’s clothes as well as our own and everybody was able to wear nice fresh clothes for our daily sojourn. We set off from Reeth at 9.45 a.m. on what is supposed to be one of the easiest walking days of the whole trip. We met Peter and Melva (the two Australians) at 10 a.m. at the junction going out of Reeth which is signposted towards Marske and is the general direction in which we are heading.

Today’s schedule on the Wainwright Coast to Coast walk takes us to Richmond (only 10 miles away) but we have booked in at Catterick Bridge, a further 4 ½ miles en route as we are apprehensive about tomorrow where the schedule would take us 23 miles from Richmond to Ingleby Cross. When we planned the walk we were apprehensive about having to walk a total of 23 miles in one day and as there were options on this particular section we took what we believed to be the safest bet for us. Anyway, today’s walk to Richmond and beyond is supposed to be a lovely, relaxing walk and we took off in good spirits.

Unfortunately for me, I have hated the mountains and hills in previous days and, mentally, every comparatively small incline now seems like a hill to me. This is ridiculous and I have to get the mountains and hills of the past week out of my system. After two miles today we went past Marrick Priory which, by the signboard outside, now appears to be used as a residential place for such as Outward Bound groups and other adventurists.

Just over an hour into our walk we saw the most welcome sign which we have come across in the last eight days – “Elaine’s Teas at Farmhouse”. This brought yells of delight from Mary and Melva and there was no doubt that we had to stop. We looked in the direction of the arrow on the sign towards the farmhouse about 150 metres away and there were four people waving frantically to us – two young couples, probably in their late thirties, whom we had met from time to time during the last few days, either on the top of a mountain or in a hotel in the evening. We went to the farm and Elaine supplied us with whatever was ordered, in the case of Mary and Melva it was the traditional tea and scones together with the most gorgeous strawberry jam produced at the farm. Mary, as thoughtful as ever, suggested that we should take Tina a jar of jam and as Tina is rather partial to strawberries, I agreed that it would be one way to earn some brownie points!

When we were at The Buck Hotel the previous evening Norman had told us that they were expecting a group of Americans for the following two nights who were walking sections of the Coast to Coast. Sure enough as we were about to leave the farm we saw a large number of people in what can only be described as Combat Expedition gear coming towards us and we correctly guessed it to be the Americans.

We made our way towards Richmond and, although there appeared to me to be a good walk at low level by the river, in typical Wainwright fashion we have to follow his prescribed route which took us as high as possible. By this time the drizzle which had been prevalent throughout the day was getting heavier and we eventually entered the pleasant town of Richmond at 3.30 p.m. As we walked down one of the main streets we heard shouts of “Roger” and it was again the two young couples, one of whom had lived in Richmond for twelve years previously and they were all finishing their journey here. We said our farewells to them and also our temporary farewells to Peter and Melva who have accommodation in Richmond itself although we expect to see them later in the trip.

Pat, Mary and I decided to walk the 4 ½ miles to Catterick Bridge by road and we telephoned Tina to tell her to expect us at our next destination within 2 hours. We had a cup of tea in the café at the back of the Edinburgh Woollen shop and then set off on the road to Catterick. The rain was getting increasingly heavier and Tina spoke to Pat on his mobile phone (mine had packed up some days ago) and suggested that she could meet us on the road and take our rucksacks in the car. This was readily agreed to and we had only reached the Catterick Garrison when Tina collected the rucksacks.

With the weight off our backs we strode out purposefully towards Catterick Bridge. Mary, who is excellent at walking up and down mountains and hills, over the Dales and Moors, clambering over stiles, does not relish the prospect of walking on roads and for the first time in the entire eight (or is it nine) days of walking I heard her complain that some part of her anatomy was aching. She is a very resilient lady and I am determined that she should get to Robin Hood’s Bay successfully as she has been so helpful to me. I am not bothered about myself but I do want Mary to achieve her objective and am sure she will.

For most of the day Pat, who has taken to this venture like a duck to water, has had trouble with his ankle and he is not sure what has caused it. It is alright for me as the only injuries which I have at present are as a result of the altercation with the hills the previous day and they are clearly visible, looking as though I have been through a couple of rounds with Lennox Lewis and I am therefore getting some sympathy, particularly from the ladies we meet. We arrived at the Bridge House Hotel (under new management and in need of refurbishment), Catterick Bridge, at 5.45 p.m., had a welcome bath and then had an excellent meal and the customary drinks in a very pleasant restaurant in the Hotel which appears to be about the only part already re-furbished.

DAY 11 – Saturday, 24th August 2002

We had a good breakfast at the Bridge House Hotel but it was not one of the better places we had stayed at because of the general condition of the Hotel which was badly in need of refurbishment. I am sure the new owner will make a success of it but he will have to spend a lot of money to bring it up to the required standard. However, we were pleased that we had done the extra 4 ½ miles from Richmond to Catterick Bridge last night because it takes the pressure off today where the schedule is 23 miles from Richmond to Ingleby Cross.

We now only (only!) have to do 18½ miles today on the flattest part of the whole journey, although 8 miles of this is on the road. Psychologically though, because we have to do less than the schedule, we feel good and set off at 9.55 a.m. in excellent spirit. We left Catterick Bridge by the side of the River Swale and made our way towards a pleasant little village called Bolton on Swale where we met a man searching for his Terrier puppy which had been missing for half-an-hour. By the time we got to the village church the puppy had been found by three ladies taking their children for a walk.

We carried on over fields and stiles and then emerged onto the road where we were faced with the longest continuous stretch of road walking (8 miles) beyond Danby Wiske where we had arranged to meet Tina for lunch, one of the few opportunities we would get on the Coast to Coast walk. We had been on the road for only 50 metres when we heard a car behind us and, amazingly, it was Tina who had been shopping for essentials (mainly at the chemists for us) in Catterick and was making her way towards Danby Wiske where she would be meeting not only us but our son Paul who was travelling up from home to see his Mum prior to her birthday tomorrow and to relieve us all of unnecessary luggage.

Tina was really looking forward to seeing Paul and she appreciated the effort he was making to come 150 miles to see us all. Our other son David was in bad books as he had made no contact with Tina to ascertain how we were doing and, for once in his life Paul was at the top of the tree, a situation which I am sure will not last for very long and which he does not like as he seems to prefer being on the bottom rung.

We walked a further 1½ miles, giving way to several cars and other vehicles, mainly tractors, on the country lanes and then saw a sign which said “Danby Wiske – 4 miles” and this gave us some heart as we knew the precise distance we had to do before stopping for a break. What we didn’t expect however when we turned up this road was to have Tina coming up behind us again in her Vauxhall Corsa! How can anyone walk for 1½ miles and beat a car to this point? The combination of cars, women and directions is not the best and Tina had taken a wrong turn and gone around in a complete circle. She was worried that she would be late getting to Danby Wiske where she had provisionally arranged to meet Paul at the village pub at 12 noon. Off she went to have another go at following the correct directions. I told her that if Paul was there, to come back along the road to meet us and give us an exact fix on the mileage we had to do to get to the pub although, of course, we had a guideline from the signpost we had just passed.

Mary doesn’t like walking on the road but she seems to be coping well and she is very resilient and knew that there was no alternative at this point. We continued along the road, or perhaps we should say country lane, when we heard a car coming towards us going faster than normal. Needless to say, it was Paul with his girlfriend Lucinda and Tina who had apparently pulled into the pub car park in Danby Wiske at the same time as Paul. When we asked for the exact mileage to the pub there was a blank look on everybody’s face as Tina had forgotten to tell Paul to check his mileage when he left the pub. They all went back to the pub to have their lunch and Tina was quite excited because Paul had promised to treat her (a very rare occasion – so rare that she cannot remember the last time it happened, if ever), and we carried on making our weary way towards Danby Wiske which was now some 3 miles away.

We arrive there at 1.15 p.m. and saw the sign of “The White Swan” ahead of us. It was a very welcoming pub and Paul bought us all drinks together with soup or sandwiches – he must have had a good week! Lucinda seemed to be enjoying herself and Paul’s visit has certainly perked Tina up as she is finding the whole Coast to Coast walk as tiring as we are, perhaps even more so. We stayed at “The White Swan” for an hour which is a longer break than we normally take but as Paul and Lucinda had made the effort to come all this way we felt that we owed them at least an hour of our time. Paul transferred Pat and Mary’s excess luggage to his car, including one of the biggest cases I have ever had the misfortune to lift in my life – what Packhorse would have charged to transport it I do not know but it would have had to be sufficient to cover medical bills!

Paul had arranged to meet Pat and Mary’s daughter Caroline on the return journey at the services near to Sheffield so that he could transfer their luggage to her, no doubt for Caroline to wash and iron before her parents get home in just under a week’s time. Mary was not too confident that this would happen. At 2.15 p.m. we started off again with another 2 miles of road walking to do before we reached the comparative luxury of fields, paths and the notorious stiles which are inevitably surrounded by stinging nettles. The 10 mile walk through to Ingleby Cross from Danby Wiske was reasonably trouble-free and the underfoot conditions were the best we had encountered on the whole walk since we left St. Bees.

The only problem we had was when we were approaching the end of today’s walk at Ingleby Cross we had to cross the busy A19 road and the traffic was going very, very fast. Nevertheless we managed it alright and made our way for the remaining ½ mile towards the Blue Bell Inn where we are staying in self-contained chalets for the evening. I forgot to mention that from Bolton on Swale onwards it has rained all day and we got saturated but, in many ways we are lucky, because if we had to encounter another day of rain it was as good a day as any with the walking conditions underfoot excellent. We had a meal at the Blue Bell and it was excellent and competitively priced and we followed this with the now customary drinks.

DAY 12 – Sunday, 25th August 2002

It is Tina’s birthday and not the way she intended to be spending it. Originally she would have been walking with us on her birthday but unfortunately due to an injury to her ankle which meant that she has spent some recent weeks on crutches and is now requiring specialist treatment she is unable to walk any distance and will be spending a fairly lonely birthday although there is one point along the route today where we shall be able to meet up.

We have a splendid breakfast at the Blue Bell Inn and set off at 10 a.m. towards our destination at Clay Bank Top. As appears to be customary on the masochist Wainwright route we start climbing and climbing, this time into the Cleveland Hills and then along the Cleveland Way. The views and scenery are obviously much different from those in the Lake District and certainly less spectacular but it is interesting to see the contours of the land and, as far as I am concerned, having done what we have already done, I am glad that we are not surrounded by hills and mountains that have to be climbed.

Mentally, I think we are all much stronger than when we started on this mad-cap escapade eleven days ago. The walk through the forest on the Cleveland Hills was very calming (just like walking through Burbage Woods at home except for the fact that one is at a height of 1500 feet) and we then came out on to the Yorkshire Moors and a fantastic landscape as far as one could immediately see, of heather clad land. The smell of the heather (a wonderful smell) got stronger and stronger and it could have been a relaxation of the mind which caused us to make a directional error and lost us some time. Nevertheless we recovered our position with the help of a family in Scugdale who were converting a dilapidated farmhouse and we re-joined the Cleveland Way.

The Lyke Wake Walk (LWW) also covers this part of the Coast to Coast walk and we headed on towards Clay Bank Top. Yet another hill to be climbed and this time continuous climbing for what seemed to be an interminable length of time. It took at least two hours before, in the distance, we saw the activities of a Gliding Club on the top of the hill, at the foot of which we knew was the café set in the trees where we were to meet Tina. We eventually arrived there at 3 p.m., much later than anticipated, and had tea and bacon sandwiches. The café was serving a standard Sunday lunch but we still had four miles of walking to do so the basic sandwiches were very welcome. When we were approaching the Gliding Club, Mary shouted out that she could see the sea and sure enough, there on the skyline about 30 miles away was our first glimpse of the North Sea although on the Wainwright Coast to Coast route we still had over 40 miles to do.

It is sometimes disconcerting to know that you have to do quite a lot more than the direct mileage to achieve your objective but as Pat and Mary keep reminding me “No pain; no gain”. This seems to be one of their favourite expressions and I suppose it is very true as there has certainly been plenty of pain. We stayed at the café with Tina for an hour before we set off for the remaining four miles to Clay Bank Top. In the previous few miles the wind had increased considerably and it had changed from a light prevailing wind to a very cold northerly wind. We put on extra protective gear and decided to go on the lower ridge of the three peaks on our way to Clay Bank. This proved to be a good decision and we made excellent progress taking only 1 hr 35 mins to do the remaining few miles and arriving at Clay Bank Top at 5.35 p.m. where Tina was waiting at the car park to meet us.

There is no accommodation at Clay Bank and most people seem to stay at neighbouring Great Broughton which is two miles away but in our planning of the trip we had decided to stay for two nights at The Lion Inn, Blakey Ridge, which is our next destination tomorrow. This meant that Tina had to drive us for twelve miles into the unknown and unfortunately she came to a situation similar to what happened to her en route to Grasmere when the car, this time with a full load, could not get up a very steep, almost vertical, hill. The passengers got out temporarily and I drove for the remaining few miles to Blakey Ridge. We ultimately found our destination; there is no mention of Blakey Ridge on any signpost we could see, at 6.30 p.m. and we were very pleased with what we saw and the accommodation was excellent.

As it was Tina’s birthday we booked an a-la-carte meal for 8 p.m. and we had a surprise when we got to our room when there was a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket for Tina and her walkers, from Sylvia Michael. This was greatly appreciated and we enjoyed its’ contents with an excellent meal.