Day 12 C2C Glaisdale to Robin Hood’s Bay

Originally uploaded by flickrkw

After a very pleasant stay at The Arncliffe Arms in Glaisdale we set off this morning, walking through cool, shady woodland, following the river Esk.

Once out of the woods we made our way by road to Egton Bridge, through the grounds of Egton Manor and on towards Grosmont.

A little too late to take a photo we heard and saw the steam from one of the steam engines of the Esk Valley Railway, presumably on its way to Pickering.

At Grosmont we stopped at the tearoom on the station platform and had tea and cake. As we were just finishing a steam engine pulled into the opposite platform and we were able to take quite a few photos before it went n its way. I’ll post the pictures on Flickr later.

It was a 1 in 3 climb out of Grosmont heading towards Goathland past Low and High Bride Stones. Turning left across Sleights Moor we made our way to Littlebeck where we stopped for lunch.

Next we had another stint through woodland and stopped to take more photos at Falling Fosse. Moving on we reached Old May Bank and a clearing with a car park where we needed the aid of GPS to find the path up and over moorland again; this time making a beeline for Robin Hood’s Bay, and the end of our journey.

We did get a bit off track coming over the moors, but found our way onto a road that took us into Robin Hood’s Bay. Our transport home hadn’t arrived so we just had to have a cream tea while we waited.

As soon as the transport arrived we walked down to the beach and had our photos taken with our boots in the water.

The End.

(Apart from an epilogue and uploading more pictures to Flickr)

Day 11 C2C Chop Gate to Glaisdale

Originally uploaded by flickrkw

The picture to the right is of a vintage car we spotted whilst climbing out of Chop Gate.

The Buck Inn at Chop Gate had very comfortable rooms and I slept well, waking at 6.05am. We all packed our stuff and had the suitcases in reception before sitting down to breakfast at 7.30am.

Clive provided the bag to wrap my sausage in in readiness for lunch by the wayside. I made sure I’d had my fill of cereal and full english breakfast as I prefer to eat very little during the walk.

We set off at 8.20am and climbed out of Chop Gate onto the Bransdale Moor. There was quite a bit of climbing to do, but once it was over we stayed at more or less the same height until we descended into Glaisdale at the end of the walk, 19 miles later.

We again made good time with most of the walking on well formed tracks. We stopped at The Lion Inn (don’t ask me where) just before midday, ate lunch, and were back on the road, literally, by 12.15pm. I say literally because we decided against a footpath across the moors in favour of using a road to stay high and go around the head of the valley. The road walking made my feet sore, but it was fast progress.

We passed White Betty (a white painted stone) and a bit further on turned off the road onto another well made track to continue our journey across the North York Moors; this time I believe the moor was called Blakey.

UK has 75% of the world’s moors and the North York Moors make up a significant part of that figure. The moors have to be managed and this is done by caring for the bird population including curlews, golden plovers, merlins and inevitably grouse.

From the start of the day we saw numerous grouse butts where the shooters wait in hiding while the beaters drive the birds towards them. Once I get home I’ll upload an image or two of these grouse butts.

Back to the journey. It was just more of the same, walking across the moors Richard and I did see a couple of F15s flying overhead and Richard took some photos.

Later on we met a man on his daily climb out of Glaisdale and he informed us that these planes often flew low overhead whilst spotters from the army (they come up onto the moors in unmarked Land Rovers) would in be communication with the F15s to carry out low raid exercises.

We found Clive sat on a bench further down and stuck together as we walked into Glaisdale and found The Arncliffe Arms. We dumped our gear, showered and went down to a pleasant evening meal.

We’re going to bed now, and looking forward to the last day of walking - Glaisdale to Robin Hood’s Bay, 14 miles.

Day 10 C2C Ingleby Cross to Chop Gate

Originally uploaded by flickrkw

The picture to the right is of the Hambleton Hills.

Breakfast at 8am. Departure 8.30am. Rain set in earlier than expected at 10am. We started climbing almost straightaway.

Terrain was mostly woodland, moor and road. We walked part of the Cleveland Way, but didn’t meet anyone doing it.

We kept a steady pace and reached The Buck Inn by lunch time. There was some confusion over rooms but it was sorted with good humour on both sides. Meals at the pub were delicious and good value.

Time to turn in - goodnight.