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Published: August 16th 2015
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it felt rather odd today to get up and not put on hiking boots and head East! i still managed to walk 8 miles exploring York but it definitely wasn't a hike!
I do want to catch up in the last two days of the Coast to Coast.
We left our wonderful farm on Friday morning in the misty rain. We were hopeful that the heavy rain was ending and most of us shed our rain pants in the first hour when we were walking through a beautiful wooded area. This path ended at a lovely waterfall with an outdoor tearoom where we had tea and other goodies. It didn't matter that we had just had a full English breakfast just two hours earlier!
Unfortunately, our hopes of improving weather were dashed as we headed into the open moors and the rain began again. It also became windier and cooler. The weather was very similar to the first day of our hike back in St. Bees. We managed to once again miss a turn and had to back track...fortunately we didn't go too far before realizing had gone too far.
We arrived in Hawesker by 2:00. We
should have been going on to Robin Hoods Bay (the last 4+ miles) but the company who had made our reservations had told us that there were no accommodations available so we would have to stay in the last village before Robin Hoods Bay and walk the last few miles in the morning. We were walking with the Dutch sisters who have been with us for many days, and we all stopped at the Hawesker village pub for some soup before saying our goodbyes. While we had originally been disappointed that we couldn't stay in Robins Hoods Bay, we were all just as happy to be stopping at that point....and hoping for better weather for our arrival the next day.
We woke the next day to clearing skies and by the time we reached the North Sea for our 3 mile walk along the cliffs into Robin Hoods Bay, the weather was as perfect as it could possibly be. We triumphantly walked into the town and down the steep hill to the beach so we could dip our boots in the North Sea as we had done in the Irish Sea 19 days ago and toss the pebbles into the sea that we had each carried with us.
We still had one last unexpected challenge....it was low tide and we had a very long and somewhat challenging walk across seaweed and slippery stones to get to the sea! Three hours later, the tide was in and our final walk would have been much easier!
We then went to Wainwrights Bar for the traditional pictures under the Coast to Coast end sign and signed the register at the bar...and of course had a celebratory pint!
I will do one final blog in the next couple of days to summarize some of my thoughts about this incredible experience.
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