Blogs from North Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 2

MON, 19 SEP 2022 - Day 12: Continue to York - We travel to the medieval market town of Alnwick this morning, where we'll see the impressive castle home to the Duke of Northumberland and the Tenantry Column, upon which the Percy Lion sits and surveys the town. Journey through Northumberland to the cathedral city of York. We'll embark an orientation walk past its cobblestone Shambles and see the inspiring Minster with its 'heart of Yorkshire' before joining our newfound friends for a Farewell Dinner.... read more

The Final Push. Up nice and early for the last days walking. A bit of reparation on the feet (which we’re in remarkably good order all things considered) and a light breakfast (plan was to stop at Grosmont to top up) and we were on our way before 8.00am for the final 20 miles or so. Past the station and Beggars Bridge, we were soon into Egton Bridge, a beautiful little village - so beautiful in fact that they filmed Heartbeat there. Missed a turnoff by the Manor House so added a bit extra to our journey (again). Then through the Fords (checked on Ellis height), before hitting Bernard’s Road - toll road which would have cost us 4d if we’d had a horse and two wheels. Arrived into Grosmont, which has an cool sign made ... read more

More Moors. Short day today - only around 10 miles, which should mean less than 4 hours walking. Easy, right? Wrong….. Woke up to rain and mist which had settled over the Lion Inn. No rush in starting though, so we gave it some time to clear with a later breakfast and some extra lie-down time. Off we set at just before 10.30 with the mist still lurking, but with winds that would clear it given a bit of time. Road walk to start the day and a meet with Fat Betty (a set of stones looking like a fat lady I guess). It’s tradition to swap some food item you have with an offering from the Fat one. It seemed that the only thing on offer when getting close to Betty was a dead sheep ... read more

The shortest day. Woke up with a spring in our step today - only 10.5 miles today! A breeze. Porridge for Ellis and a full English for me and then we hit the road, leaving Reeth to continue our journey east. Crossed the bridge out of Reeth and was confused as to what is so valuable in the town that they need a super armoured police vehicle guarding the town - and I mean one with proper armour and big guns! This is Sichi Runak‘s constituency so maybe it’s to protect him from all his local fan club….. Saw some grouse, sheep and cows across the North Yorkshire Dales as we ambled across those rolling dales. Most run from us humans, so that’s okay; but one stubborn cow that was directly on our path refused to ... read more

The low route. So we started our day with a breakfast of Yorkshire crumpets and bacon. Not so sure what was supposed to be special about those crumpets - nothing to write home about, I think they just put egg over them and deep fry them. We shall not be going back for those again (although of course, we pretended they were really nice). Had a bag malfunction when the zip on my bag bust open and was unfixable. Managed to cram everything in Ellis bag and wrote a begging letter to the luggage transport company who were previously very strict about the max 20kg rule that we were now going to break. Then off on our way. Two miles again before wee back on the Coast to Coast track - although this detour did take ... read more