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October 10th 2010

Published: October 10th 2010

Day 15 Danby-Wiske to Osmotherley
This was supposed to be one of our short days of only 10 miles. I was quite happy until mile 10. Anyway back to the start. Our LITTLE room at the White Swan has one window about 15X18 inches in the ceiling and the bathroom was down a hall and down a set of stairs. That didn’t work well when I had to go at 3 am. I usually have a limited amount of time to make my way to the bathroom on a straight route but this one was tricky (I did make it or would have if the unthoughtful male before me had put the seat down). Anyway we didn’t need to set our alarm as we could hear everyone’s door opening as closing as they went off to the loo. Breakfast was not up to our latest standards as I only had grapefruit juice, coffee, cereal, toast, beans and poached egg. We got our packed lunches and headed out for the day. I wore my sneakers again as it was to be a lot of road walking and I could let the blisters heal more. After 10 steps I was feeling good since I could not tell I had the blisters. The mist was threatening to turn to rain all day. We trudged through fields and farms and over stiles everywhere. Our trickiest part of walking in the morning was trying to get across the A19 which is a dual carriage way. Sounds like you just wait for the horses to clip-clop by but no, this is a 4 lane highway with no speed limit. There was a median. We waited and made it halfway then after a while got all the way across. Ross’ most traumatic part of the trip. He knows I’m always looking the wrong way for cars - rather obvious on the freeway though. Now it was just after noon and we should have had only 2 more miles by this time. We stopped at a bench and had lunch (not up to our regular stuff). While we sat for that 15 minutes my calves seized up. They felt like rocks. Not in a good way as in power and weightlifting strengthening. It felt like there were 5 pound boulders in my calves and they did not want to move with the body at all. We started walking again and our pace was cut in half. We had to cross a fell - remember those - small mountains. Up we went and Ross told me about the shortcut we were taking through the woods. Just up and over. Well up we went. We found the supposed start of the shortcut and headed down. We ended up in some pheasant nature reserve. They were all over and fairly tame compared to all the ones that we’ve been seeing that scare the heck out of us when they fly up out of a bush as we go by. As we got to the bottom of the hill we were stopped by a fence - all kinds of warnings of no trespassing. There was a stile in the corner that led to Mt. Grace Priory and if we cross the stile it would be 4 pounds each. No alternative for me - I wasn’t going back up the hill. Over the stile past a school group who was out on a field trip and into the lobby. I appealed to the guy at the cash and told him we were lost Coasters looking for Osmotherley. He sent us off up the drive and never charged us. We crossed a field - no signs or markings and through another muddy field. Over a stile that just had some plastic wrapped around the barbed wire. This was not looking like a trail. In fact as we kept going we had no path. We had to jump a beck and then walk through a patch of nettles (right through my pants). We could see sky though the trees off to the left so we started that way and then found an old trail that hadn’t been used in years. It led us out of the woods and then through unmarked fields. We went along a cart trail and finally came across 2 guys fixing a roof. Asked them the way to Osmotherley and we were here. Just had 3 block to our accommodation and 2 to the pub. Dropped our daypacks and poles at the B&B and then for drinks and internet. Back at the B&B we got a phone call. Denise and Tony from the Mediterranean cruise had found us and would meet us at our next B&B. What a surprise! Back to the pub for dinner - excellent Queen Catherine chicken and then chocolate ice cream that tasted like Baskin Robbins choc mousse. Well our 11 mile walk turned into 30,945 steps or 12.2 mi.

Day 16 Osmotherley to Urra
Started out of Vane House at 8:45 and at 8:50 I sat on a bench and changed from my hiking boots to my sneakers. No problem with my feet from then on. They stayed dry all day and I never even got the toe cramp. I knew this was a hilly day because one pair of guys at breakfast decided to take the bus because they didn’t want to just go up and down all day long. No option here. I walked with bad feet too long to give up when my feet actually felt okay. We climbed 1300 feet four times. That’s up then down. Frustrating to get to the top and then see another down and then up to the same height again- it’s not like there was anything interesting in the valleys we climbed down. Off to the north I saw all kinds of wonderful towns we could have walked to. Or why not just build a zipline over to the other mountain - now that would be worth the climb and save all the hard concentration required going down the rocky, steep paths. I should not complain today though. It was only 11 miles and no rain. It looked close to rain many times but it did not rain. On the very top of the moors it was cold and very windy. I could even feel it moving me sideways. Not from behind - that would have been too helpful. Lots of people were out today - hiking school groups, young kids’ clubs, Duke of Edinburgh girls and people out walking dogs on the moors. We lucked out coming down one of the steep descents and came to Lord Stones Café which was open. It was noon and there were a few hikers out front having their beers. Inside I had homemade potato and leek soup and raisin scone and tea - delicious. Outside it was up and up. On one of the fells we were told by the book to keep the boulders to our right. Well we went right - following a sheep path that had been wiped out in a couple of places. Halfway across the face of this Cliffside we decided this was incorrect. The thing was you couldn’t turn around. Quite scary but we managed to keep upright and cling to the side of the hill and pop up at the nice flagstone path that others were using. No idea where the signage was on that one. One other tricky fork in the road had us at odds with each other. Ross wanted to follow a skinny bare mud path and I wanted to stick to the flagstone path. Out of nowhere comes a park ranger (we were on a moor top where the highest plant is a 6 inch heather and we hadn’t seen anyone behind us in ages). He told us to stay on flagstone as the other would take us a few miles out of our way. Thank you, thank you. Coming down our 4th moor I told Ross he would have to go flag someone down or steal a car as I wasn’t going to walk the extra mile or two off of the Coast to Coast trail to get to the B&B. About 3 minutes later there was Denise and Tony starting to climb up to see if they could find us! Such great timing. They drove from Scotland in the morning and then found a place tonight so they could spend the afternoon and evening with us. They took us to the B&B where we had tea and chatted and Ross got to know them a bit. Then they took us to a shopping mall - my senses were reeling by this time - car rides, malls, credit cards - mind-boggling. In Curry’s we found a selection of digital cameras and I picked one out in less than 5 minutes. Happy again. Off to a pub supper and lots of talking. They drove us back to the B&B (Maltkiln House) and I spent the evening figuring out the camera. Beat Ross in crib too. All in all one of the better days. No foot or leg complaints either. 27, 273 steps or 10.77 mi.

Day 17 Urra to Blakey
It’s only 6:48 in the morning and I’ve been on mouse guard for an hour and a half. Ross of course just went back to sleep. I was woken by the sound of someone riffling through the day packs and instantly recognized it as the same sound coming from a bag of chips in Mexico. Sure enough I flipped on the light and the noise stopped. Then I saw the little brown mouse scurry out the bedroom door. We are in a 400 year old farmhouse - quaint, cute but also with holes. In about 5 minutes the brave tiny beast tried to sneak back in. I thought it got behind the wardrobe by my bed. So then I was trying to rattle the furniture to make him leave. Decided after 10 minutes that wasn’t working. Meanwhile another one peered through the door but I eeked loud enough that he left. Now I ‘m not sure if there’s one in here or not but I’ve jammed the room door so no one can get in or out. With all the creatures we’ve seen I can see that Beatrix Potter had a plethora of ideas to hand. The silly rooster out our window has been crowing ever since I was woken by the mouse and it’s not even light out now. I’m glad today’s walk is short (supposedly 9 miles)because maybe I can nap this afternoon at the Lion Inn.
Breakfast was quick and we told her about the mouse. She took a pic of us out front of the house and then Gerry showed us the way to go UP to the Coast to Coast walk. Once we climbed up there we just went straight along a decent footpath for the next eight miles. Nothing exciting to see from the moors except heather that is ready for winter (rusty brown) or dying heather branches which were whitish gray. The sun was out most of the time and the wind was a nice strong headwind which at least kept the hair out of my face- sometimes a sideways wind when we were exposed even more at the crest of a moor. Met a few people walking or cycling the other way. The one pair that passed us asked where we were headed and we said Lion Inn and they said oh you’re not far now- you’re almost there. When he was about 200 yards ahead of us he yelled back that we should be able to see it as soon as we got where he was. I took a photo of that “almost there”. See to me that would mean a city block or two. To anyone walking around in the wilds out here it probably means within the next hour or two. When we got there we walked into a full parking lot of 50 cars and a bus. The place was crowded. It was their Sunday lunch special (roast beef and Yorkshire pudding). We got lucky and found a seat and they had Crabbie’s. Ross had a Wainright beer. We had a bit of food as well then got our key for our room. I immediately zeroed in to the tub and started filling it - a nice clean white tub unlike last night’s mouldy shower. I washed my hair and then while I was wrapped in towels Ross read out a notice about how you need to use special shampoo since the spring water has certain minerals in it that can affect the colour of bleached hair. So far I think it just made mine look brassier but I’ll let you know if it’s green in the morning. Ross is out doing a 4 mile run to keep up his marathon training. I tried to explain that hill climbing and walking for 7 or 8 hours a day is also cardio but he doesn’t accept that because it isn’t on his training schedule.
Ross is back and I finally got the internet to work by going to the bar here. Lots of folks around - and dogs and babies. Weird. There’s 4 dogs doing a bit of a barking fest right now but they’ve entertained the toddler in the high chair. I’ll end here so I can send it now. 21,087 steps or 8.5 mi.

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