40 going on 169...

After a hearty breakfast, I set off once more in the pouring rain with my sights set on reaching the Yorkshire village of Danby Wiske. I was wondering if Dan may have had a lucky escape when the driving rain was joined by a decidedly whiffy whiff from the nearby sewage treatment plant but that was quickly put behind me and I was back into the beautiful countryside again.

I soon fell into step with a couple of other walkers - Tina and Stuart (from Australia, of course) - and spent much of the rest of the day in their company. 

One of Day 11’s big moments was going under the A1 near Catterick Racecourse - it may not have been the most attractive stage of the walk but it felt significant because I always think of the A1 as the road that leads me up the East Coast to my favourite part of the world.

Not too long after, we reached the pretty village of Bolton-on-Swale and St. Mary’s Church, which again provided refreshments for the weary wanderer. In the churchyard lie the remains of Henry Jenkins who lived to the ripe old age of 169, finally departing this earth in 1670. I definitely felt about 169 as I hauled myself back up off the bench outside the church to continue on our way.

Much of the rest of the day was spent crossing farmland which was made a little harder by the rain which was already starting to turn the fields into mud baths. However, the sun did start to poke its head through the clouds as we continued onward through field after field of yellow wheat and by the time we reached the final section that would mostly be on the road, I was regretting my decision not to apply sunscreen.

We skipped (metaphorically) into Danby Wiske around 2pm stopping for the obligatory photo by the sign that marked the start of the village. Our cheery greeting to the lone barman in The White Swan was met with a rather surly response but he reluctantly served us some drinks as we settled in to wait for check-in at our B&B to open. 

Fortunately, Frank’s welcome at the Old School House was much warmer and my cosy room in the rafters provided much needed respite from the rain which had started coming down again.

Later, it was back to the pub for service without a smile but what turned out to be a surprisingly tasty dinner enjoyed in the company of my fellow coast-to-coasters.

Day 11:
Walked: 32,537 steps (15 miles)
Stayed: The Old School House, Danby Wiske

Ate: the White Swan, Danby Wiske

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Post watershed

Day 7 and, after a hug and a point in the right direction from Mark, I was on my way again - this time solo. This must have been exactly how Christopher Columbus felt when he set out to discover new worlds! I wonder if it was raining quite as much on him.  Dressing for a long walk when the forecast for the day is mixed is no mean feat and it’s probably no bad thing that no one else had to see me as I stripped off my wet weather gear later in the day only to find that you could still wring me out underneath it all! The big focus for today’s walk was to reach the Nine Standards Rigg which marks the point at which you cross the watershed of England and any rain that falls drains eastward to the North Sea instead of westward to the Irish Sea. Fortunately, I could just about make out the nine giant cairns through the mist but, as far as I could tell, the rain was still going nowhere other than running down my face and dripping off the end of my nose!  I struggled...
Read more

The ocean at the end of the lane

The three or four people reading this blog already know that I successfully completed the Coast to Coast Walk yesterday afternoon at around 1:40pm. Either because they were there to cheer me in and buy me the obligatory pint (thanks Mum and Dad) or because they have since been sent copious amounts of photo evidence. I dipped my boots in the North Sea, which must have added an extra 200 yards to my walk as the tide was fully out, and made a wish as I cast our pebbles carried from St. Bee’s beach into the water. How do I feel now that I’ve done it? I think it’s too soon to say. Perhaps more on that in a day or two. As Terry Marsh, the writer of the excellent guide that has accompanied me on this journey puts it: “success, in the final analysis, is a very personal thing. Few people will know of your triumph and most of those will think you are mad.” He also says, “There will have been bad days, almost certainly, when spirits were low, or feet and shoulders ached, or the p...
Read more

Lightning strikes

I spoke too soon about the brilliance of my friend rota. My friends, of course, remain brilliant but the rota is in tatters. A few bolts of lightning struck the East Coast mainline during Thursday night’s storm and the kind of transport chaos that only the UK specialises in predictably ensued. Poor Dan spent several hours at King Cross trying to move north but to no avail. So, I will be doing the last 6 days (instead of 5) on my own. But every (storm) cloud has a silver lining and the delays and cancellations also disrupted Liz’s journey home to Newcastle  meaning that we could spend more of my day off together. We walked the castle walls, ate ice cream down by the river and drank coffee on the market square. We also had the perfect start to the day visiting the stunning Millgate House garden. We were the only ones there and the overnight downpour had left everything smelling fresh and sparkling with raindrops.  Having seen Liz off on the bus back to Darlington, t...
Read more