Day 12: Ingelby Cross to Blakey Ridge, 21 miles (162 ish)

Not a day we were looking forward too, and some friends had tried to persuade us to break this journey down. Two Australian men from Melbourne were camping at the back of our pub and were intending to do about 8 miles, then pitch camp. Determined, we set off up the hill, through the forest at a cracking pace. I spent mst of the day walking alone as I struggle uphill, although canter down pretty quickly. The day was a day of two colours; white in the morning with a very heavy mist and purple in the afternoon with a sea of heather.

We went up and down and up and down on the Cleveland Way for 11 miles until we finally reached Clay Bank Top. When the mist lifted we could see that the views were fantastic. There we saw the 3As, Graham from Sydney and Jane and Jim from America, who had finished their walk for the day and were waiting for a lift to their accommodation. Alas, we had another 9 miles to go. These miles were mostly on moorland and five of them on a disused railway. The main entertainment was startling pheasants as we approached.

Not much sighting of other C2Cers other than the couple from Alberta,  until we finally fell into The Lion at Blakey and discovered the Melourne Men, who had found their planned campsite was no more and had found a short cut to Blakey! They had already sunk a pint. Incidentally, if you ever go to tis pub don't order a starter! The portions are huge and a main course alone would fill two hungry walkers. Not often that I am totally defeated.

Lots of reflection over the meal, over the highs and lows of this venture. With only thirty miles to go the end is very much in sight and there is no doubt that we will make it; walking right across Ebgland. The focus has been on walking and looking after our bodies so that we can walk. Nothing else matters.

I am still blister free, and thank the daily Vaseline for that, one big toe has been sore since day 1 but otherwise fine. The whole feet though are feeling the stress of the daily pounding, with 40,000 steps or more each day. My left foot has started to hurt, under the toes and in the heel, ankles are swelling and I have sock rash on both legs. We have got fitter and or walking pace has increased but we are missing out on interesting things on the way unless they are directly on our path. To spend three weeks with shorter wals and time to explore, as several International walkers are doing, would probably be a tester option.

On the way to bed, at 9:30 although having a room over the bar means that it is pointless settling down yet, I saw Mr & Rs Collie. They had chosen to have starters as mains...but for lunch they only have 3 jelly babies each.  Our route last coincided in Richmond where we had left them waiting for a table to be cleared  so they could have breakfast.

Please comment if you read any of this!