The penultimate day!
A very different mood today, almost euphoria. We only have about 14 miles today and a final 16 tomorrow to have walked right across England. The sun was shining, and on August Bank Holiday too. We said, "Goodbye," to the men from Melbourne, who were only doing about 8 miles, and set off.
The route was round the head of Rosedale and then above Fryupdale, along the ridge at Glaisdale and through woods to Grosmont. I was in memory land thinking of several weekends spent in my brother-in-law's cottage that he had in Rosedale, although School Row remained out of sight. On the way we took the time to photograph some of the stone crosses and boundary stones, including Young Ralph. As we turned off onto the stone track from Rosedale Head we were passed by a few cyclists, eventually realising that we were in the middle of a cycle race. To be honest the numbers on their backs helped! One chap fell off right by us, and after checking that he was OK, we found out that it was the Coast to Coast Adventure Race with elements of cycling, walking, swimming in Derwent Water and a final run from Whitby to Robin Hood's Bay. They had started on Friday and were on their final leg. (Or final legs in some cases!) When most had passed us, we stopped for a lunch break, having already had a break for elevenses.
A few discussions were held as to which village we could see in the distance to while away the monotony of the stone track. Then, for the first time, we decided to have a liquid refreshment stop, and deviated very slightly to the Arnscliffe Arms in Carr End, where we surprisingly met Ray from Melbourne! They had taken a few short cuts and had got further along the route than us and were staying indoors in the pub as they didn't have any camping facilities. The last three pubs that I have
walked into I have been greeted by the same person! Ray told us that he had been talking to a fellow
Australian outside the pub and found out that they belonged to the same golf club.
From here, we only had 3.6 miles to go. You would have thought that between us, we could now read an OS map....eventually we got out of the field that we shouldn't have been in anyway by climbing over the barbed wire, using the tree to help us. And that was after we had had to leap into a hedge row of a very narrow lane to escape a stream of Land Rovers on some sort of driving experience day.
Once we emerged from the field and found the road, we stuck to the legitimate route, passing an old toll house that still showed the prices charged for passing through the gate that applied in 1948; motor cycle side car 1/-, hearse 6d etc.
Grosmont eventually appeared and we were halted at the crossing gates as the steam train passed. Our digs were further up the steep hill in a delightful semi-detached Edwardian villa. Between us we had the whole of the first floor. As soon as we were let in, the owners escaped to the pub, which was the
only choice for a meal in the village. After showers and a sojourn in the sun in the garden we
followed them back down to the level crossing where we saw Mr and Mrs Collie and another C2C who recognised us but we had not noticed before. How am I ever going to recover from all this eating and drinking? Steam train and diesel trains carried on chuntering around the station as we sat outside the pub watching the world go by. A busy little place, although the most entertainment was from a local girl trying to convince her pony that he really wanted to trot up the hill, just so they could come back down again. Their journey was not in a straight line but fortunately traffic was slow in anticipation of the level crossing being closed.
My earliest night yet, in bed before 9:00.
Does anyone read this?
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