C2C Day 13&14 North Yorkshire

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Danby Wiske (North Yorkshire)

July 26

13 miles
Today was a nice day as it was a bit cooler and more comfortable than the day before…in the high 70s low 80s. The clouds kept it from being too hot.
As they did not take a rest day in Richmond like we did, Xavier and Katrien were not with us.  We would catch up with them in a couple of days since our itinerary included one upcoming very long hiking day, which in their itinerary was broken into two shorter hikes.

We met Mark and David around 8:45 AM as they walked past our BnB, which was just two doors down from where they had stayed the past two nights.  By picking up the C2C trail at a point heading out of town instead of backtracking into town we cut off about 1/2 mile. This was just due to logistics of where we had stayed in Richmond. This was a wash since we had walked an extra ½ mile to get to our BnB when we got to Richmond two days prior.

The hike to the hamlet of Danby Wiske in North Yorkshire was fairly leisurely. Just out of Richmond the terrain was green and lush.

Once we crossed underneath a major highway after about 3 miles, it was mostly flat farming pastures. Hardly an incline all day.

  

This was the first hike where we passed crop farms of any magnitude instead of just sheep and cow farms. We passed massive fields reminiscent of American wheat-belt-like fields of grain, and other fields of a type of large pea. We also saw lots of horses. One horse bit David as we tried to keep it from escaping its paddock into the one next-door as we passed through the gate. He wasn’t hurt, but it was pretty funny.

We stopped at St. Mary’s church along the way in Bolton-On-Swale.  Here we enjoyed the honor system snacks and cold drinks, and more importantly, their restroom. This beautiful relic of a church dates back to the 14^th century. In the church graveyard, full of slanted and partially unearthed gravestones, was buried a man claiming to be 169 at his death. There was a fading monument to him over his grave. Visiting it made us all feel young. We ate our lunch on a couple of benches outside the church.

The latter part of this day’s hike was along over 3 miles of paved road. This was the longest uninterrupted stretch of road on the entire trail. After this stretch we hit farm pasture again and met up with a woman named Fay from Australia who joined us the rest of the way.

With about 1/2 mile to go it started to rain, and it came down fairly hard for a bit. I put my raincoat on, and we threw our backpack covers on. We finished shortly after, and all got a beer at the only place in the village to eat or drink. The very quaint White Swan had a very friendly barkeep/innkeeper. We also bought a Wainwright’s C2C souvenir shirt here. This was also where Mark and David were staying.

We were booked a couple of minutes away at Serin House, which is really just a beautiful house in the neighborhood whose owners just started taking in walkers due to the number of walkers and limited accommodations in the area. We were the only ones staying, along with the couple who owned the house. It was one of the nicest places we had stayed, with our own private very large living room and bathroom. Mark and David came by later just to see how nice our accommodations were.

We had dinner at The White Swan (whose sign noted that we were 60 miles from Robin Hood’s Bay, the end point of Wainwright’s C2C path). Eating at The White Swan was an easy choice since there was nowhere else to eat. We ate with Mark, David, and their wives Karen and Ty. It was decent pub food…I think all of us except Ty ordered the steak and ale pie.

After dinner we walked to the only other thing to do in the small North Yorkshire village which was to see a very old church with the requisite old cemetery.

Then bed around 10:00 PM.

Danby Wiske to Osmotherly

July 27

8.5 miles
We woke up to rain for our shortest hike day.  The forecast was for rain most of the day and temps in the mid 60’s.  A very nice breakfast  was prepared for us by our hosts, though they were taken aback by the fact that we didn’t want any cooked eggs or meat for breakfast.  Most hosts felt this way, but we are Americans and we also want to stay regular on the trail!

The night before was even funnier.  When we were asked if we wanted a packed lunch for the hike the next day (today) we told them that we did.  However, we requested peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Our host Anne kept telling us that she had meat and cheese and tuna but we really just wanted pbj sandwiches.  She only stopped insisting on something better after her husband Keith intervened with, “They want peanut butter and jelly sandwiches”.  So, between the lunch she packed for us, and the breakfast we preferred, Anne was visibly disappointed that she couldn’t feed us in a more fulfilling, English way.  They were both very nice.

After our boring American breakfast, we prepped our feet as usual with blister care and support, and then we put on our rain gear and gaiters.  We met Mark and Dave at The White Swan around 9:00 AM in the pouring rain (did I mention it was raining?).  We headed out and immediately hit muddy, narrow, overgrown trails of wet grass and thistle through farms for a lot of the way. My feet were soaking wet after about 2 miles, even with the gaiters and waterproof boots.

At about 2.5 miles Mark received a call from his wife, Karen who told him that either he or Dave had taken their car keys.  Karen and Ty were touring and driving from inn to inn while Mark and Dave hiked the C2C path…but not without their keys!  Very fortunately we were close to a paved road, and there happened to be a small car dealership there….nothing else anywhere.  We stopped in, all soaking wet, and Dave coordinated a taxi with the person in the very small showroom.  We waited about 20 minutes for the taxi to arrive.  Dave gave the taxi driver the car keys for Karen and Ty, and he drove back to the White Swan to hand deliver the keys to them.  It was actually nice to get in out of the rain for a little bit. The guy at the dealership was helpful and accommodating.

With no place to sit since everything was rain drenched, and no shelter anywhere, we all ate lunch around 12:00 PM while standing under a tree at a time where it had stopped raining briefly.  The rain did not stop for long periods, however.  We were fortunate that the wettest day was also our shortest hiking day.

We came across some interesting things on this short hike.  First we hit somebody’s property where they had decorated the stile between their and the next pastures in a manner of Halloween.  There was a broom stick with a warning to look out for witches, a big plastic rat, owl, skull, and tarantula placed on the stile.  The skull placed right above the C2C path marker.  They also had cold Coke for sale from a refrigerator at the stile.  Very interesting….we could see the property owner inside a window of their mobile home, too.

We then had to walk through a farm where all of the cows had congregated right at the stile we needed to climb over.  We weren’t even sure this was the right way since it was smack in the middle of a fairly small enclosed cow field.  But, there was a C2C path marker on the stile, so we just climbed up and then down right in the middle of the waiting cows.

We met Karen and Ty in Inglebar Cross, had a beer at the Blue Bell Inn, and said our goodbyes to Mark and Dave. Karen drove us in her dry car to the Golden Lion Inn in Osmotherly a couple of miles away, and off the trail. We were separating from Mark and Dave since they were starting at a different point the next day, and their destination was not as far as ours.  We were really going to miss them.  But we would however meet up again with Xavier and Katrien at the next stop.

We got to the small North Yorkshire village of Osmotherly around 2:30 PM and checked in.

Fortunately, The Golden Lion Inn had a very good drying room. We put our drenched boots, socks, insoles, and gaiters on a tray for the innkeeper to take there overnight. All inns requested we take our shoes off before proceeding beyond the entrance way, but this guy’s terminology was funny. He said to us, “You’ll surrender your boots, then I’ll show you where your room is.” We rested, dried out, and showered.  Then we walked around town a bit, but the only store in town had just closed, and there was nothing else in the town other than one other small restaurant, and the two pubs/inns, one of which were staying at.  It was very picturesque though.

We had dinner at the Golden Lion Inn.  The service and food were both excellent. We ate a table just at the edge of the bar which was lively with locals, but it was an older crowd.

We also had made arrangements with the woman who seemed in charge for an early breakfast.  The next day was to be our longest hike of the trip, and it would be a difficult one as well.  So, we wanted to get out as early as possible, but breakfast would be served only after we had planned to leave.  She was kind enough to leave out some milk and cereal for us in the pub…very nice.

Off to bed.

Next: C2C Day 15&16 North York Moors