Ingleby Cross

Ingleby Cross

Coast to Coast Day 9

Boots still not dried out even though we'd turned up the heater & put lots of fresh newspaper in them so it was back-up plan to ensure we started in dry footwear-Richard in his walking shoes & Colin in his 'snug' fitting lightweight boots.

We weren't quite prompt enough for breakfast so a couple of other hikers nabbed the best of the fruit salad. Richards late arrival upset the landlady even more with a minor hissy fit about our drinks...for some reason she couldn't believe I knew how he'd want his tea!!!

We left at 8:45 and immediately started climbing up onto The Cleveland Hills. Initially the views were obstructed by the forest we had to climb through but before long we had our fleeces on to protect us from the strong chilly westerly winds as we stood looking over the lowlands towards The Pennines...a patchwork of fields whose variety of colours were classic England farmland...it brought back those 'lovely memories' of our 'amazing' day crossing them! We were even able to glimpse Richmond in the distance as the sun broke through the clouds and shone on the castle.

What we now loving know as a classic Wainright walk followed, why go the direct level route when there's the option to go up & down & back on yourself...funnily enough we don't know the answer either especially as we've got in the region of 160 miles behind us.

The views to the Pennines were very rewarding, particularly for Colin who was very excitable about seeing Ingleborough, Crossfell & 9 Standards. Richard was considerably more excited about the tearoom we came across for first lunch particularly their sumptuous selection of cakes but Colin however denied him the opportunity to gorge himself as we'd been given cake in our packed lunch...so he had to wait till 2nd lunch for cake and eat flapjack with his cup of tea.

A quick calculation of the miles ahead depressed us both as 13miles was indeed 'a long way' given we were in our third day of 20+ miles. As ever though we got our heads into gear and after one last down then up over the Wain Stones we hit the North York Moors and continued onwards along the route of a dismantled railway.

Colin's earlier tumble down a steep decent caused him to join Richard in walking with 'chicken wing arms' as he also had to compensate for the reduction in pressure on the affected leg. Thankfully no-one was around to see this graceful movement as we also decided that a sing-a-long to Moulin Rouge was in order to get us both through our respective pain barriers.

What was ahead of us was miles & miles & miles of a dark cinder path...we started to understand why Wainright had suggested we should have stayed in Patterdale, since The Lakes we haven't had the best of scenery. Today we learnt a new fact to ponder over as we walked through the moorland: Britain has 75% of the worlds moorland and in England the North York Moors has the most continuos moorland...a fact we can confirm after walking much of it.

Our meal at The Lion Inn at Blakey Ridge was constantly interrupted by us both wincing & shuddering & shaking & scowling & fidgeting as the pains whipped up from our feet through our legs to make sitting most uncomfortable. Richard did manage to eat all his Yorkshire pudding as he grimaced and sniggered at Colin's facial expressions feeling evil satisfaction to each screwed up eye movement he made knowing that finally he was suffering the same as he had for the last three days.