Monday, September 12, 2016

York

Tuesday September ??, 2016

Bryce organized a taxi to York for four of us this morning. The bus/train possibilities were just too complicated and the taxi fare divided 4 ways was reasonable. We dropped off our bags at the railway station and then headed into town. York is certainly a delightful town, but our main target was the National Steam Train museum.










After a couple of hours at the museum Bryce and I wandered around York. It is a very appealing walled town with a big cathedral and picturesque street scenes. We probably could have stayed longer but I was anxious not to miss my train! The ride to Bath was about 4 hours and I had arranged for Jerry to meet me at the bath station.











Monday, September 5, 2016

Robin Hood Bay

Monday September 5, 2016


A much nicer day for our last day - plus it was short, only about 12 miles. We were still a few miles from the coast and walked thru a variety of topography for several miles. For a few miles we walked in a gully between high stone fences, felt a bit like a 'secret passageway"




Nice walk thru the forest.

Parts of the train were nicely improved.

A few more miles on the moor


Walking on a trail between rock fences


A little town we passed through.

The English populate these sad little holiday places near the coast.  We walked thru one to reach the coast trail.

Looks like the North Sea to me!


The trail led us around the coast for a mile or two.


Robin Hood bay at low tide. Where can I put my towel?

Heading into town


We walked into town and were settled in our last B&B by about 3 PM. Gave us time to clean up and wander down to the water's edge. Robin Hood Bay "town" was a cute little place with a couple of pups and some tourist shops - but no cash machine. After walking to water on the reef (and tossing in our stones from the Irish sea) we celebrated the completion of our walk with a couple of beers in "Wainwrights" pub right on the water's edge.











Monday night we celebrated the end of our walk with dinner at the XXXX hotel. (I will dig up a group photo from somebody.)






Intake Farm near Littlebeck


September 4, 2016

We were now on the edge of the high moors that we could see from the castle in Richmond. We walked straight up onto the moor from the pub. It was a wet and foggy place, and some of us were wondering about running into bogs. But fortunately most of the morning we were walking along an old railway right of way that was solid and pretty easy walking. But the rain kept on coming.

We had been told to expect to see a lone pub on the moor (the "Lion") after 10 or so miles, but one needed to see it to get to it. We could not see more than a few 100 yards in the fog and rain. Fortunately Wes was scouting ahead of us and spotted the pub, and stayed on the track where we had to divert to the pub. Even then we almost missed the pub.

The pub was very appreciated.  It was totally isolated on the moor, but obviously a favorite gathering place and so quite busy. As we all dragged in 'wet and soggy" we gathered in one of the rooms with an open fire, and ordered beer and hot chips. After warming up so of our crew started to bail out and take a cab - only 6 hardy fools ventured on - Kaiko, Hiroshi, Bryce, Richard, Sharon and me.

We were soon split up. Sharon got way ahead, Richard and Bryce were in the rear, Kaiko, Hiroshi and I somewhere in the middle. The B & B farm turned out to be hard to find, but we eventually all arrived.











Saturday, September 3, 2016

Arncliffe Arms" at Glaisdale (This was the day the blog got confused)

September 3, 2016

Today we expected to walk about 18 1/2  miles from Great Broughton to Glaisdale. Late mid morning we crossed a railway line while walking thru a little village and to our delight saw a  delightful old steam engine chuffing away in the railway station. Turns out this was one stop of an historical railway line running to the coast at Whitby.



I was very excited at this prospect because:

A. Mason is totally enamored by Thomas the tank engine
B. I like trains too
C. Whitby was captain Cook's home port.

Fortunately the "events committee" agreed we should ride to Whitby for lunch so I did not have to go it alone. The train was not expected for a while so I got busy making videos for Mason (I showed them to him on Sunday and he was apropriately impressed.) The ride was fun - I made sure that I put my head out of the window to get soot in my eyes, to complete the nostalgic experience.

Whitby turned out to be a busy little tourist town full of English people enjoying summer vacation in the rain. The group found a place WHERE ALL 10 OF US could eat fish and chips together (lots of separation anxiety) I have not had fish and chips for 10 years and now I am OK for another 10 years, maybe more. The Australians among us (including one traitor, who shall not be named) visited the captain Cook museum.


The Captain Cook Museum

English people in summer cloths



Its a bit of a soggy harbor

The lady in blue was from Russia (no coat)






Friday, September 2, 2016

Greater Broughten

Friday September 2, 2016

Another day with no rain. Today we climbed up into the moors.We saw the North Sea for the first time. The views of the East coast were pleasant. The heather was pretty. We did not encounter any bogs. There were more locals taking the walk - seemed like the thing to do on a dry weekend.

At lunch time we arrived at a park facility that included a cafe for walkers. From this point the trail involved climbing and descending over 3 or 4 large ridges, which promised to be tiring. A few people pulled out and took the "easy route" around the low land. By the last ridge Sharon and I were the only walkers on the "official route" and we plodded on.

Tonight's hotel was a few miles from the trail end so they had sent a car to pick us up. The "short-cutters" had to wait for Sharon and I to finish. There was a wedding at the hotel - enough said!
Jan

North Sea in the distance

Hiroshi in the heather

The lunch place

Richard



Always up

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Ingleby Cross - the longest day

Thursday September 1, 2016

I am not too sure what the hurry was, but when you are in  group its best to go with the "group decision"? So we were up at 6;30, breakfast at 7:00 and out the door at 7:30 AM. Turns out that the person that pushed this decision decided to catch the bus! So there were only 5 of us.

No one is sure how far we walked, but some where between 23 and 25 miles. Bloody long way. We eventually arrived at 5 PM, 10 hours later. We maybe took one hour for morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and a quick pub visit.

Bryce leading the way out of Richmond

Thru a field


Working on expanding the freeway, they discovered Roman ruins



Nice old church


Listening to the radio

Taking a break


Then we found a pub