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Time: 5h. Up: 50m. Down 400m.
Distance: 18km. Difficulty: easy Day 13: Blakey Ridge (400m) to Egton Bridge (50m) Rejuvenated and refreshed, we set off for a short (5hr) hike to the lovely little village of Egton Bridge with only Russ still missing (he needs another 24 hours for his chafe to recover). The weather is perfect – sunny and warm but not too hot – and everyone is feeling good. Reflecting that, we opt for a slightly longer route over the moors, which allows us to avoid a dull few km along a road that has more traffic than we like. It is a quiet, companiable sort of day. One of those zen-like days that occur on long hikes when everything is fine and you have reached a stage of acceptance and comfort with walking and with your fellow hikers and everything just sort of flows. We walk along an old railway track, then up to and over a moor following a path that must be centuries old, since the flagstones with which it is paved are rounded and worn by walkers’ feet… which, given the remoteness of the path and the likely paucity of walkers, must have taken ages. Now and then we flush quail almost at our feet, invisible in the heather. At times we talk, at times we walk in easy silence. During one such pause, Miles, who is hiking with the group again for the first time in five days and doubtless more conversation-deprived than the rest of us says suddenly, loudly, “Why can’t you all just SHUT up?”. Has his own unique brand of humour, does our Miles J. We follow a path and then a road along a ridge separating Glaisdale from the oddly named Great Fryup Dale (I have looked for but not found an etymology). The wider world seems far away and it is a lovely and peaceful afternoon, or rather, it would be peaceful if a fighter jet were not flying in fast low figure of eight loops low ahead of us. As we get closer, we see a group of people standing at the head of the ridge silhouetted against the sky. It turns out that they are a group of Royal Marines practicing forward air control… i.e., directing dummy precision bombing runs. The friendly soldier we talk to tells us that this is a NATO training session and they’ll be doing the same thing with a B1B bomber flying over from Nova Scotia tomorrow (and in fact the next day we hear but do not see what sounds like a heavy military plane circling overhead). He also tells us that North Korea has just launched a number of missiles, including a long range one that could potentially hit the US, and that the US has turned on its ABM defense. Our troubled modern world, an hour before so far away, suddenly comes crashing back. But a long hike like the C2C imposes its own rhythms and concerns, and we are still on the hike: within a few minutes we are again back in dream-time. We walk on down into the sleepy village of Glaisdale and find a pub – five minutes before it closes… it is one of those days where things just seem to work out – for a round of cool drinks. Then up a bank on the far side of a river, across a hill-top, and down like hobbits through an idyllic little wood, over a field, and across a lane to charming Broom House, our B&B for tonight. Russell welcomes us, having kindly put our bags in our rooms, and after I have showered we play a game of Scrabble before dinner. Nice. Dinner in the Postgate Inn starts superbly and ends with the worst desserts of the trip… they taste as if their cleaning crew prepared them. Which is probably just as well since it stops me eating two – ordered in a moment of weakness despite intending (like everyone else) to lose weight on the hike. After the hike we will learn that nobody lost weight, and at least a couple of us (but not me!) gained. Clearly the increased calorie burn was negated by the daily Full English Breakfasts and the three course dinner portion sizes (which in the meantime have attained in England the same gargantuan proportions as are found in the US). On the H2H we will have to be more careful… although the fact that European portions have remained more sensible will help us. Another lovely day on the C2C. Summary:
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C2C: The Coast to Coast Hike