The Walk - Stage 13 - Ingleby Cross to Great Broughton

I’m not really sure how to tell the story of today other than to say, only by the grace of God are we safely tucked into our hotel tonight. I guess I’ll start at the beginning as I usually do. 

Beautiful sunrise from our room. 

A start of porridge and toast. 

Not a good idea to bend over after eating a bowl of porridge to put gaiters on. 

The dining area 

Rain coats on, gaiters on, pack covers on, hats on, ready to go. 

The wind is blowing and it’s a cold start to the day, but not as cold as the days end.

 

You actually need to look at the previous day's maps to begin today's walk as we have split our stages up a bit to accommodate our age and ability. 😀 This map will also be used for tomorrow's journey to Blakey Ridge.

Today we begin our last, serious ascent, up onto Urra Moor.

A muddy start to the day

We had another Christmas moment as we walked by berry covered holly and chestnut trees. 

Arncliffe Hall is a fine Georgian house, dating from 1754, and probably built by John Carr of York. The adjacent All Saints' Church was built in 1821 to replace a much earlier building on the same site. It is regarded as one of the finest examples of a rural church of the Regency period.

Turkey or grouse???

This road must have been clay bricks at one time

entering Arncliffe Wood

Great sign but not too accurate seeing as everyone’s steps are different

Another honesty box

There were literally hundreds of these pheasant on the trail. Every corner we turned there were more and more. 

The C2C joins the Cleveland Way for todays walk. 

They say on a clear day you get your first glimpse of the North Sea. Obviously it is not a clear day. 

More fungus for you 

And more fall

Climbing higher

When standing or walking out in the open the wind was quite strong

But into the trees it was still as a mouse, that is until the wind started blowing the acorns and chestnuts out of the trees and pelting our heads and backs with them. 

Entering the North York Moors, an open, unenclosed, virtually uninhabited expanse of high moorland.

The North York Moors National Park is a true wilderness where pheasant and grouse run around the woodlands. 

These were two of the biggest horses I’ve ever seen 

Highland cows 

As we climb it is getting very windy. 

Extremely windy the higher we get 

It’s getting hard to stand up at this point. We’ve found a whole new use for our walking sticks, holding us upright in the high winds. 

I put my right walking stick into my left hand to take these two pictures and the wind blew my legs right out from under me. Took this pic while lying on the ground. 

Scarth Wood Moor, is of considerable prehistoric significance, and has a number of Bronze Age 'barrows', or grave mounds.

Geologically, it has three faults, the largest being along the line of Scarth Nick, formed by an overflow of melt water from a huge glacier that once filled Scugdale.

At Scarth Nick, reached by two flights of cobbled steps that do nothing for our knees, we see the crossing point of the Hambleton Drove Road, one of numerous routes taken by tough, weather-beaten Scottish cattlemen, hired to drive cattle from Scotland into England to sell at various market towns, even as far south as London.

There was a runway of a glider station up here. I didn’t take a photo. The wind was blowing so hard and I was trying to figure out exactly what it was.

Jet mine workings and jet jewelry, beads of light, fossilized wood, discovered in Bronze Age burial mounds dating from 2500-3500 years ago.

Alum crystals were also a product of this region, with at least 25 quarries active between 1600-1871. The value of alum was in its property as a fixative for dyes in cloth, a secret process mastered throughout Italy in the 16th century. It takes 50-100 tons of shale to produce one ton of alum crystals. It was a pick and shovel nightmare for the poorly paid laborers to extract. Once extracted, it was piled in large mounds, burned slowly, soaked in water, then boiled, crystalized and purified; a process that required scrub for the burning, water for soaking, coal for boiling and seaweed and human urine for the chemistry. Quite a process just to fix the dyes.

It has started to rain in earnest at this point. We found shelter under these trees and ate a banana. We looked up and saw

Lord Stones Cafe for toilets and information. The ladies was locked but the mens was open so we utilized it. We were pretty wet from the rain by this time. 

A local told us the trail was moody (muddy) what an understatement. 

After going up and over Carlton Moor, we begin our ascent of Cringle Moor.

There are few pictures of this ascent as we were using all fours to climb. Our faces were almost on the ground trying to get the lowest center of gravity to keep from getting blown off the mountain. We were both blown over several times. It was the most terrifying thing I have ever done and I was in constant prayer and tears. The wind was fierce and the rain was stinging our faces. We were soaked through and through. Every step pushed water right out over the top of our boots. Our feet were swimming in it. 

We thought we were done and were quite happy 

Only to find out the worst was yet to come. 

Jo Anne crab crawling up the path to keep from blowing over the edge. I’ve mentioned before that wet stones and wet boots are not a match made in Heaven. 

We made it over the top and the descent was just as terrifying. No slacking of the wind on the downside at all. We got to a sign that pointed up another hill to climb. Jo Anne had fallen and wrenched her knee and probably fractured her tailbone. We both said there’s no way we could get over that next hill in this wind and rain. I was shivering so hard at this point I could hardly talk and we couldn’t even see the top of the hill because of the clouds. 

On the summit of the hills overlooking Great Broughton stands a curious outcrop named Wainstones. A detached piece of this bears an inscription RO 1712 WOOING JD. It seems to be nothing more than a simple love story cut out by a local rustic swain and no doubt had the earlier title "Swainstones". Over time the letter "S" disappeared and it became wainstones. The shape has been formed by nature over many centuries.

We could see the Wainstones but we couldn’t get there and decided it was time to call for help. We later found out that the sustained winds were between 45-50 mph and the wind gusts (which seemed to be non-stop) we’re 70-80. It was a hurricane on the mountains and we were right in the midst of it. 

We tried to find shelter under a hawthorn tree and I got my emergency blanket out of my first aid kit and we huddled together under it while calling 911. 

About an hour after calling for help we saw two people trotting down the hill and were hopeful it was our rescuers. As they got closer I could tell they weren’t but they stopped to ask if we were ok (since we were huddled under a foil sheet). As soon as they assessed the situation, they got on the phone to mountain rescue, gave us their extra dry clothes to wrap around us, got out another emergency blanket and made us eat some sugary snacks they had packed. They stayed with us until help arrived, almost another hour later. Their names were Luka and Mary and they were a blessing from God. So for two hours we huddled and shivered on that mountain. 

When help came, it came in full force. At first it was one man with a pack load of emergency gear. 

He covers us with a shelter of sorts and hands us a thermos of hot mint tea and says drink!

He’s assessing the situation and wondering how they will get Jo Anne out if she can’t walk. They can’t get the Range Rover up to where we are so they talk about carrying her out. Two more rescuers show up. 

The shelter is getting full as they are trying to warm it up with their body heat. 

It’s decided that Jo Anne will try walking down. She REALLY didn’t want to be carried on a stretcher. 

Now there are 9 rescuers walking us down the mountain. Jo Anne is the one with the red hood in the middle. They had given us their jackets and gloves too. 

At the bottom of the hill we’re another 8-10 rescuers waiting by the Range Rover to assist. 

Once they put me in the rover with the heater on full blast, they wouldn’t let me out again to cheer Jo Anne on for making it all the way down on her own two feet. I had to sneak a pic through the rain splattered window. 

She makes it into the rover to head to the car park where the ambulance is waiting. 

Once they are certain our vitals are all good, they drive us to the hotel and drop us off. Don’t think I’ve ever arrived at a hotel in an ambulance before. 

Had to take the sunset pic from the ambulance tonight. 

Arriving

 

We are staying at the Wainstones Hotel in Great Broughton, named after the above mentioned rock formation.

But again, we are 3 miles off-trail so I will be picked up for transport to Clay Bank Top in the morning to continue on while Jo Anne takes a day to rest. I think she’s riding with the luggage 😬. 

Our stats today:

32,490 steps

13.1 miles

231 floors 

A new use for the towel warmer in the bathroom

"They are wet with the rain of the mountains and cling to the rock for lack of shelter."

Job 24:8